AILA projects

Victorian Sites

Coastal Towns Design Frameworks

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Landscape Architect: Urban Initiatives Pty Ltd

Location:

The study comprises planning and design studies of 19 settlements and adjacent areas located along over 300 kilometres (approximately 40%) of Victoria’s coastline – extending from Robertson’s Beach to the east of Wilsons Promontory to Mallacoota near the NSW border. The project area also includes Metung, Paynesville, Lakes Entrance, Loch Sport and other towns within the Gippsland Lakes area.

CLIENT

The project was funded by the East Gippsland and Wellington Shire Councils, in association with the Department of Sustainability and Environment and the Gippsland Coastal Board.

STUDY PERIOD

The project commenced in late 2004 and was completed in April 2007.

CONSULTANT TEAM

The project team comprised Meinhardt Infrastructure & Environment Pty Ltd as the lead consultant, together with Urban Initiatives Pty Ltd, Urban Futures Consulting, Saturn Corporate Resources Pty Ltd and Ecology Australia Pty Ltd.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Coastal Towns Design Framework is the largest urban design framework project to be conducted in regional Victoria.

A primary objective of the Coastal Towns Design Framework was to implement the Victorian Coastal Strategy (2002), as well as other regional strategic coastal planning policies, State tourism strategies, foreshore management plans and local planning schemes/policies. These policies provided the primary policy foundation for the Urban Design Framework. This was supported by local analysis, the identification of issues and broader areas of research, including regional trends and strategic approaches to similar issues elsewhere.

The analysis was based on four broad subject areas:

Local character – including landscape setting, building form and scale, key activities and public spaces.

The environment – including natural and cultural resources.

Activities – including land use, economic development, recreation, social and community activities.

Movement and access – including traffic and pedestrian circulation, parking, safety and linkages between activities.

From this foundation a set of design principles were formulated to guide the development of the 19 coastal towns under the headings of enhance local character, conserve the environment, promote activity to sustain communities and improve access. These principles underpin the Vision and proposed improvement actions for each of the towns.

Local character identification was a critical early component of analysis. The valued aspects of the built form and natural landscape setting were expressed through workshop processes in each community. Processes effecting change and aspects of desirable character were identified. A Vision for each community and key strategic objectives were developed and subjected to community debate and feedback. The visions and strategic objectives for each town achieved very high levels of community support during the public display process undertaken for the final draft Urban Design Frameworks.

The Coastal Towns Design Framework project produced a suite of tools to assist in the effective implementation of the urban design frameworks. These tools included:

Planning Scheme modifications – policies, zones and overlays.

Master plan/s – conceptual design proposals that present key projects for a specified area/s within the town.

Cost estimates for projects and prioritisation of works.

Design guidelines – prepared to assist the interpretation of the objectives and strategies. The guidelines identify the valued characteristics of the town and its surrounding context. Guidance is provided in relation to approaches to development that are likely to achieve the desired outcomes sought.

Review of funding opportunities.

The Urban Design Frameworks plan for an extensive timeframe of up to 25 years. The Vision in particular needs to be robust and ongoing and so considerable effort was directed to their development. However, the manner by which each Vision is pursued will vary over time and according to circumstances. Attention has been given to ensuring that each Council understands and shares the longer term function of this project via several workshop and briefing sessions during the course of the project. It is critical that the Urban Design Frameworks are reviewed regularly and updated to reflect social, environmental and economic changes, such as population growth/decline and housing and land supply/demand.

The Master Plans are intended to present big picture ideas that show a clear and co-ordinated way forward, but can be developed and refined over time as funds become available to implement them. The success of the Master Plans will be dependent on the involvement of key stakeholders, including the community, during the preparation of detailed designs.

Creative designs, policies and guidelines provide tools to implement both the higher level policy and the local objectives.

The technique of modelling built form and landscape development proposals for the more complex towns using simple 3d computer simulation is unusual for studies of this type and beyond the requirement of the brief. Illustrating recommended policy in this way enabled communities and councils to better understand the visions for towns where increased density and consolidation was recommended. This approach had the risk of provoking negative community response but it proved invaluable as a means of communicating urban design ideas with generally a positive response to often controversial propositIons.

All design proposals were described, costed and prioritised over a 15 year time horizon giving Councils a comprehensive overview of the economic cost and benefit of the plans as well as a tool to plan implementation.

Urban design frameworks have been supported and encouraged by the Victorian Government for over five years and numerous individual area or town studies have been undertaken by landscape architects, urban design practices, planners and multi discipline teams. Some have been adopted by government and others have not. Few have dealt with multiple towns in a municipality and none have looked at numerous towns in a region across two municipalities.

This study is unprecedented in its scope and breadth. It has been also undertaken with unusual depth in terms of consultation, design and detail.

Planning the orderly development of coastal areas in Australia is one of the great challenges we face. This study develops and executes comprehensive method for this task involving landscape and urban design at the centre of the process.

Consultation was a vital component of the Urban Design Framework process and public input provided a clear direction for the improvement of each settlement. The consultant team was committed to ensuring meaningful consultation was undertaken.

The community consultation process adopted for the project included a three stage process that was applied across the region with some local variation according to identified issues or pre-existing background work. Project newsletters accompanied each of the stages.

For the first round of community meetings the consultant team embarked on a two week “road trip” through all of the settlements, with a public meeting being held in each town to collect information on community values and key issues. This round of consultation was attended by over 1,000 people with 530 written submissions received. In total over 1,350 written submissions were received during the entire project.

Urban design workshops were held in several of the towns where solutions to complex issues benefited from detailed local knowledge and ideas – Mallacoota, Metung, Paynesville and Loch Sport. These workshops recorded high levels of community participation. The team’s planners and urban designers facilitated the development and detailing of local design ideas that responded to issues that had been identified through earlier consultation. These were ‘hands on’ sessions that produced a number of concepts, which were later incorporated in Master Plans for each town.

The sequence of consultation processes and their diversity ensured that there was opportunity for community input according to interest and capacity. Feedback was provided to the community on the values, issues and outcomes at each stage of the project.

The consultant team worked closely with interest groups in several towns in order to achieve sound design solutions. Similarly, design concepts addressed and influenced development projects that were being considered concurrently by the Shires or others. The designs developed were subject to iterative refinements to ensure relevant and sustainable outcomes.

In addition to the extensive community consultation process, the project required significant input from other key stakeholders including representatives from State Government departments, Council officers, foreshore committees, servicing authorities and community interest groups).

Both Shire Councils have adopted their respective reports and Wellington Shire Council is preparing to implement its changes via a Planning Scheme Amendment.

The towns within this study sit within or adjacent to a series of complex and sensitive environments incorporating lakes, ocean and State/National/Coastal Parks. These unique environments (including coastal dunes, estuaries, wetlands, mudflats and spits) provide important habitats for numerous species of flora and fauna, many of which are endangered. Sites within the Nooramunga Coast, Ninety Mile Beach Coast and Gippsland Lakes are recognised by the Ramsar Convention as being of international importance/significance.

Human activity has led to environmental problems (including disturbance of acid sulphate soils, loss of significant vegetation, etc.), which threaten the ecological health of certain areas. The protection and enhancement of the natural areas is seen as a critical component of planning for the future of the Gippsland region for environmental, economic and social reasons. Strategies identified within specific Urban Design Frameworks include the following:

Provide for effective storm water management within road reserves (eg. Robertsons Beach).

Pursue the introduction of reticulated sewerage and water (eg. Loch Sport).

Investigate and protect remaining vegetated areas of significance, particularly in vulnerable undeveloped areas within the town boundary. This should be undertaken prior to, or as part of, the approval of a subdivision (eg. Lakes Entrance).

Ensure that all new development or redevelopment incorporates satisfactory on-site waste disposal and water sensitive urban design techniques for storm water management (eg. Gipsy Point).

Sustainable living was a key strategic policy theme for Raymond Island and prominent in policies for other towns.

Another issue that Planners are increasingly dealing with is that of climate change. Issues such as rising sea level and extreme weather events are of real concern, particularly given the coastal location of towns involved in this study. The recent floods in the Gippsland region are a reminder of the vulnerability of these towns. This issue has influenced some of the projects put forward within towns, including the removal of non-essential infrastructure on the coast; establishment of sea walls and the need for more detailed analysis of flood and storm surge impacts.

The Strategies, Master Plans and planning controls developed incorporate actions, designs and considerations to improve the environmental well being of these coastal areas.

Considerable attention was paid to producing outputs that were easy to read, understand and use. Each document is succinct, logical and consistent. Considerable detail is provided through the supporting visual components.

Awards

Prior to 2008, the project was recognised with the following Awards.

2007 Australian Award for Urban design

2007 AILA Victoria.- Commendation for planning in Landscape Architecture

PIA Victoria 2007 - Award for Excellence in Rural & Regional Planning Achievement

introduction / overview / images  /  location  /Projects

2008