Melbourne 2030: Planning Rhetoric versus Urban Reality

By Bob Birrell, Kevin OConnor, Virginia Rapson and Ernest Healy

The 'Melbourne 2030' plan is the Victorian Government's blueprint for the accommodation of an additional one million people in Melbourne by the year 2030.

The plan seeks to change the shape of Melbourne radically. The vision is of a compact city in which growth will be concentrated in existing commercial centres (activity centres). Notwithstanding this fundamental departure from the low density pattern of the past, it is claimed that Melbourne's famed 'liveability' will be preserved.

This book explores: the intellectual origins of the plan; demographic assumptions behind the plan; the mode of implementation; the likely impact on the built environment; environmental and social consequences; heritage outcomes; and alternative planning options. It also critically examines assumptions about the projected demand for higher density housing, and argues that the plan's 'compact city' vision is unlikely to be achieved because it fails to come to grips with the economic and demographic realities facing Melbourne.

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