The Victorian governments proposed planning reforms make for good politics,but is fundamentally a poor policy.
With the lockdowns behind us and warmer weather on its way,why not try an experiment in the city – opening our streets for people.
Inner Melbourne now has some of the nation’s best outdoor play spaces,with designs moving away from cookie-cutter coloured plastic towards risky nature play. But kids living 10 kilometres out of the city are not so lucky.
Our city is blessed with many great public buildings,but unfortunately the Sea Life Aquarium is not one of these treasures.
Its warehouses hosted Melbourne’s first big raves - the maligned suburb could be reborn as the rebellious counterpart to the high-end culture on offer in the city’s arts precinct.
One solution to the housing supply issue is to exempt two-storey apartment buildings from planning permits to stop urban crawl and young families being flung to the edges of the city.
The City of Melbourne is reviewing the design standards for our street furniture,which gives us a chance to address something that has been sadly lacking in our city.
In budget terms,the cut to the Office of the Victorian Government Architect is small,but could prove costly.