Bulldozing Melbourne: The Apartment & Tower Takeover

The plan for Melbourne’s established suburbs

Melbourne is being reshaped through sweeping planning changes. This is not only a housing plan. And change is not only happening in the sixty Activity Centres and at the six Suburban Rail Loop stations. It is happening everywhere housing can be built. These changes are a series of top-down decisions about what our suburbs become — about how and where future generations shall live.

These sweeping changes have been justified by the false beliefs that the planning system is the cause of insufficient housing supply and that greater supply will improve affordability. It is now the development industry, not councils and communities, that will determine the liveability of our homes, neighbourhoods, towns and cities.

Importantly, this is not a choice between the Government’s planning model and urban sprawl. There are many ways to accommodate housing growth. The question is who does this Government’s approach actually serve and whether it will deliver what is promised: housing growth and improved affordability in locations where people will want to live.

The bigger picture comprises six interconnected parts that together reveal a single planning model designed to deliver a city of apartments, including throughout Melbourne’s established suburbs.

For those wishing to explore these issues in greater detail, further information is available throughout the Government plans, Concerns, Resources and Heritage at risk sections of this website.

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