Activity centre
Activity centres are a key component of contemporary strategic planning for large dispersed cities like those in Australia, Canada, the US and New Zealand.
They are an important concept in urban planning for Transit-oriented development or TOD, which seeks to intensify land uses around public transport nodes to facilitate greater sustainability in the way people and goods move around cities.
The definition was later made more specific in Melbourne @ 5 million, by saying a mixed use centre is where people work, shop, relax, meet friends and family and also live.
This specific definition is meant to be one of the key aspects to Melbourne 2030 Activity Centre Policy being successful in its efforts in the reduction of car dependence.
This policy was abandoned because of powerful vested interested opposing the restrictions to lower car usage, that planners were applying.
The pressure applied by stand-alone shopping centre owners to expand in the end was too great, and the Government gave into their demands.
The issues pointed out “lack of including Local Government in the process of selecting centres for designation and future growth, the value of enforceable guidelines and regulation to support the policy and the critical necessity of appropriate funding to enable implementation".
That plan however did address roads, transport forms, compactness, economic activity, investment and liveability, and appeared to take the view that community facilities would follow without the need for particular attention in their own right.
[8] The 1954 plan introduced a residential zoning regime for Melbourne which classified inner urban houses through to fringe development and their density.
It is the goal of activity centre policy to reduce individual car usage and encourage people to use public transport.
“This lock out of unnecessary car traffic must be an isolated measure, but part of a pull and push approach” (H, Topp and T, Pharaoh, 1994).
In order it deliver good public transport connections governments need to show a strong regulatory approach to individual car usage in and around to activity centres.
Retail is one of the four main components of activity centres, towards the broader social and environmental sustainability plus economic objectives of the increasingly preferred polycentric approach to planning and managing cities.
Incorporating retail into the activity centre mix of uses provides benefits for the immediate centre and surrounding community including a: o more equitable access to shops and services, o source of employment, o Strengthening and opportunities for marketing local economies and independent small businesses – in turn more able to compete and respond to demand, o greater work / life balance through more efficient use of time by being able to shop near where people work and/ or live o Physical connections with public transport, reducing car use and promoting short pedestrian commutes as associated with Transit Oriented Development (or see transport section) o Emotional connections through providing ‘fine grain’ opportunities for human interaction and activity such as hairdressers and cafes.
Planning for retail within an activity centre framework generally promotes a hierarchy of traditional and existing high street strip shopping and cautions, if not curtails, further development out of centre/s.
A range of factors including determines the retail mix within a centre: o Policy directions of governing bodies, the relationships between (such as local and state) and view of the market.
The purpose of activity centres, or neo-traditional development such as urban villages or compact cities are to provide a mixed use core, within walking distance for most residents.
Activity centre policies in most countries provide guidance for local and state agencies as well as the development industry as to the preferred locations for these commercial land uses.
