This article was published in the December edition of the Victorian Planning News
One of the key events held in the 2010 Planning Week was “Front and Centre – Planning for Community Hubs”. This one-day Forum was organised by the Social Planning Chapter. Participants heard inspiring stories of successful community hubs, discussions on lessons learnt in planning for various types of hubs, and some thought-provoking discussion on their role in community development.
The Victorian P&E Act says that the purpose of planning is:
(a) to provide for the fair, orderly, economic and sustainable use, and development of land;
(c) to secure a pleasant, efficient and safe working, living and recreational environment for all Victorians and visitors to Victoria
Many planners (and most developers) take this to mean that we should wring the maximum amount of dollars out of land that we can, with everything potentially conflicting separated as much as possible. I think this is wrong. We should instead aim to wring the maximum social value out of land that we can. This means planning our communities in a way that encourages community resilience, social justice, diversity, harmony and vibrancy.
One way to achieve this aim is to plan the location of community services and facilities to promote place-making, community development and coordinated delivery of social services. In other words, to develop community hubs. I’m not talking about old-fashioned, 1960s-style community services, where every service had its own building, which was often empty most of the time. Community hubs mix everything in together, so that people can go to the one place for everything they need, effectively from the cradle to the grave. Governments around the world now recognise the importance of well-planned and integrated service hubs in community building for regional, inner urban and fringe locations.
Community hubs challenge the traditional model of service delivery, which funds everything separately and keeps everybody separated. But the rewards of taking that next step are significant.
Some of the key lessons to come out of the Forum are:
- There are resources available to help plan Community Hubs. Lily D’Ambrosio, Minister for Community Development, launched the new guidelines Developing Community Infrastructure, which were developed by the DPCD and the GAA to support organisations to develop high quality, integrated community facilities in Victoria.
- Don’t assume that Community Hubs are just expanded libraries or schools. Cam Rose, CEO of the Western Bulldogs, gave a fascinating account of how Whitten Oval is being transformed into a focus of community development in the West. His belief is that the Club and the Region are inextricably linked, and that the key to long-term sustainability for the Bulldogs is building the capability and enhancing the self-image of the Western Region.
- Community Hubs should be planned holistically. Denise Francisco from the DPCD spoke about her work on the Footscray Renewal Community Infrastructure Plan. This project started from first principles to determine actual community need, rather than just imposing services based on existing building capacity.
- The spatial dimension is important. Carmel Boyce from AECOM reminded us that most social planning objectives have spatial implications, and that the spatial dimension can either cause social problems (e.g. childhood obesity) or enhance health and social integration (e.g. walkable neighbourhoods). Social equity, community sustainability, accessibility and walkability are all important considerations in planning community Hubs.
- Social investment has economic benefits. Andrea Skraba from SGS Economics and Planning discussed her work in evaluating the economic benefits of social infrastructure. These can include higher property values in neighbouring areas, more efficient land use outcomes, better service delivery efficiency for social service providers (including synergies between providers), economies of scale in operating community infrastructure, increased patronage and the potential to leverage funding from other partners. They also include better access to employment and life opportunities for their visitors, which are the most important benefits of improving the delivery of community services.
Examples of successful provision of community Hubs were presented, including:
• The Clayton Community Centre – City of Monash
• The Inverloch Community Hub – Bass Coast Shire
• The Hume Global Learning Centre – City of Hume
• International examples reviewed by Rod Duncan of the DPCD.
These case studies showed that Community Hubs can be developed at any scale, and turned to almost any purpose, including community arts, business incubation, employment generation, adult education and social services.
The Forum concluded with a Panel discussion looking at planning Community Hubs from the perspective of a consultant, a developer, the community, DPCD and a social planner. David Brown, the Director Community Infrastructure from Delphin Lend Lease, provided a quote which sums up the purpose of planning for community hubs beautifully:
“If we believe in the benefits that flow from being part of the life of a functioning community, the challenge is simply to find more ways of bringing people back together again.
Investment is the key to the creation of stronger communities and, ultimately, to a stronger nation. But this is not only about dollars.” Hugh Mackay.
Investment in community hubs is investment in stronger communities.
