Step Change Cities Partnership

P&P document cover

Background

City planners across the globe are responding to the key challenges of our time, including climate change, transition to net zero, transport redesign, alongside enabling equal access to jobs, homes and services. Ensuring our communities understand and have confidence to engage with urban design concepts and terminology will promote a deeper connection with the Commission’s work and with the need for positive change.

The project

Partnering with urban planning advocates Studio THI, Cairns Regional Council, the City of Ballarat and Penrith City Council, the Greater Cities Commission have developed a series of workshops with more than 750 residents alongside our partners in local and state government, advisory firms, developers, universities and peak bodies to assess urban planning ‘literacy’. These workshops will establish how much our communities understand and are connected to important urban planning concepts.

Outcomes

Develop an Urban Change Readiness Index for councils, government departments, and the sector more broadly, for developing and implementing urban preparedness strategies.
Improve community understanding of and engagement in major urban planning reforms.
Develop important data that will be incorporated into city planning and policy development.
Published case study.

Priority research areas