Dr Greg Mews said more urban sprawl was not the answer to rapid growth and we had to “do much better in a confined space”. So far the Coast was not “doing density well” and was at risk of making more mistakes we would have to live with for another 30 years, he warned.
Dr Mews, from the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC), is calling on all levels of the community — from developers to planners and the public — to “start a conversation” about making our region more liveable into the future.
A public forum will be held next week where urban design projects and ideas could be thrashed out. Dr Mews said it was time to “push the envelope a lot further” and redesign cities to meet the “challenges we are facing” such as climate change, beach erosion, flooding, fires and heat.
With rising oil prices and the phasing out of fossil fuels, Dr Mews said transport was another critical design feature that, if done well, could protect our cherished lifestyles.
He pointed to one of the greenest cities in the world Freiburg, in Germany, as an example that could inspire the Coast to think outside the square. Freiburg, on the edge of the Black Forest, calls itself the “green city” and is big on solar, has a zero-energy city hall and aims to be climate-neutral by 2038. One in three people ride a bicycle and car usage has almost halved to just 21 per cent of the population.
Read the full article on Sunshine Coast News
Author: Kat Donaghey
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