| Alternatives to Smart Growth |
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Hamlets within managed parks and new towns within “new suburbanist” estates are a better way for residential development than smart growth, the compact-city concept which has proven a disaster wherever it’s been tried, says planning critic Owen McShane. Mr McShane has developed his own green subdivision at Kaiwaka in lower Northland, where he bases his Centre for Resource Management Studies. He featured the property when he spoke to his paper, Green growth – an alternative to smart growth, at the Resource Management Law Association conference on Friday, and also outlined his proposals in a news release. Put simply, Mr McShane said, “smart growth restrains the supply of land, puts prices up.” In his paper he proposed that councils abandon metropolitan urban limits, which he said gradually caused “carpet sprawl”. Instead of those limits, he said councils should enable urban & rural residential development using a combination of hamlets within managed parks and new towns within “new suburbanist” estates, all sited within a framework of "catchment management" as it’s been promoted by DJ Scott & Associates in the Estuary Estates project proposed for Mangawhai. (more) |
