Giving outer-Sydney a facelift: some opportunities for urban development

Successful streetscapes feature such establishments and attract crowds of people; think of Glebe Point Road and King Street, Newtown, Sydney; the West End coffee strip in Brisbane; Fitzroy in Melbourne. In the US, Oldenburg's ideas have created such interest that small businesses have been established with "third place" missions.

Third places are vital and lively. The challenge for planners and developers is to read Oldenburg's book and work out ways of implementing the ideas in the new housing developments.

An Outer Urban Future

One advantage of the rejuvenated, medium density inner urban areas is that they pack sufficient people into a limited area to support new, small businesses. This not only creates livelihoods and employment, it stimulates local economies and makes the third place concept of Oldenburg more likely. This may not be so in the planned urban fringe developments unless the government stipulates medium density as part of the schemes.

We need the urban fringe developments to be based in future on land capability assessments that set aside agriculturally productive land through new zoning laws, then that area of the metropolis could take on the appearance of villages separated by tracts of farm and bushland. This would not only ensure that the city continues to source its fresh food locally; it would make possible setting aside remnant bushland for the conservation of a biodiversity now scarce in the region and open up natural areas as public open space.