Dejan Simovic & Tatjana Djuric-Simovic

DESIM-R&D, 100 Harris Street, Pyrmont NSW 2009, Australia

Keywords: Sustainability, Collaborative Planning, Circular Economy, Heritage

1. INTRODUCTION

In the past few decades, it has become clear that the problems we are facing now, in our environment are the result of inadequate practices used in the past. Changing climate with increasing extreme weather events being just one of the aspects we need to mitigate, according to IPCC reports (1). Perpetual growth based on the linear model (take-make-use-dispose) and consumerism has led to severe depletion of natural resources, pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Since 1992’s “Earth Summit”, various attempts have been made to address unsustainable development practices and collaborate towards achieving better outcomes for the world’s population and the planet. Finally, 2015 has seen the adoption of the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) (2). Global pandemic in the past two years has brought additional challenges in all aspects of our lives, planning and urban development are not spared. Our project is looking at alternative models to sustainability orientated urban planning – based on outcomes and circularity in order to preserve natural resources and environment.

2. LITERATURE AND RESOURCES REVIEW

This is a complex and long-lasting project, drawing from the authors’ long experience as well as their professional and social network. Tatjana’s main contribution in this project and paper is exploration of heritage aspects, work by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, as well as review of Australian/New South Wales’s planning regulation. Dejan’s role and contribution are in technical, technological and general practical aspects of sustainability in urban development. Both authors are equally concerned with educational and social aspects of the project. Main groups of resources are related to heritage aspects, current planning system regulation and current and anticipated trends in sustainability, technological innovation and social development.

2.1 Heritage

North Arm Cove is an exceptional location in Australia, among other things, because of its rich Aboriginal and Colonial history. Aboriginal people are known for their special relationship with the land, water and living environment. The Worimi people have been traditional custodians of the land in the area of present-day Port Stephens, “since time immemorial” (3). This special relationship was noted even in 1918 when NAC subdivision was surveyed by Walter Burley Griffin, as noted by Marion Mahony Griffin in her unpublished biography of Walter and his life in Australia – “Magic of America” (4). The area of NAC is one of the first areas settled by white settlers with the neighbouring village of Carrington becoming a headquarter of the first Australian Agriculture Company (5). Land that was previously managed by Aborigines through “stick burning” (6), controlled burning technique, to allow for grazing of large wildlife, was further cleared for grazing of cattle and sheep. Experiments were taking place with cultivating various grain options and even cotton. In May of 1918, then Stroud Council, approved Griffin’s plans for “Port Stephens City”. Griffin already provided a selected location, prepared plans and actively participated in subdividing land. Location of the city was a result of Walter’s search for a place for Australia’s most important port, equivalent of New York, which entailed a deep seaport linking the east coast through mountain ranges to the Australian hinterland (7). Peter Harrison, Australian town planner and a champion of the Griffin Plan for Canberra, described the Griffin section as ‘one of his most elegant essays in site planning’ (8). In early 1919 ‘Land Limited’, NAC subdivision landowner, went into liquidation and ownership of the subdivision passed to Henry Ferdinand Halloran (1869-1953), town planner, developer and surveyor. Halloran’s extension expressed his dramatic wheel-spoke style rather than the more sensuous Griffin mix of grid and curvilinear planning (9).
In 1963, the then Great Lakes Council closed most of the roads planned in Griffin’s subdivision, setting aside a small area for residential development (current “village”), while the rest of the area was proclaimed to be “non-urban” (RU2 – rural landscape zoning).

2.2 Planning System and Regulation

Australian planning is mostly in the domain of individual States. The New South Wales (NSW) planning system consists of a complex array of legislation and policies implemented at the State level by the Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) and at local government level by
councils. Sitting at the top of the State legal hierarchy is the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act). The NSW planning system may be divided into three broad areas: strategic planning, land use planning and development controls. The EP&A Act provides for several ways by which the community may participate in the process of shaping their neighbourhoods, cities and regions.(10)
The system is currently being reformed , and we hope that our research could contribute to that process. The NAC area is part of the Hunter Region that itself suffers from uneven development – Newcastle (regional centre) being one of the leading regional economies in Australia (11), while at the same time parts of MidCoast Council (Council, MCC) are economically among the most disadvantaged in NSW (12).

2.3 Times of Change

We live in unprecedented times, new technological revolution, re-introduction of multipolar world, emergencies related to changing climate as well as global pandemic. All this indicates that we need to change the way we behave in most spheres of our lives – private, social, professional. All this has very much affected Australia and its Asia-Pacific surrounding. As a result, currently, in April 2022, we can observe at the local level, increased demand for living in regional areas, greater need for resilience, increased need of safety and self-sufficiency, all very much in line with SDG 11 (13). Ultimately, our project has several major inspirations with extensive literature and resources considered by authors:
- Griffins – their work, original plan and planning vision, engagement, and dedication to community,(15) as partly realised in Castlecrag, Sydney’s suburb (16)
- East Village at Knutsford and the work of Curtin University, Perth, especially Professor Peter Newman and his team, (17),
- Narara Eco Village, NSW, and its passionate founder Lyndall Parris, (18)
- Principles of “Permacity” by Sebastian Moreno Vacca of A2M Architects, Brussels, Belgium, (19)
- Courses on “Circular Economy and Sustainability Strategies” at Cambridge University, Judge Business School, (20)
- The Ellen Macarthur Foundation and their work on Circular Economy (CE), (21)
- Local resident’s webpage (22) and North Arm Cove Rate Payers Association (NACRPA). (23)
An important resource are presentations by international experts in various fields, given on the onset of “Back to the Future – NAC” student competition, that are part of our Youtube video library. (24)

3. RESULTS

Our goal is to investigate opportunities for implementing new frameworks for creating urban developments through collaboration between community, research and industry. That is best represented in SDG’s Goal 11 - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable (25). Our project has several direct aims:

- Exploring opportunity for transitioning from procedure based to performance/outcome-based planning

o Exploring ways to create plans for an innovative, resilient, urban community in regional Australia, with high sustainability standards, achieving net-zero CO2 or beyond, based on smart technologies and circular economy principles.
o Creating framework for collaborative community planning and governance – incorporating innovation/research,
o Incorporating heritage values into innovative community of the future.

- Establishing “innovation precinct”, contributing to education of future generation of urban planners, designers and city builders
- Establishing template/prototype/framework for similar developments elsewhere.

In essence, our research is about establishing practical, circular framework for further research about urban communities in transition to circular economy.

4. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

This project is a case study based in the Australian regional area, small community of North Arm Cove. The authors are actively involved in the North Arm Cove community and the landowners’ association (NACRPA) (26). Many aspects of this project are personal and professional at the same time. We have conducted investigations needed for completing a “proof of concept”, through the North Arm Cove Initiative (Initiative) (27) framework, conducting interviews with authorities, engagement with community associations, communication through social media, presentations to expert bodies and the public as well as acquiring expressions of interest from research, professional institutions, and industry.
In the summer of 2020-21 (November to March) we sponsored and facilitated a student research competition, “Back To the Future – NAC” (28), on a subject of “regional urban community of 21st century”, with NAC as a case study area.
Project phases:

1. Identification – Exploring location’s history, social, environmental, and economic context.
2. Analysis – PESTEL identifying constraints and opportunities
3. Proposing framework for decision making, planning and delivery – proof of concept
4. Preparation of a community Master Plan and innovation precinct
5. Delivery and community governance – including continuous innovation

At present, we have completed the first three phases and this paper is a project status report.

5. DISCUSSION

The village of NAC with a population of around 350-450 people (depending on the season) lies 200kms north of Sydney on a northern shore of Port Stephens in the MCC of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW). NAC also includes a community of about 2500 individual landowners of approximately 2850 “non-urban” land lots in a historic “paper subdivision” (29) – subdivided land without dwelling entitlements. The large number of land lots (total of ~3500 on 740ha) makes NAC one of the largest ratepaying community in MCC.
Starting point for our assessment are local Council’s view expressed in their Draft Rural Strategy(30). According to that document, “paper subdivision” of NAC has a medium to high level of constraints for further development. Opportunities for development have not been discussed.

Figure 1- Constraints Analysis of NAC paper subdivision -Draft Rural Strategy 2021 and the map of NAC.

In our research, we have implemented the PESTEL (31) analysis for the project, investigating constraints and opportunities.

5.1 Political Aspects

In Australia, land use planning takes place on Local and State levels, with limited governance from the Federal Government, most relevant infrastructure, defence, and conservation, but also contribution in research funding.

5.1.1 Local

MCC is the planning and infrastructure delivery authority for North Arm Cove.
It is also the largest landowner in NAC (approx.1000 lots), with land acquired through decades, as a compensation for unpaid rates from landowners. This provides for a unique situation where local Council is the authority tasked with planning and approving development while directly benefiting from neglecting planning and actively preventing development. NAC is on the furthest southern border of a large regional Council (over 10,000km2) while the administrative centre is in Taree, in the northern part of the MCC. Another anomaly is that the whole of MCC’s southern area doesn’t have an elected representative in the Council.
Local Strategic Planning Statement envisages, as one of its first priorities, to be “fostering planning partnerships”. Unfortunately, in the process of delivering Local Community Plans for NAC landowners of “paper subdivision” lots have been excluded from partnership despite 75% expressing desire towards resumption of development of subdivision (32).

Figure 2- First priorities of MCC - Local Strategic Planning Statement 2020

This exclusion was found problematic in terms of provisions of the Local Government Act 1993 (33), Chapter 3, section 8A and other government policies that call for community participation, social justice, and inclusiveness. Therefore, at the Council meeting on 27th April 2022, Local Planning Framework was rescinded (34).
On the other side, with over 2500 individual landowners/rate payers, NAC represents ~ 5% of all rate payers in MCC and with a potential future population of 10,000, ~ 10% of MCC’s projected population for 2040.

5.1.2 Regional and State

Unlike its stagnating northern part, MCC, the rest of the Hunter Region is actively transitioning from agriculture and coal exploitation to a more sustainable future. In Australia, regions as such don’t have political representation in the State.
New South Wales is considered one of the two leading economies in Australia. In the past few years the State Government has introduced a whole range of new policies, including transition to Circular Economy (35), Smart Places (36), Digitalization of Construction (37), NSW Digital Twin (38), as well as a strategic look at wider urban areas, such as a “mega-region” of “Six Cities” (39) - from Wollongong on the south, Sydney to Newcastle and Port Stephens at the north. In addition, Newcastle International Airport and associated Air Force base, approx.30 min from NAC, is declared one of nine State Special Activation Precincts (40).

5.1.3 Federal

Defence, conservation and major infrastructure policies are determined on this level, which has impact on State and Regional strategies. Federal government has significant impact on the energy and coal industry of the Hunter Region, as well as contribution to Newcastle airport and Air Force base. The northern border of NAC subdivision is the federal Pacific Highway (A1) that links Sydney with Brisbane along the east coast of Australia.

5.1.4 Political Opportunities

NAC would present a big political opportunity for the promotion of innovative, sustainable ways in which urban precincts could be delivered in alignment with State and Federal strategies.
We find that this is also an exceptional opportunity for a new, innovative way of community participation in planning and governance, overcoming shortcomings of the past.

5.2 Economic Aspects

Economic aspects boil down to land value. We have compared the land value of two types of standard lots – ~600sqm and ~1100sqm.
Three examples are provided (Figure 3):

Fully serviced lots in the neighbouring town (R2 low density zone) of Tea Gardens
Partially serviced lots in NAC village (RU5 – rural village)
Unserviced lots in NAC non-urban area (RU2 – rural landscape)

Two sets of examples are provided (Figure 3). Each shows land value changes from 2017 to 2021, according to NSW Valuer General’s data (41). Examples indicate that upgrades of services in the village, to full water and sewerage systems would likely bring improvement of land value of about 50%.
Providing infrastructure to “non-urban” lots would improve land value more than 1000%, probably closer to 2000%, or in nominal terms at least $300,000 per lot.

Figure 3 - Examples of land valuations in Tea Gardens urban zone (top row), NAC village (middle), NAC non-urban (bottom)

Current employment opportunity is limited to summer tourism and oyster farming (42), which is in itself under severe environmental pressure due to runoff from surrounding land and unsealed roads, poor stormwater infrastructure, and on-site sewer systems in surrounding villages (43).

5.2.1 Economic Opportunities

5.2.1.1 Value Capture (44)

Given that local council owns 1000 non-urban lots, decision to re-zone the land would make a lot of economic sense, bringing many opportunities to the wider community too. Improved land value would bring in more annual revenue for the Council through increased rates.
Latest trends in infrastructure delivery and long-term management through “embedded network” or “micro grids”(45) and Impact Investment (46) funding would significantly reduce the need for the initial investment from Councils and the Government.
The potential of obtaining $300mil is equivalent to MCC’s annual budget. That amount could easily allow for funding for all infrastructure needed in NAC, including existing village.
The alternative is to let a commercial developer capture this added value.

5.2.1.2 Circular Funding

Value capture would also be reflected in improved Council collection rates. Transitioning to CE would require “circular funding” for continuous governance, innovation, and investment in improvement. This will also improve employment, business, education opportunities, which will result in desirability of the location and further improvement in land values and revenues from it. For this reason, portion of value capture, improved land value, needs to be allocated to innovation and governance body – local Sustainability Research Centre (47).

5.3 Social Aspects

Ultimately, this is the most important aspect of urban planning. It is, arguably, the reason all other aspects are being considered. Improving the life of individuals and the community, providing an inclusive, safe and resilient place in tune with its environment.
MCC already suffers from ‘high levels of retirement and unemployment, low levels of education attainment, while the household incomes in the MidCoast are significantly lower than other regions’ (48). The statistical area of Tea Gardens/Hawks Nest has the oldest average age of its population in whole of Australia (49).

5.3.1 Social Opportunities

With a large number of problems, opportunities are abundant and a need to act is practically a necessity. Our project – North Arm Cove Initiative (50) – provides a framework for such an action.

5.4 Technological Aspects

Without running water and sewerage, with inadequate roads and stormwater and barely functioning broadband, NAC is technologically closer to the 19th than 21st century. On the other hand, NAC was preserved from the negative aspects of 20th century – consumerism and overdevelopment.

5.4.1 Technological Opportunities

In words of Professor Peter Newman of Curtin University:

" ... new economy, for the next 30 years, is likely to be driven by the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agendas (summarized as zero carbon–zero poverty) and will have a strong base in a cluster of innovative technologies: renewable energy, electromobility, smart cities, hydrogen-based industry, circular economy technologies, and biophilic urbanism.“(51)

NAC is probably an ideal place for implementing and testing premises and promises of new technologies on a full-scale urban precinct, before they are rolled out to the wider communities. As already explored, on a smaller scale, in the East Village project in Western Australia, this would need to be done through collaboration between community, industry, and innovation institutions(52).

5.5 Environmental Aspects

Lack of infrastructure even in RU5 zoned village area of NAC is causing pollution of waterways and jeopardising the local oyster industry (53). Misuse of non-urban land for dumping of waste, old vehicles, illegal logging is very prominent, especially in areas away from the main access road.
In terms of climate change, NAC shows benefits of its selected location and planning by experienced planners and environmentalists, Griffins (54) – land is generally on a high ground, safe from flooding and sea level rise.
The immediate and wider surroundings have numerous nature reserves which provide superior opportunities for preservation of natural habitats than the often-cleared 740ha of land in NAC “paper subdivision” (Figure 4).

Figure 4 - Nature reserves, conservation areas and national parks in NAC surrounding

5.5.1 Environmental Opportunities

An innovative approach to doing development should be based on ensuring positive outcomes set in advance by local community. Implementing some traditional Aboriginal land stewardship techniques on urban pattern and principles set out by the Griffins (55) could be a winning combination. Circular Economy provides excellent guidance as well.

5.6 Legal Aspect

As always when it comes to land ownership and wealth, legal aspects overlap with the political ones. Severe neglect and failure to provide planning options for NAC, while continuing to collect rates has led to situation of huge injustice towards thousands of landowners. It would appear that Council has failed some of basic guiding principles in decision-making According to Local Government Act 1993, 8A Guiding Principles, Item (3):

(3) Community participation Councils should actively engage with their local communities, through the use of the integrated planning and reporting framework and other measures.(56)

This has led to the NSW Parliament providing a new legal pathway for all “paper subdivisions” in NSW, providing opportunity for the local community to prepare their own development plans (57).

5.6.1 Legal opportunities

Making right on one of the long lasting and impactful injustices could be seen as important opportunity. Community participation in planning and governance needs to be done right and that would probably require innovative legal framework as part of overall planning reforms. CE is based on measurable outcomes, rather than strict procedures favoured by legal profession. The concept of “liability” is also likely to be different in CE circumstances.

6. CONCLUSION

Inspired by the history of the place, new technological advances and enthusiasm of similar communities and individuals, we have created the North Arm Cove Initiative and Sustainability Research Centre (SRCe) as a framework to explore practical ways of achieving our goals. Circular Economy principles (58) are proposed as enablers of achieving sustainability:

Design out waste
Extend use life
Renew/rebuild natural systems

These principles were implemented in preparation of our project’s proof of concept stage through investigating opportunities and available technologies or methodologies, with provisional assessment on three usual bottom lines and two additional that we find equally essential.
Our conclusions thus far:

6.1 Environmental Bottom Line

6.1.1 Regenerative Community

Achieving a regenerative community on a large precinct scale is our major goal. Based on current experiences form eco villages and experimental precincts, we believe that the goal is achievable, with aid from the global community. So far, we are expecting to implement the “permacity” (59) concept together with Sebastian Moreno-Vacca as part of our project team, who is the author of the concept.

6.1.2 Vegetation

Despite land having been cleared numerous times in past two centuries our aim is proving that a different type of urban development is possible – one that will preserve tree canopies over NAC and allow healthy development and regeneration of existing flora – as intended by Griffins (Figure 5).

Figure 5 - Different options of doing development - Western Sydney (left), Castlecrag by Griffins (right)

Introduction of innovative methods, including utilizing Aboriginal traditional land stewardship should reduce risks of bushfires but also achieve integration of this disadvantaged community. Various opportunities exist for utilizing local timber, resulting in necessary clearing for fire protection and construction.

6.1.3 Wildlife

Neighbouring area of Karuah Nature Reserve (60) is a “wildlife corridor” There are few nature reserves and National parks in immediate and wider surrounding. Griffin’s plans for NAC have over 100ha in large parcels of land that are meant for communal use. Our proposal is to use those areas for creation of wildlife reserves. Together with protecting NAC from bushfire, we can protect wildlife at critical times.

6.2 Social Aspects

6.2.1 Education

Proposed collaborative planning approach would have a desired educational role too. So far, Initiative has done it through educating students and young professionals, but also educating the general population, professionals and government bodies about NAC’s heritage and ways of achieving sustainable goals in our urban environment.
We have encountered huge gaps between research and its implementation in real life. Communities are often not aware of technologies that could address their daily life problems. Governments are funding research but at the same time their decision-making departments are not adequately informed of innovative opportunities.

6.2.2 Community Participation

Setting up goals, measurable parameters as, both, planning outcomes and governance, for social aspects is notoriously difficult to achieve. It is affected by demography, educational and cultural background, and socioeconomic status. Therefore, it is likely that social measures would be, at least to some extent, specific for each community, rather than universal. For that reason, community participation through the Sustainability Research Centre (SRCe) (61) is proposed.

6.2.3 Resilience

Our Initiative is based on a premise of enabling the local community to best utilize its own resources and capabilities. Apart from water and energy, the intent is to explore producing some food locally, in communal gardens. Bushfire protection will likely need a corridor of cleared land on the edges of the subdivision, which could be used for food production and recreation too.

6.3 Economic Aspects

As explored earlier, value capture and circular funding would be a major opportunity for funding the development and associated research. NAC has huge potential for capturing the value of the land that is owned by local government – probably about A$300mil.

6.3.1 Infrastructure

New technologies are readily available to address precinct-based needs. Examples of “micro-grids” in East Village (62) and Narara Eco Village (63) are easily scalable to larger precinct levels. Our proposal is for innovations to be implemented as part of CE governance processes.

6.3.2 Employment

Creating precinct-based services, infrastructure and innovation precinct combined with tendencies in remote or hybrid working provide plenty of opportunities for quality, futureproof employment in the area. Due to its specifics, NAC would be an ideal destination for recreational, eco and heritage tourism. Being located on a major national highway, two hours from Sydney, 40min from Newcastle and about 30min to an international airport, provides easy access for regional, intersate and international visitors.

6.4 Innovation

6.4.1 Technology

6.4.1.1 Innovation Precinct

Our societies have just entered a new technological revolution. Many new technologies are being implemented with limited testing in real life circumstances, and with even less input from communities they are affecting. Our Initiative, following on from experience in East Village, is proposing creation of the innovation precinct in NAC. Our team has already proposed a project to the State government’s Smart Places Acceleration Program (64) for digitalisation of the subdivision’s topography and cadastral information.

6.4.1.2 Heritage and Traditional Land Management

While we are looking into the future, our investigations indicates that some aspects of our current knowledge must be “unlearned” (65). At the same time, some forgotten aspects of our common heritage, that have been overlooked so far, are worth revisiting and, perhaps integrating into our future together with new technologies.
Working with the local traditional custodians of the land might help in recovering some of original qualities of the land – in line with third principle of CE – “regenerating natural environment”.

6.5 Architecture and Urban Design

Aesthetics of our places is undoubtedly of huge importance to us. However, taste is an individual category, hard to get on a common ground in large communities. It also changes through time, evolves with our life experiences. Therefore, active communication and education, on a local level is crucial. Our aim is to use NAC as a place where both, established and young architects, urban designers and planners would contribute and learn together, towards creating a “Paradise on Earth”(66), as Griffins desired.

6.6 Next Steps

Our team is seeking expressions of interest from any, including international, professional, industry and research bodies interested in taking part in our project – making it happen and provide guidance for future urban development.

Figure 6 - Exhibition and Video presentation by Sydney Living Museums (67)

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Just some thoughts …

ABSTRACT