Authenticity was the buzzword when ULI Asia Pacific Chief Executive John Fitzgerald and Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk spoke as part of a ULI Young Leaders Group networking event.
About 200 members of southeast Queensland’s building and construction sector came along to Brisbane City Hall to participate in the discussion about the growing city’s development direction.
Councillor Quirk gave a broad outline of the Brisbane 2022 New World City Action Plan—the planning blueprint for the city in the next seven years—before participating in a Q&A session, moderated by Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald applauded Brisbane’s leaders for the unique approach they were taking to make the city stand out in the crowded Asia Pacific region.
“It is refreshing to hear about a city working to leverage its authenticity and embracing innovation to enhance its competitiveness,” he told Quirk. “I see many cities across Asia that are not embracing their authenticity. . . . There are cities that feel the same, look the same, seem the same. . . . Authenticity will really differentiate and attract people to your city.”
Fitzgerald went on to question Quirk about the cities Brisbane might want to emulate.
“As Brisbane looks to the future, are there other cities that you have identified as relevant to the direction Brisbane is looking at and are there lessons that the city might benefit from?” he asked.
Quirk replied that the Brisbane council was drawing inspiration from emerging Chinese cities like Shenzhen, but he made it clear that the city was not looking to follow anyone else’s development blueprint.
“We don’t want to aspire to be like another city. We are not looking at any individual city that we want to mirror-image,” he said. “Every city has its own unique aspects. We have a number of advantages, including our climate. . . . There are some innovative things going on elsewhere that we need to keep an eye on, however. . . . There are new-world emerging cities like Shenzhen where square-box architecture and new-world architecture are sitting alongside each other, for example. . . . There are lots of cities that we want to take ideas from, but never do we want to replicate.”
Quirk was also asked about Brisbane’s residential growth, given the housing demand waiting just around the corner for various levels of government.
Brisbane is preparing to accommodate another almost 125,000 people by 2021, as the city’s population swells to 1.2 million in the next few years.
Suburban locations like Chermside, Carindale, Upper Mount Gravatt, Indooroopilly, and Toowong are being targeted for most of that growth thanks to the fact that is where the majority of job creation is expected to occur in the next two decades.
Quirk said the approach was a direct response to feedback from residents during a citywide survey back in 2006, when the majority commented that housing development should be focused around transport corridors and business precincts.
“We are looking at contained growth in nodes—not a free-for-all,” he said.
Highlighting the city’s green-space focus, Quirk also mentioned the 200 parks that the council had earmarked as part of the city plan.
“As our city grows, we will also make sure we keep the lifestyle aspect to our city,” he said.
The green spaces will add to the hundreds of parks that are already scattered across Brisbane, which range in size from single blocks to large district parks, and even two botanic gardens.
Quirk also pointed out that local government authorities on the outskirts of Brisbane were focused on keeping large chunks of land development-free as well.
The challenges of juggling the competing demands of growth and livability in Brisbane came up as part of the Q&A as well.
Quirk said he believed the city’s residents needed to be brought along on the growth journey, and that the key to doing that was articulating where progress needed to happen, and why.
“There will always be a portion of the community that doesn’t want growth. Growth is a scary thing for a lot of people,” he said. “So, that is an evolutionary journey. . . . It is important that we do it in small steps.”
Quirk acknowledged the transport challenges that came with growth, saying the tunnels that had already been built in Brisbane would go a long way toward addressing congestion issues in the next few years.
“All cities face the challenge of traffic,” he said. “We have tried to build the big infrastructure in the past few years so that we are better prepared for the future.”
Brisbane’s mayor also indicated that more cycling networks were in the pipeline, which would take the pressure off the road network in the years to come.
“Finding the money to do all these things is a challenge, but we are maintaining a strong credit rating with a neutral outlook,” he said.
