About Town Planning

Town planning is a technical process that determines the best use of space in urban, suburban, and rural areas. Town planning considers the social objectives, environment, and economic development of a space, and involves the collaboration of local governments and councils, the private sector, and the overall community.

Why is Town Planning Necessary?

Town planning is necessary as it creates a direction for the use of land that aligns the social objectives of the broader community and the local government.

There are various reasons why town planning is important:

Town Planning Helps Cities Grow

It is necessary to have early plans to aid a city’s projected population growth and how the city will expand. Town planning develops a strategy involving the city’s economic development as well as its livability. Not only would town planners take into consideration the expansion of residential areas, but also the expansion of businesses, public areas and transport, as well as healthcare. Therefore, town planning creates a direction for how a city will grow without having any damaging effect on the community and the city’s economy.

Town Planning Improves the Quality of Life

The quality of life is an important factor of any city and is one of the most significant concerns of any visitor or resident. The quality of life depends on one’s access to healthcare, road networks, accessing public spaces, and the general safety of the city. Town planning improves the quality of life through zoning spaces so that that section of land can only be used for specific purposes, such as allocating a section of land to be a public park to increase leisure time, or for zoning a building so that they are only able to provide medical services. This increases the community’s access to these facilities and therefore the city’s overall quality of life improves.

Town Planning Improves the Economy

As cities grow, the economy grows with it. As more people move to the city, they take up jobs and the cost of living increases. If there are no jobs available with the high cost of living, people leave the city and move elsewhere. Town planning creates a strategy to increase jobs such as providing spaces for businesses to develop into. This helps retain the population from moving elsewhere as they are able to find jobs among the city’s high cost of living, which further improves the city’s economy.

Town Planning Creates a Sustainable Relationship with the Environment

Climate change is at the forefront of worldwide anxiety. Town planning anticipates the effects of climate change and have implemented policies on how certain spaces can be used. For example, spaces can only be developed if they use a certain percentage of renewable energy, reducing carbon emissions and mitigating climate change. Spaces can also be zoned to conserve the land’s biodiversity and ecosystem, promoting a sustainable relationship between the community and the natural environment. Town planning can also include developing policies which reduce car parking spaces and increasing bike paths and public transport networks. Town planning therefore is necessary to promote a relationship between the built environment and the natural environment.

Overall, town planning aligns the community’s interests with the local governments. It involves the collaboration of the public, government, and the private sector. Town planning is necessary as it takes into consideration the ways in which a city will grow, how the quality of life is improved, the ways the city’s economy can be strengthened, and the ways to promote a sustainable relationship with the natural environment.

The Alpha14 team boasts more than 50 years collective industry experience developing and managing projects. Alpha14 has experience managing the town planning of a variety of projects and can follow all zoning provisions in the following sectors: commercial, industrial, retail, childcare, and residential.

For more information on our projects, experience, or joint venture and partnerships, contact projects@alpha14.com.au