Open space contributes to community health and wellbeing
We all love public open space, including parks, greenways and blueways:
Yarra policy
Council has an Open Space Strategy 2020, which proposes to create new open space in many neighbourhoods that are under served. Sadly, the strategy offers no plausible way for Council to be able to afford the high costs for acquisition of land.
Neighbourhoods lacking open space
Yarra’s Open Space Strategy 2020 shows that many neighbourhoods are lacking open space, replicating what was stated in the 2006 version. This finding has also been validated by research from RMIT. Move the slider to see where council has identified the need for more open space:
Existing conditions vs proposals for new open space in Yarra. Image credits: City of Yarra.
What Yarra can do
Council can deliver public open space in Yarra by:
- transforming streets into ‘linear public open space‘ with more trees, more grass, and pocket parks;
- clearly ranking LAPM areas in terms of priority to acquire land for new public open space;
- funding the acquisition of new public open space by pricing on-street parking at market rates; and
- amending the planning scheme (see the proposed C286) to increase the open space contribution from developments.
Example
The Mayor of Paris, Anne Hildago, is gradually converting streets into open space. For more ideas on open space in cities check out Better City on Instagram.
Image credit: Anne Hildago
How you can help
You can help by appearing on the Streets Alive Yarra website as a champion for your local street, neighbourhood, or school.