30-Year Greater Hobart Plan

The Greater Hobart Plan has been prepared under the Greater Hobart Act 2019, at the request of the Greater Hobart Committee.

This Plan is the first time that transport, housing and precinct planning have been brought together in a spatially integrated manner. This will allow us to plan for business and employment growth, recreation and environmental management, protect farmland and plan for climate change. In the short term, the Plan will be used to inform an update to the Southern Tasmania Regional Land Use Strategy (STRLUS).

The Greater Hobart Plan is aligned with, and is designed to deliver, the 2050 Vision for Greater Hobart (the Vision):

We will live in the world’s best small capital city, a city built for people that is connected, friendly and safe.

Greater Hobart is a thriving and inspiring place to live, where we all work together to make a positive contribution to our extraordinary environment.

The vision is underpinned by the following themes

• Be greater for our people – a great place to live; safe and welcoming; better active transport; and contribute to health and wellbeing
• Have greater interconnection, but distinct communities – continue to 'feel like Hobart’; connected to unique natural environment; thriving, unique neighbourhoods; and people centred, activated places
• Have greater resilience – build resilience and disaster preparedness; strong local business community; adapt towards a low carbon economy; and community spirit to 'future-proof' the city
• Be well planned – 'right place, right time’; collaborative approach to planning; and coordinated provision of infrastructure and services
• Have greater connection – easy to get around; greater transport choice; increase co-location of jobs and housing; and smart technology to enhance useability
• Plan for growth and change – greater housing choice; increase residential density in inner areas; growth will be planned and sequenced; and protect unique natural areas and biodiversity

The Greater Hobart Plan is supported by a Strategy for Growth and Change and an Implementation Plan, to make sure we have a clear pathway to deliver the outcomes set out within the Plan. These documents will continue to evolve as the city changes, and in response to new information. The Greater Hobart Plan will also establish processes for the Government, Greater Hobart councils, industry and the community to work together to ensure that our capital city grows and develops in a sustainable way.

Greater Hobart is experiencing change and the 2050 Vision for Greater Hobart (the Vision) has identified challenges to be faced over coming years.

These include an ageing population, managing our growth in a sequenced and strategic manner, having a small regional economy that provides fewer employment opportunities than other mainland capitals, limited diversity in housing options, transport and infrastructure constraints, and local responses to bushfire, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other wider challenges like rapid technological advances, dynamic international trade corridors and demands, and the changing nature of migration are all having profound impacts globally.

These various challenges must be considered when preparing a long-term plan for Greater Hobart.

It will require collective and collaborative leadership to address these challenges, seize opportunities, and strengthen Greater Hobart’s resilience to change. The Greater Hobart Committee aspires to support Greater Hobart to become “the world’s best small capital city”.

The Greater Hobart Plan provides clear direction on how to best respond to current and emerging challenges.

This will require access to land and opportunities for quality development, to support traditional industries and expanding sectors of the economy. Greater diversity in housing is required to provide greater choice for individuals to suit different lifestyles and different stages of life, including supporting older people to age-in-place by providing opportunities to downsize their home yet remain within their neighbourhood to maintain connections to friends and family. Housing also needs to be well-located so that people can have good access to local jobs, services and transport connections.

Greater Hobart’s history of outward growth and development outside of the city, mixed with a growing and ageing population, is contributing to some growing pains, such as congestion on our roads. More people are living further away from where they work, shop and play. This outward spread increases the pressure for major road infrastructure improvements, which can add to cost-of-living pressures. A focus on providing our community with more housing options can help reduce these pressures.

Prioritising and facilitating targeted infill development in preference to greenfield expansion will see the emergence of more inner-city housing through medium density development. In delivering this, the Greater Hobart Committee is committed to maintaining local character and protecting heritage values. To implement this Greater Hobart Plan we will need design solutions to protect what people love about our capital city and its natural and built environment. Our challenge will be to encourage development to cater for current and future growth, in ways that enhance our city’s liveability and attractiveness.

The Greater Hobart Plan seeks to guide growth over the next 30 years, in order to shape our city’s future urban form. Our analysis is based on evidence including historical growth rates, expectations of future development and sound planning principles.

While projected growth may not eventuate within the timeframes considered, having a plan will ensure we are well prepared for future growth. It will also ensure that, regardless of the level of growth in the next 30 years, we will have a plan to make Hobart a safe, friendly, connected, inspiring and thriving place to live and work.

We anticipate that Greater Hobart will continue to experience population growth. Based on growth over recent years we will assume an additional 60 000 people over the next 30 years. We will also assume that each additional dwelling can accommodate an average of two people, which means that we expect to need around 30 000 new homes to be constructed during this period.

By setting these assumptions, strategic planners across the public and private sectors can prepare for growth and infrastructure upgrades in advance, and target efficiencies and productivity gains as a result.

Analysis has helped us identify locations across Greater Hobart where new residential development can be located. We have been aware of some of these locations for some time given their size and significance, but in general we see potential for increased urban renewal initiatives and more medium density development across many of our suburbs.

The purpose of urban renewal and the provision of additional housing is to ensure that residents have better access to transport options to aid movement around the city. This will require strategic long-term consideration and planning.

Importantly an Implementation Plan will be prepared to identify and progress measures to encourage the right type of development in the right places. Our analysis also confirms that the future planned growth of our city can be primarily accommodated within the current Urban Growth Boundary currently described in the Southern Tasmania Regional Land Use Strategy (STRLUS), and is best placed within densification areas along main transit corridors to better utilise our current infrastructure. In addition, we will develop a coordinated and strategic approach to growth that may result in changes to the Urban Growth Boundary to accommodate future urban development.

This Greater Hobart Plan provides a clear narrative about the future of our city, one that should foster integrated planning, encourage public and private investment, and build more coordinated and collaborative relationships. Employment and business growth will be important to provide opportunities for more residents to work near where they live.

The Greater Hobart Plan will help inform an update to the Southern Tasmania Regional Land Use Strategy (STRLUS), and the Implementation Plan will enable a coordinated approach across governments to achieve the aims and objectives of the Greater Hobart Plan.

Greater Hobart is shaped by its geography, flanking the Derwent River. Our natural environment is one of the most attractive characteristics of our city and defines it in the eyes of most people. In shaping the city’s urban form, this natural setting is both a constraint and opportunity for development.

Our analysis indicates that at this point in time there is sufficient land within the Urban Growth Boundary to accommodate an expected additional 30 000 dwellings over the next 30 years. However, this conclusion is based on the theoretical yield of available land. The Greater Hobart Plan proposes that additional housing will be primarily delivered through urban consolidation and infill development rather than greenfield development at the urban fringe. The Greater Hobart Plan proposes a 70:30 infill/greenfield development split (21 000 infill and 9 000 greenfield dwellings) as an attainable target over the next 30 years, which is consistent with the development split achieved over the last decade. However, the Greater Hobart Plan will seek to encourage more infill development closer to transport corridors and within identified densification areas.

Infill development is proposed to be primarily low-impact medium density residential dwellings, while allowing for higher density dwellings in appropriate locations. This means encouraging more contemporary terrace and townhouse dwellings within, and surrounding, the main business districts and along corridors with high frequency public transport services.

There are advantages to infill residential development over greenfield development. Some of which are:

• Reduced infrastructure and service provision costs for infill development.
• Shorter travel distances to employment, shops, schools, health services.
• Better access to more frequent public transport services.
• Increased residential densities can enhance economic viability of existing business zones and generate more local employment.
• A compact urban footprint has a reduced environmental impact including lower greenhouse gas emissions.
• More efficient use of underutilised land – an opportunity to improve local amenity, while still protecting heritage and character.
• Increased opportunities for social interaction, relationship building, community connections, personal security and ‘living locally’.

Although the Greater Hobart Plan will encourage more infill residential development, we also need new greenfield development to meet our expected housing demand and provide choice for our community. Importantly, the proposed 9 000 new greenfield dwellings over the next 30 years will require a faster rate of delivery than in the past.

To deliver our focus on infill development we will require concerted effort and collaboration between governments and industry if future development is to be directed into identified areas with capacity to absorb expected growth. Our analysis of land supply data has identified the following opportunities for future residential development over the next 30 years:

• Low density greenfield housing on existing residentially zoned land – 9 450 additional dwellings.
• Medium density infill housing
  • within existing inner suburban areas across Greater Hobart – 12 380 additional dwellings.
  • within existing business zoned land close to primary and principal business districts – 9 000 additional dwellings.
  • on rezoned land to enable residential use (e.g. Hobart Showgrounds) – 3 700 additional dwellings.
• Higher density infill housing in appropriate locations.

This analysis indicates that the total available land supply within the current Greater Hobart Urban Growth Boundary could potentially cater for over 34 000 additional dwellings, which is more than our anticipated demand of 30 000 dwellings by 2050. It will be important to ensure that existing land supply is used efficiently and to encourage infill development and employment and business growth close to the main activity centres and along main transit corridors. In addition, we will strategically identify areas appropriate for consideration as future growth. Changes to the Urban Growth Boundary may result based on evidence of need and the application of technical planning analysis.

The main areas identified for infill and greenfield development including future growth areas within each council are:

• Clarence – primarily infill, with some greenfield, including in already identified future growth areas such as Droughty Point peninsula.
• Glenorchy – primarily infill, especially in the catchment areas along the transit corridor, and greenfield at Granton and Austins Ferry
• Hobart – primarily infill within the CBD
• Kingborough – primarily infill in and around the Kingston CBD, greenfield at Huntingfield, and a mix of infill and greenfield in already identified future growth areas at Margate and Snug

Future commercial and industrial development is likely to occur within the existing zoned areas, much of which has the capacity to accommodate more intensive activity. More mixed‑use developments will also be encouraged (mix of commercial and residential). Living closer to workplaces and shops will encourage healthy active transport and create a more vibrant and sustainable city.

The high-level objective of the Greater Hobart Plan is to better align land use and infrastructure planning. To deliver this, land use and infrastructure strategies need to work together to support common objectives, and sequence development to support the right development in the right places. The coordinated delivery of infrastructure and associated services can help unlock both future housing supply and commercial opportunities across our city.

In the preparation of this Greater Hobart Plan, there has been close liaison with key infrastructure providers including State Roads, TasWater, TasNetworks and NBN providers. Coordinated forward planning will be critical to ensure medium and long-term forecasting aligns with proposed future land use and development changes. A focus on prioritising infill development will support the more efficient use of existing infrastructure and provides more opportunities for our transport system (road, parking, public and active transport) to improve public safety and reduce traffic congestion.

Work to deliver on a Greater Hobart Transport Vision is underway through the Hobart City Deal, and the Tasmanian Government and Greater Hobart Councils continue to collaborate closely with the Australian Government to deliver on that Vision. Significant policy decisions will be required as our cities grow, to support an uplift in public and active transport services, balance parking demand with the amenity of local activity hubs, improve the efficient transport of freight and to embrace emerging technology. This includes the adoption and use of electric vehicles and e-scooters.

We will also need to carefully plan for growth to ensure we can continue to provide both public infrastructure and green open spaces to enhance liveability, appeal and encourage community connectedness. This also extends to long term planning across all areas of responsibility. For example, the provision of health and education services as populations increase in targeted areas, and the provision of waste collection services that reflect changing attitudes towards greater recycling of waste and a reduced environmental impact.

Greater Hobart’s existing character, natural assets, built heritage and relaxed lifestyle, are part of what people love about our city. These valuable attributes are some of Greater Hobart’s most important competitive strengths. Future urban development within and around Greater Hobart should be managed to protect these aspects.

If Greater Hobart is to be “the world’s best small capital city”, we will need to protect what already makes it special, as well as innovate to provide the services and amenity expected by our city’s residents and visitors. The Greater Hobart Plan provides a pathway to create a city that balances the retention of Greater Hobart’s natural and homegrown attributes with being a leader in collaborative governance, applying new technology, successfully adapting to a changing climate and generating new job opportunities with a more dynamic and entrepreneurial focus.

As a small city, Greater Hobart has opportunities to focus on the creation of healthy neighbourhoods to support residents of all ages and backgrounds. The ability to move easily within and through our city is also highly valued, so further growth needs to improve personal mobility and discourage isolation and other inequitable outcomes.

Greater Hobart has a striking natural setting dominated by the Derwent River, with many local foreshores and bushland reserves. The public open spaces within and surrounding the city are well-protected and are less likely to be impacted if future urban growth is primarily consolidated within existing built-up areas. Infrastructure improvements will be required within those areas (shared pathways, playgrounds, streetscapes, pocket parks, playing fields etc) to support increased future use and demand.

Precinct structure planning and the development of urban design guidelines will encourage the type of urban renewal we want to see in identified growth areas, with the aim of improving local amenity and promoting diverse and quality housing development.

The focus of the Greater Hobart Plan is to encourage more medium density dwellings throughout our city, especially within identified growth and targeted infill areas along the main transit corridors and close to the main activity hubs.

The Greater Hobart Plan will establish a land use planning framework with the capacity to be responsive and relevant, and unique to the needs of Greater Hobart. It will enable the creation of liveable and vibrant communities, suburbs and spaces where people want to live, work, shop and socialise. The economic benefits of population growth will be spread across the whole city. A ‘live local’ ethos will be encouraged, where we can have employment options close to where we live, where we can send our children to school close to home, where we can easily visit a local park, where we can shop locally, and where other essential services are relatively close by.

In the short term, the Greater Hobart Plan will inform an update to the Southern Tasmania Regional Land Use Strategy. The Greater Hobart Plan will be supported by an Implementation Plan that will set out agreed policy directions and actions, with responsibility for delivering these actions documented and tracked. Some committed actions may be easily incorporated within existing programs. However, it is likely that both the Tasmanian Government and the Greater Hobart Councils will need to consider new policy or investment decisions to support implementation of the Greater Hobart Plan.

It is anticipated that the implementation measures will cover a range of solutions and initiatives, with varying levels of complexity and will need to be delivered across the short, medium and long term. This will allow all parties to consider the sequencing and delivery of related actions. While it is likely that certain actions may take some time to achieve, identifying and tracking these actions overtime will provide a valuable starting point for collaboration and discussion. The actions to be identified within the Implementation Plan will include:

• continued collaboration between the Government and Greater Hobart Councils
• precinct structure planning of growth and densification areas to balance growth and amenity
• maintaining an Urban Growth Boundary that prioritises urban consolidation over urban sprawl, while developing an agreed approach to growth that may include changes to the Boundary based on evidence of need and technical planning analysis, as well as addressing any identified anomalies
• urban renewal through a focus on medium density residential development and higher density dwellings where appropriate within the existing urban footprint
• a coordinated transport plan that encourages increased public transport use and active transport
• provision of public infrastructure to facilitate desired future residential and/or commercial development, where appropriate
• continued delivery of affordable and social housing close to local jobs and services
• consideration of incentives to encourage development in identified growth and targeted infill areas
• clear public messaging of future development expectations throughout Greater Hobart and additional public engagement and partnership arrangements.

The successful implementation of this Greater Hobart Plan will result in:

• improved liveability and accessibility for our people
• protection of our city’s natural features, character and heritage
• improved community resilience in the face of natural hazards
• more social and affordable housing closer to city centres and along transit corridors
• much greater housing choice – both in terms of type and location
• more people able to live closer to where they work, shop and access services
• increased uptake of public transport and more active transport opportunities
• reducing travel distances/times and fuel costs
• more opportunities for social interaction in improved public spaces
• increased activation and economic viability of central and local business districts
• more mixed-use opportunities to encourage business investment
• a city that is highly valued for its amenity, attractions and lifestyle
• alignment with council precinct structure planning and the development of the Tasmanian Housing Strategy.

The Implementation Plan to be developed to accompany the Greater Hobart Plan will outline the processes required to achieve the measures and indicators above.

A coordinated planning framework will be required and will allow public and private investments to be sequenced and approved. This will provide the basis for long-term cooperation across government, industry and the community.

A well implemented Greater Hobart Plan will provide certainty and confidence for the Government, Greater Hobart Councils and business so that financial investment and jobs growth can be directed towards the most beneficial growth of our city. Greater community certainty should also create greater confidence in the long-term outcomes and less concern about potential adverse impacts.

The implementation of the Greater Hobart Plan will be designed to manage, adapt to and harness change for the social, economic and environmental benefit of the Greater Hobart community, now and into the future.

This inaugural Greater Hobart Plan provides an overall framework for spatially managing the growth that is likely to occur within Greater Hobart. It begins a city-wide planning process that will evolve over time and require updated information, revision of past assumptions, and further analysis to continually build on our evidence base.

External factors including social, technological, economic and environmental trends will all have implications for Greater Hobart’s future development and will need to be monitored including access to services and facilities. There is much to be learnt from similar jurisdictions elsewhere and how they have responded to these issues. Implementing the Greater Hobart Plan will also be an iterative process that will require flexibility and a collective willingness to adapt.

The Greater Hobart Plan will be monitored against the listed actions and relevant key performance indicators (KPIs). This will enable adjustments to be made while also providing public transparency.

In addition to this, a review of the Greater Hobart Plan and its supporting documents will occur in four years, allowing it to evolve with emerging trends captured and explained.

Effective community engagement is a critical part of this ongoing review and reporting process. Public engagement and a good appreciation of community needs and desires will be encouraged to feed into the Greater Hobart Plan development. A well-informed community is essential for effective implementation of the Greater Hobart Plan via appropriate forums and other public communication opportunities.

The Greater Hobart Plan provides a list of policy directions under sixteen different headings to help responsible parties to focus their energies. Under the Implementation Plan, actions will seek to accomplish the policy directions, and each action will have responsible parties identified to deliver and implement the Greater Hobart Plan. The Implementation Plan will also provide an indication on the priority and sequencing of actions to help refine future work programs.

The current policy directions for the Greater Hobart Plan are listed below.