Canadian planners Larry Beasley and Gordon Harris helped transform Vancouver, which is routinely voted one of the most liveable cities in the world, and say listening to its citizens has been the key to its success.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
They also both advocate improved public transportation links and say light rail could improve the amenity of Canberra. The planners are visiting the national capital next week in a trip funded by the ACT government but say they haven't been engaged to spruik light rail or anything else.
"No, we've been very pleased to feel a freedom to just bring our experience to Canberra," Professor Beasley said.
The men will speak at a ticketed event at the National Library of Australia on Tuesday lunchtime and at a free public event at Westside Acton Park on Friday afternoon.
They have both visited Canberra frequently and are familiar with some of its planning challenges.
Professor Beasley was Vancouver's co-director of planning from 1992 to 2006, and said Canberra, like Vancouver, was already ahead of the pack in terms of liveability because it was in a beautiful natural setting in a safe, democratic country.
"You're right at the cusp where a lot of things need to happen now to realise the potential of that setting and of that lovely country," he said.
"One of them is to overlay on to your transportation system a whole diversity of transportation choices and that includes light rail, that includes cycling and walking."
Professor Beasley is credited with transforming Vancouver's inner-city into vibrant precincts where people live and work.
He said the community needed to feel their needs were being met in the planning process.
"It's about government thinking of citizens not just as members of the body politic but thinking of citizens as consumers and what do they want? What do they need? What's hip? What's stylish? And making sure you add that it in as an integral part of government policy and government spending and government action. So amenities become very important. The quality of housing becomes very important," he said.
"We have a huge program to house families with children in higher-density so we have amazing buildings that are now constructed with wonderful play terraces and back gardens and row houses along a street.
"They help a family to think, 'We can live in the city and enjoy the benefits of the city and we can have hours more with our family and not in our car on a commuter trip'."
Mr Harris leads the development of UniverCity, a sustainable community on the Burnaby Mountain endowment lands of British Columbia's Simon Fraser University, about 20 kilometres from downtown Vancouver.
He said UniverCity was about half-way to being a community of 10,000 people and the key to its success was continuing to consult, surveying residents every two years to see how their needs have changed and what planners were doing right or wrong.
"I think Vancouver has done a very good job of always checking in, keeping in touch with residents – What do they want? How do they want that to work?' So, we tend to have a fairly engaged populace. And we see that in microcosm on Burnaby Mountain. We have 5000 people all of whom know my phone number and where the office is. And I love that. It's planning in the real world." Mr Harris said.
Professor Beasley and Mr Harris will speak on the topic Making Canberra's Heart Sing at the National Museum of Australia at 12.30pm on Tuesday. Bookings: www.canberrabusiness.com/making-canberras-heart-sing
They will also be talking at a free event Finding Canberra's Beat on Friday from 5pm to 6.30pm, focusing on what role young people can play in the planning of Canberra. It's at Westside Acton Park, Aviary Rooftop Bar, Barrine Drive.
