Sajecki Planning Inc. ’s Post

I just finished reading the PEI government's new population and housing plans. Overall, I found the population framework strong on analysis but soft on policy, and the housing strategy strong on policy but soft on analysis. To learn more, check out my latest ✍ https://lnkd.in/etvM7tM5

Now that Australia is trying to build enough homes for its people, we are starting to find out some of the shortfalls in strategic planning that we have allowed to accumulate. In Australia we are short of town planners, some 13k short. We are short of infrastructure, in South Australia water and sewerage services are being trucked at one new land expansion. Healthcare is short already, ramping and removal of birth care services are key performance indicators for how healthy our health system is. We are short of builders, and building materials. Public transport is short. We do have long systems for building approval though. But let's exercise our imaginations and do a little number work. In 1997 South Australia consolidated 119 local councils into 68. For the town of Morgan in the Mid Murray Council, that meant a loss of autonomy. And a flat line of population at about 600 for every single census since 1997. Every year since 1997 there would have been strategic plans. All pointless, because the main strategic goal of any council is to increase ratepayers, none of which was achieved. Ratepayers pay rates and that is the lifeblood of councils. So for your own little piece of paradise, you can do the same exercise. When were your local councils amalgamated and then track your population from then until now. If you live in a regional local council growth would have been flat, or down. Which shows that our strategic thinking has been abysmal in providing growth, but also in the city regions we see that while there was growth, all the support systems were left to play catchup. I suggest a strategy evaluation. Take each council strategy and measure its successes over time. If there is no success, then why do we have strategic plans for local councils? Or are we formulating strategies that best work by doing nothing. Such as Dark Sky initiatives, which rely on the last person to leave your town turning off the lights.

𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 & 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐱 𝐢𝐭 How do elected representatives often define residents, the people holding them accountable with planning applications? 📧 It’s the people who contact them, who are on their lists as regular voters, and who answer the door during working hours. 🏠 Those people are usually homeowners, or people who have lived in area for a long time and don’t want it to change. 🗳️ That is a small section of society. You look at local election results, turnout is often 20-30%, and I’m sure most of that 20-30% are the group I just described. 🤷♂️ As long as that 20-30% have control - guess how most councillors and MPs will behave with development? 🛑 Exactly! So what do you do? 😅While the development and planning sector cannot single handedly change who engages in a broken democratic system, what you can do is: 🔎 Find and engage with those of demographics more likely to support development, the 57%. Essentially, carry out engagement which is… 👉Inclusive of everyone. Two types of engagement, one for likely supporters who wouldn’t engage otherwise, and still listening to those who would have always engaged. 😉 Shared Voice can help you with that. 🔨 And then you fix broken democracy, for development and planning at least. Elected representatives start listening to the 57%, and you solve the housing crisis. #property #propertytips #housingcrisis #housing #realestate #UrbanPlanning #LocalGovernment #YIMBY #NIMBY #PlanningCommittee #UKpolitics

Streamlining Administrative Divisions in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City: A Bold Move to Reduce the Number of Wards https://ift.tt/DPKS348 The National Assembly Standing Committee recently considered and decided on the rearrangement of district- and commune-level administrative units (merging of districts and communes) for the 2023–2025 period in 12 provinces and cities. The provinces and cities include: An Giang, Dong Thap, Ha Nam, Hanoi, Ha Tinh, Ho Chi Minh City, Phu Tho, Son La, Quang Ngai, Quang Tri, Tra Vinh, and Vinh Phuc. In Hanoi, 109 commune-level units will be rearranged to form 56 new ones, resulting in a net decrease of 53 commune-level units. Ho Chi Minh City will rearrange 80 wards to form 41 new wards, resulting in a decrease of 39 wards. The resolutions will take effect from January 1, 2025. Previously, at the 16th meeting in 2024, with the unanimous approval of the delegates present, the Hanoi People’s Council passed the proposal to rearrange district- and commune-level administrative units for the 2023–2025 period. The Hanoi People’s Council agreed with the proposal to rearrange the commune-level administrative units under 20 districts, suburban districts, and towns in the city. The number of commune-level administrative units to be reduced after the rearrangement is 61, including 46 communes and 15 wards. This figure is lower than the initial proposal (a reduction of 70 units) because three districts, Dan Phuong, Hoai Duc, and Thanh Tri, will not be merged during this phase. They will be included in the proposal to build districts that will become urban districts in the future. The proposal was passed to merge and rearrange many wards in Hanoi’s six central districts: Ba Dinh District: Merge the entire natural area and population of Nguyen Trung Truc and Truc Bach wards to form Truc Bach Ward. Dong Da District: Merge the entire natural area and population of Kham Thien and Trung Phuong wards to form Kham Thien Ward; Merge a part of the natural area and population of Nga Tu So Ward with the entire natural area and population of Khuong Thuong Ward to form Khuong Thuong Ward; Merge the remaining part of Nga Tu So Ward’s natural area and population with the entire natural area and population of Thinh Quang Ward to form Thinh Quang Ward; Merge a part of the natural area and population of Trung Tu Ward with the entire natural area and population of Phuong Lien Ward to form Phuong Lien – Trung Tu Ward; Merge the remaining part of Trung Tu Ward’s natural area and population with the entire natural area and population of Kim Lien Ward to form Kim Lien Ward; Merge the entire natural area and population of Quoc Tu Giam and Van Mieu wards to form Van Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam Ward. Ha Dong District: Merge the entire natural area and population of yet Kiêu, Nguyễn Trãi, and Quang Trung wards to form Quang Trung Ward. Hai Ba Trung District: Merge the entire natural area and population of Dong Mac and Dong Nhan wards to form...

Queensland needs a robust population policy to boost the appeal of regions and a 50-year plan to give certainty to investors. Steven Greenwood, Executive Officer of Queensland Futures Institute on Newsreel said his three key observations from a decade of running QFI were: 👉️ The need for business and industry, and the education sector to work together to deal with challenges. Governments could not be expected to come up with all the answers. 👉️ The lack of genuine long-term policy planning fuelled by the fact that governments were not “rewarded” for anything beyond the short term. 👉️ A failure to recognise the strength of Queensland’s regions and the opportunity to empower regional cities and give them greater autonomy. You can read the full interview below. #queensland #qldjobs #publicpolicy #qldpol #auspol #QLDFutures #qldregions

Last week the Southern Regional Assembly made our submission on the First Draft Revision to the National Planning Framework. We strongly support the principle of the NPF and the Project Ireland 2040 process, in particular the core objective of Regional Parity which underpins the document. Contrary to some commentary on the topic, this is a positive, credible, reasonable, and viable proposition which if implemented will benefit the sustainable development of the Country as a whole. However, we have some significant concerns with the First Draft Revision. Most significantly, we feel that it fails to acknowledge or address the major structural and geographic investment imbalances which restrict our Region from fulfilling its ambition and potential. The results of Census 2022 indicate that there was no change to the trajectory of population growth towards the Dublin area. This is also reflected in more recent data on planning and development activity which highlight the particularly stark housing challenge faced in our Cities and major urban areas outside of Dublin. Analysis that we’ve undertaken of the National Development Plan has identified a major under investment in planned capital investment in the Southern Region when compared to the Eastern and Midlands Region, and in the metropolitan areas of Cork, Limerick and Waterford when compared to the Dublin metropolitan area. The First Draft Revision should be strengthened significantly to provide a clear direction for implementing the NPF’s policy objectives relating to effective regional development. Targets and ambitions for the Southern Region and for our metropolitan areas are not attainable without an urgent rebalancing of the regional distribution of planned investment. The NPF will not succeed unless this is addressed.  You can view our submission at the link below: https://lnkd.in/eEb_23Yx

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government today published the final report of the Older People’s Housing Taskforce. Research undertaken by the Strategic Planning Research Unit at DLP Planning Ltd has directly informed the Task Force's recommendations.   The aim of our research was to look at options for the provision of greater choice, quality and security of housing for older people. The conclusions of the research identify the following issues related to planning for Older Persons Housing that require further consideration:   - The lack of specific allocations in most Local Plans for Older Persons Housing - Potential underestimation of need when considering the scale of allocations for Older Persons Housing - Lack of knowledge/understanding of types of Older Persons Housing (despite definitions in Planning Practice Guidance (PPG)). This includes misconceptions of the impact of Older Persons Housing developments on local care providers and the NHS - Negative policy environment for Older Persons Housing on non-allocated sites - Uncertainty over the application of affordable housing policies - Local Character and Design policies being too restrictive and do not recognise the different form that is required to deliver some types of Older Persons Housing - The weight that is attributed to the range of benefits delivered by Older Persons Housing by decision makers appears to be inconsistent, with some decision makers only attributing weight to the fact that proposed provision is addressing an identified need while other decision makers also place significant weight on the wider benefits of the proposal.   The full research report can be viewed here: https://lnkd.in/ejmaxDGA Please do get in touch should you wish to discuss the research findings or our work in planning for Older Persons Housing in more detail: Roland Bolton, Jonathan Goodall MRTPI, Kirsten Ward (PhD, MRTPI)

Are you concerned about development in Lancaster County? There’s good news! For 30 years, local governments have worked with us to focus development near the county’s historic towns and villages instead of out in our farmland. While development still happens wherever municipalities allow it, much of it is limited to “growth areas” around these communities – not by our command, but through the leadership of city/borough councils and township supervisors. Recently, our staff have been meeting with municipalities to take another look at growth area boundaries. Our population growth is slowing, so we don’t need to expand them significantly – but we need to make a few adjustments. The end result will be a new countywide map to guide us between now and 2040. To learn more, please visit our Growth Area Recalibration webpage: https://lnkd.in/etfeu4aW

How to measure and evaluate housing affordability? CMHC researchers, in this paper, approach from "housing hardship" perspective and explore the Census 2021 results. The housing hardship measure reflects the adequacy of households' income after spending the shelter costs. Here are the main findings: ◼️ 50.3% of subsidized renters faced hardship in 2021 despite lower rents. ◼️ Hardship rates fell from 13.2% in 2016 to 7.8% in 2021, likely due to pandemic benefits. ◼️ Vulnerable groups—including lone-parent, Indigenous, and racialized households—still experience disproportionate hardship. These insights highlight the need for robust policies beyond lowering shelter costs. 🔗 Read more in our report: https://ow.ly/JTMg30sI5Xq

What a time to be alive in New Brunswick! Now here’s the thing, population growth is fantastic and we need the people but now we need to set the market conditions to service our growing communities. The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Moncton | La Chambre de commerce pour le Grand Moncton is asking for: ✔️property tax reform ✔️overhauling of property assessment system ✔️removing double tax ✔️infrastructure investment to support growth ✔️prioritizing immigration for sectors in critical need of labour (example: construction as a first start to build housing and supporting infrastructure) Housing is a socio-economic issue - let’s rise to the occasion and reform policies to address our growing population. Innovation is key and the Chamber is here to provide solutions. #CCGM #NBPoli #HousingCrisis #populationgrowth #healthyandsustainable