Accommodating population growth in the CBD: changes, opportunities and challenges for multi-level community living in Adelaide, South Australia

Abstract

The Australian city is undergoing change, which is being driven by in-migration, demographic shifts towards ageing and single person households, a sense of ecological crisis and planning agendas attempting to raise densities. This paper examines recent South Australian State government policy and planning settings aimed at increasing residential population and housing affordability in the city’s CBD. It is largely acknowledged that, for many Australians, detached suburban housing is the preferred lifestyle option. Further, there is a perception that vertical living is costly and provides insufficient social benefits. For Federal and State governments reorienting urban populations towards high density vertical living is considered one of a number of key strategies in dealing with population flow, and burgeoning urban infrastructure and housing costs. In 2010 the State government released ‘The 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide’. The Plan outlined future challenges for the city: population growth, the economy, climate change and how Adelaide can grow to meet these challenges through shifting away from an over-reliance on traditional Greenfield residential development to urban infill and high density living in the CBD. The release of the Plan has coincided with a significant decline in new housing construction activity within the metropolitan Adelaide. Against this backdrop a critical evaluation of the changes, challenges and opportunities for increasing multi-level living in the city’s CBD is offered.