Burwood Strategy

Burwood Council engaged Cred Community Planning and HillPDA to deliver the Burwood Community Facilities and Open Space Strategy. The Strategy informed and supported Council to plan for the provision and management of sustainable community facilities and public open space to address the needs of the current and future resident and worker population of the Burwood Local Government Area (LGA). The Strategy was an internal Council document to provide internal guidance for decision-making around community facilities and open space. The study included:

• Identifying a range of opportunities to increase revenue and reduce operational costs for Council
• Identifying the value of the LGA’s community facilities and open space both in qualitative and quantitative terms
• Undertaking an assessment of the annual cost of Council’s community facilities and open space in terms of maintenance, upgrades, subsidies provided to user groups and rent foregone
• Benchmarking the costs to compare usage and cost efficiency between facilities and open space
• Benchmarking facilities in other LGA’s to determine how Burwood LGA compared in terms of fees and offering and developed a fee hire structure for Council
• Drawing on HillPDA’s extensive knowledge of infrastructure funding mechanisms to identify funding opportunities for new community facilities and open space.

Outcome

• A number of actions were identified to increase the provision and equitable distribution of community facilities and open space across the LGA
• The value and amount (in sqm) of community facilities and/or open space that should be provided when additional floorspace is approved over and above the requirements of BLEP 2012

Services:

• Literature review
• Population forecasts
• Social infrastructure and open space needs assessment
• Infrastructure costing
• Utilisation modelling

Client: Burwood Council
Project date: 2014

For more information, contact Elle Clouston, Associate