Delivering medium-density infill development through promoting the benefits and limiting background infill

ABSTRACT

Australian cities rarely meet their targets for infill development and experience a ‘missing middle’ in terms of urban density. This paper surveys the barriers to medium-density projects on infill sites in the Western Australian city of Perth and subsequently ventures strategies to alleviate these impediments. The findings indicate that the principal barriers to medium-density infill derive from poor quality low-density infill development, which alienates communities and dissipates the impetus developers require to deliver medium-density projects. The paper concludes that spatial planners should improve strategies for promoting the benefits of density, as well as set minimum residential densities, and site areas, for infill development.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Western Australian Planning Commission, the Department of Planning Lands and Heritage, DevelopmentWA, and the Department of Communities for their generous support for our research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Due to the issues of quantifying qualitative research these are indicative only.

2. In total there were 210 Nvivo coded references to the barriers.

3. In Perth, policies instruct that 1 bedroom dwellings provide between 0.75 and 1 bay, >2 bedroom dwellings 1 to 1.25 bays, in addition to visitor parking (Department of Planning Lands and Heritage 2016, 81), regulations that are generally in accordance with buyer expectations.

4. There were 169 Nvivo coded references to mitigation strategies in total.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Western Australian Planning Commission; Department of Communities; DevelopmentWA; Department of Planning Lands and heritage.