Planning for community: understanding diversity in resident experiences and expectations of social connections in a new urban fringe housing estate, Australia

ABSTRACT

Master-planned estates are a major source of new housing for growing cities. Much research finds these residential developments lack genuine social connections between residents despite marketing of ‘close-knit’ community. Selandra Rise is a new residential development on the urban fringe of Melbourne, Australia. The estate was planned with a focus on community infrastructure and resident well-being. The resident population was younger and more culturally diverse than most other master-planned community case studies. A longitudinal research design was used to explore resident understanding, experiences and needs relating to place-based community. Interviews were conducted with residents before moving to the estate and 9–18 months after moving. Some residents considered community as an amenity provided by the master-planned environment that did not require their social participation. Others aspired to make social connections with neighbours but had varying levels of success. Past experiences which contributed to aspirations for connecting with local community, and the ways that these aims were realised or hindered, are discussed. Understanding diverse resident expectations of community and insights from their lived experience are used to make recommendations for planning new neighbourhoods and designing community development programmes.

RESUMEN

Los planes maestros de urbanización son una gran fuente para las nuevas viviendas en la crecientes ciudades. Las estudios demuestran que dichos desarrollos residenciales carecen de genuinas conexiones entre los residentes a pesar de haber sido comercializados como comunidades muy unidas. Selandra Rise es un nuevo proyecto residencial en los limites urbanos de Melbourne en Australia La planificación de la urbanización se focalizo en la infraestructura comunitaria y el bienestar de los residentes. La población de los residentes era mas joven y con un componente cultural mas diverso en comparación con los casos de estudios de planes maestros comunitarios. Un estudio de diseño longitudinal fue utilizado para explorar el entendimiento de los residentes, sus experiencias y las necesidades relacionadas con la comunidad basado en dicho lugar. Se realizaron entrevistas a los residentes antes de mudarse a la urbanización y de nueve a dieciocho meses después respectivamente. Algunos residentes consideran a la comunidad como una comodidad por el plan maestro del medio ambiente el cual no ha requerido de su participación social. Otros aspiran a tener conexiones sociales con los vecinos con diferentes niveles de suerte. También se conversó sobre algunas experiencias pasadas las cuales contribuian a tener aspiraciones para poder establecer conexiones social con las comunidades locales, y también ver de que manera dichos objetivos eran posibles cumplir o si presentaban obstáculos adicionales. Al entender las diversas expectativas de la comunidad y la percepción de sus experiencias sirven para hacer recomendaciones para la planificación de nuevas comunidades y el diseño de programas de desarrollo comunitario.

KEYWORDS:

• Community development
• social connection
• master-planned estate
• planned development
• health and well-being
• urban planning
• housing
• residential estate

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• Programas de desarrollo comunitario
• conexiones sociales
• planes maestros comunitarios
• salud y bienestar
• planificación urbana
• viviendas
• proyecto residencial

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the research participants for their sharing their experiences.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Larissa Nicholls is a Research Fellow at RMIT’s Centre for Urban Research. As part of the Beyond Behaviour Change research program, Larissa’s research is about the ways we live and how these relate to health, well-being, resource consumption and the environment. Larissa’s broad range of experience in medical research, teaching and training, community development and energy efficiency informs her research interests.

Cecily Maller is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Design, RMIT University, and the recipient of a VicHealth Research Practice Fellowship in Community Development and Residential Planning (2010–2015). Dr Maller’s broader research interests focus on the social dimensions of health, well-being and sustainability, focusing on interactions between people and natural, built and social environments in the context of everyday life.

Kath Phelan is a Research Fellow at RMIT’s Centre for Urban Research. She is an urban planner with interests in geo-spatial analysis, health and housing in urban areas.

ORCiD

Larissa Nicholls http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6841-0696

Notes

1 Entity that subdivides land into home (and commercial) sites and/or sells sites and/or new dwellings.

2 Selandra Rise is relatively small scale compared with most other MPCs at the intensively planned end of the MPE spectrum (McGuirk & Dowling, 2007).

3 Further data from research conducted by the authors show the demographic characteristics of the interview cohort are broadly reflective of the wider population at Selandra Rise (Nicholls et al., 2015).

4 Pseudonyms are used and participant ages are in brackets.

5 Residents included in the participatory community section sometimes also expressed ideas of community as constructed. However, the category of constructed community is based on a lack of interest in participatory community.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) [grant number 15706].