Implementation plans > Activity centres > What are they?

What are they?
Activity centres provide the focus for services, employment and social interaction in cities and towns. They are where people shop, work, meet, relax and live. Usually well-served by public transport, they range in size and intensity of use from local neighbourhood strip centres to traditional universities and major regional malls. They are not just shopping centres, they are multifunctional.

Activity centres attract high numbers of people, and generate a significant volume of trips in metropolitan Melbourne. Because of the vital role played by activity centres in everyday urban life, their planning is always important.

Since the 1950s, activity centre policy has been a feature of urban planning in Victoria. Essentially, this is a matter of clustering – rather than dispersing – uses and activities to derive social, environmental and economic benefits for the community and business generally. These benefits include:

• providing a strong basis for economic growth
• creating opportunities for the more efficient and balanced concentration of goods and services
• increasing the potential for the exchange of ideas and other synergies among businesses, and for new job creation
• providing an important focus for communities by increasing opportunities for social interaction
• making the most of the community’s investment in physical and social infrastructure
• providing greater opportunities for integrating land use and transport, particularly public transport and walking.

Stand-alone single uses do not constitute activity centres, nor do industrial estates. In fact, Melbourne 2030 seeks to restrict out-of-centre development and contains separate policies for industrial land.

Where are they?
Metropolitan Melbourne has a network of around 1,000 activity centres of various types and sizes. They are focal points for the community and meet a wide range of needs.

They are classified into five types:

• Central Activities District
• Principal Activity Centres
• Major Activity Centres
• Specialised Activity Centres
• Neighbourhood Activity Centres.

Melbourne’s Central Activities District (CAD) performs a critical capital city role and is Victoria’s dominant retail, commercial, cultural, administrative and civic centre.

Supporting the CAD are more than 100 Principal, Major and Specialised Activity Centres. These are distributed across metropolitan Melbourne and fulfil a significant economic, commercial and retail function. Some are much larger and more complex than others; some have specialist roles. Most are well-linked to public transport.

In addition, more than 900 small-scale Neighbourhood Activity Centres also play an important community role, offering access to local convenience needs and transport services.

What are the main issues that affect activity centres?
Because activity centres across metropolitan Melbourne differ in terms of distribution, quality and type, it is
difficult to generalise about how they should be planned.In developing them to accommodate future growth and improve the way Melbourne operates, we must take account of issues such as:

• inequitable distribution.
  The inner and middle suburbs generally comprise a dense network of mixed-use, public transport-oriented activity centres complemented by a dense configuration of neighbourhood centres. In the outer suburbs and newer growth areas, activity centres are more sparsely distributed, lacking in public transport services, and often poorly connected with each other. There are fewer neighbourhood centres to meet day-to-day needs.
  
  
• poor integration with public transport.
  Some specialised employment clusters such as tertiary institutions, hospitals and office parks have been established in relative isolation, as have some major shopping and entertainment clusters. This reduces the potential for integrating transport facilities and for encouraging people to travel to them by means other than car.
  
  
• competition with out-of-centre development.
  The viability of many existing activity centres is threatened by retail and commercial developments that are set up some distance from them, particularly stand-alone developments such as corporate offices, strings of super-stores along main roads, or clusters of highway convenience retail outlets. Often these have poor accessibility to public transport and rely on car-based transport.
  
  
• under-utilised opportunities for housing.
  Significant recent increases in higher-density housing have been mostly confined to Central Melbourne and the inner suburbs. Many middle and outer suburban activity centres could also accommodate this type of development, which would maximise access to public transport, jobs and services.
  
  
• limited planning.
  In aiming to maintain a hierarchy of centres, activity centre policy has given clear direction for a number of larger activity centres but limited direction for mid-sized and neighbourhood centres.

How will they change?
Metropolitan Melbourne’s projected growth in population and households, allied to our changing lifestyle, will require better planned and more accessible places to shop, work, visit, do business, and also to live. Because activity centres are uniquely placed to accommodate much of this anticipated growth, they will be the focus of major change in metropolitan Melbourne over the next 30 years.

Linked by an improved and expanded public transport network, activity centres will accommodate a broader mix of housing, shops and services to create vibrant, well-connected communities. They are an integral part of Melbourne 2030’s ‘direction’ of a more compact city, and they will be the preferred location for much of the projected growth in household numbers.

Key objectives for their future development are:

• reducing the number of private motorised vehicle trips to and from activity centres by concentrating activities that generate high numbers of (non-freight) trips in highly accessible locations
• encouraging economic activity and business synergies
• broadening the mix of uses appropriate to the type of centre and needs of the population served
• providing focal points for the community at different geographic scales
• improving access by walking, cycling and public transport to services and facilities for local and regional populations
• supporting the development of the Principal Public Transport Network (PPTN).

The changes that will affect activity centres focus on identifying a network of centres, ensuring a mix of uses in centres, providing for new housing, controlling development outside centres, integrating transport and emphasising urban design.

The identification of a comprehensive network
To overcome some of the challenges of previous activity centre development, Melbourne 2030 identifies a comprehensive network of activity centres. This network will comprise a range of centres of varying size and function that are linked with a strategic public transport network (see Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1. Bringing land use and transport together - click for more detail

Confirming and developing the network will bring broad benefits. Access to activities, infrastructure and services will be more equitable across metropolitan Melbourne.The overlapping catchments of the network will allow choice, diversity and flexibility in employment, services and social interaction. With more than 100 activity centres identified as locations of major change, there will be increased options for investment and for locating all types of activities.

The challenges will include:

• planning for the whole network of activity centres, including putting in place a decision-making framework to help do this
• planning for individual centres
• ongoing policy implementation through consistent decision-making.

Melbourne 2030’s classification system for activity centres is set out in Table 1. The table gives an overview of the key characteristics, the types of uses to be encouraged, and the future strategic objectives for each category of centre. The system provides a framework for planning and managing the network of activity centres, including their relationship with the PPTN.

Figure 2. Network of activity centres - click for more detail

Addendum - updated list of activity centres (PDF 53 kb)
See Addendum to Melbourne 2030: Activity Centre and Principal Public Transport Network Plan for the updated list of activity centres and the revised PPTN. This addendum replaces pages 50-51 of Melbourne 2030, Planning for sustainable growth, 2002.

The Government has selected Principal, Major and Specialised Activity Centres (see Appendix 1). Melbourne 2030 identifies them by their recognised name and by indicating their general location on a map. In their strategic planning work, local councils will need to confirm the extent of each centre, including areas suitable for higher-density housing. They will also have to identify Neighbourhood Activity Centres as part of their strategic review of centres (see ‘What are the implications for local government?’).

The list of Principal, Major, Specialised and Neighbourhood Activity Centres will be given statutory effect in planning schemes. This will give decision-makers certainty about where future growth and change will take place in metropolitan Melbourne.

The network of activity centres will not be static - centres can move between categories and new centres will emerge, particularly in growth areas.