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A future community infrastructure strategy

Overview

A community infrastructure strategy is a long-term strategy for the provision of community infrastructure in Maribyrnong required to support a population expected to reach around 155,000 by 2051.

The future strategy will consider facilities and spaces used for service delivery and networking that support quality of life and wellbeing. This includes facilities and spaces that support community-based activities including arts and culture, libraries, playgroups, kindergartens, health services, facilities for young people, as well as indoor and outdoor public spaces.

We will look at identifying population growth, limited Council-owned land, or affordable private land to provide additional facilities, the need to limit rate increases, climate emergency, diverse needs, and changes to standards as the key challenges and opportunities Council faces.

The future strategy will inform the delivery of new infrastructure across Maribyrnong, particularly opportunities to consider multi-purpose hubs.

We are interested in hearing community views around both the proposed direction outlined in a future strategy and what residents in the suburb of Maribyrnong think of the idea of multi-purpose hubs, given our early investigations of facilities in the suburb.

Why multi-purpose?

Demand for a diverse and adaptable range of community spaces is growing, driven by population increases and the increasingly diverse needs of an ageing, and socially and culturally diverse community.

Multi-purpose and/or community hubs are one way to address these challenges and the changing needs within a constrained financial environment.

By reducing the costs of building renewals and maintenance, enhancing accessibility, providing an efficient and effective response to ageing infrastructure, and a sustainable and flexible approach to changing community needs over time, both Council and the community can benefit.

Draft objectives

A future strategy will be underpinned by these draft objectives:

Key points

  • A smaller number of higher quality facilities

    • that will be easier to maintain and upgrade which helps to lower rate increases
    • can be located in each area near services and facilities and active transport routes to increase convenience

  • Multi-purpose facilities for multi-users

    • to support increasing demand to allow community and sports groups to share facilities and maximise their use throughout the day, week and year
    • recognising some groups who previously leased an entire building may instead prefer to access facilities only during specific times of the day and week

  • Leveraging partnerships and collaborations

    • maximise investment opportunities and funding from other sources
    • maximise cost recovery from developers and utilise partnerships to deliver infrastructure
    • this will ultimately reduce costs to ratepayers, though it may mean facilities are not available exclusively for community members

  • Multi-storey developments

    • in some areas of the municipality that are growing upward, facilities will need to have a vertical built form
    • this could be a multi-storey library or a library integrated into lower levels of a multi-storey development, for example
    • this may mean working with developers to deliver community facilities integrated into developments, where possible