While high-density development is bound to be met by resistance from residents, the city’s master plan should still be followed, said a property market expert from the US.
“People are afraid of losing their public space. There should be a trade-off,” said Bill Endsley, Principal Consultant at World Citizen Consulting.
“If the developers are working with city planners, there should be an understanding ahead of time what the objective is going be…The developer needs to take the corporate social responsibility and say they are going to provide a certain amount of public space.”
“In Chicago, US, many of the buildings have a setback from the road. They will put benches and create gardens. After the project is completed and when you pass the street and see the logo of the building, you will get a positive sense of the building with the new public space,” stated Endsley, who served as one of the moderators at the recently held World Urban Forum 9 (WUF9) at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.
“Developers must think along this way. When you don’t think about public space, the public will become negative towards you.”
He noted that parties should have a good understanding of the city’s master plan, which is for a long term.
“The master plan must take into consideration the long-term growth of the city and it needs to be looked at as a positive thing instead of negatively.”
Endsley also revealed the new perspective on carparks in high buildings located near transit-oriented developments (TOD).
“Chicago has now reduced the required carparks in high-rise buildings near the public transit lines. You don’t need that many parking bays because the idea with TOD was for people to use public transport. This is integration in the full spectrum of development,” he said.
In most cases, however, the government, developers and public transport providers are all working in silos, in which there is no integration on how the plans will work together, leading to other problems such as pollution.
“There is this notion that people may never be able to live in the city due to various factors. There’s the idea to place people in suburbs and have them commute to the city to work” he said.
“Then it is always mentioned that there will be a green belt for recreational purposes. This idea of living in suburbs and travelling to the city to work has never been truly successful. What happens is there will still be loads of cars and traffic congestion from those who will be commuting, resulting in problems such as pollution.”
“The trend is now to live, work and play in the same place,” added Endsley.
Image sourced from Strelka Institute
This article was edited by the editorial team of PropertyGuru. To contact them about this or other stories email editorialteam@propertyguru.com.my
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