2 It could be argued that the discipline of planning emerged with the industrial revolution. Until the revolution that brought steam engines and mechanised factories most uses were pretty compatible. Villages were a mixture of housing, a few shops and home industries that all co-existed together. It was the arrival of noisy and smelly industrial uses that led to the need to create zones that separated uses. PLANNERS LOVE TO CONTROL ZONING Planners became important people as they protected some uses from other uses. Ebenezer Howard then invented the Garden City movement where living with nature was a balance between the place of work that was noisy and smelly and the quietness of nature but still near jobs. THE GREATER SYDNEY COMMISSION PROTECTION OF INDUSTRIAL LAND IS OUT OF DATE The recently released Thought Leadership publication by the Greater Sydney Commission titled “A Metropolis that Works” seems to be based on the need to protect industrial land because it has noisy and smelly uses. But the world has moved on from giving every use it’s own zone and the nature of work has changed dramatically through computer technology, robotics and stringent environmental laws. INDUSTRIAL USES ARE CHANGING DRAMATICALLY WITH TECHNOLOGY Klaus Schwab, Founder of the World Economic Forum now refers to the Fourth Industrial Revolution where new technologies, artificial intelligence and the world wide web have made many jobs much more compatible with other uses. So to define all urban services and industrial uses as being noisy and smelly is clearly wrong. Just look at the NSW Government’s definition of Light Industrial from the Standard Instrument LEP: “LIGHT INDUSTRY means a building or place used to carry out an industrial activity that does not interfere with the amenity of the neighbourhood by reason of noise, vibration, smell, fumes, smoke, vapour, steam, soot, ash, dust, waste water, waste products, grit or oil, or otherwise, and includes any of the following: high technology industry, home industry, artisan food and drink industry.” INNER CITY LAND IS TOO VALUABLE TO NOT BE FULLY DEVELOPED The SGS report on Sydney’s Urban Services Land indicated that the land value in Western Sydney was around $200 / square metre while the Central part of Sydney had Underlying Land Values of $1,500 / square metre. The result of the higher inner city land value is that greater densities are generally required to make development feasible. The GSC however has SINGLE USE ZONING IS BEING REPLACED BY MIXED USE ZONING IN MANY CITIES Urban Taskforce is keen to have responses to the proposals illustrated in this issue of URBAN IDEAS and we welcome comments to: admin@urbantaskforce.com.au Chris Johnson AM Chief Executive Officer Urban Taskforce Australia said all existing industrial land in the Harbour City should be protected but the Urban Taskforce believes that a mixed use approach that involved Light Industrial uses as well as a range of other commercial and retail uses that were compatible with residential development would be a better response to the value of inner city land. MIXED USE ZONING OF LIGHT INDUSTRIAL AND RESIDENTIAL IS A BETTER USE OF INNER CITY LAND This issue of Urban Ideas sets out a different approach to the management of inner city industrial land. Rather than protecting all industrial land within the Harbour City we propose that much of this existing industrial land could be rezoned to a light industrial mixed use zone. This is a new zone that would ensure that a certain percentage (say 20%) of the floor space on an LIMX zoned site would be for Light Industrial uses and that the rest of the site would be for residential of commercial uses. “THE AIM OF THE LIMX ZONE IS TO CREATE DYNAMIC PRECINCTS THAT INCLUDE JOBS AND URBAN LIVING IN APARTMENTS.”