Planning for sustainable transit oriented development: The case of South East Queensland

Transit oriented development (TOD) presents an effective strategy for the management of rapid urban growth by creating an efficient integration of land use and transport, and promoting compact liveable communities. TOD entails the development of higher density mixed use developments around key transit nodes and activity centres in the metropolitan region. This paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the case for pursuing TOD in South East Queensland in view of some key planning issues confronting the region. Some of the issues that are discussed are community perceptions, conflict with character housing, land assembly and investment risk for developers, and need for developing TODs as employment centres. Based on a review of national and international literature on the topic, the paper develops a conceptual framework to integrate key planning and urban design principles related to the implementation of TOD in South East Queensland. The framework combines local sustainability in physical planning and urban design with regional planning approach that focuses on regional context, urban structure and governance for TOD development. The paper argues the importance of considering various aspects of social sustainability (e.g. sense of community, housing diversity, public realm, public transport patronage, crime prevention through environmental design), economic sustainability (e.g. local economic development, financial viability for developers) and environmental sustainability (e.g. subtropical architecture, preservation of natural habitat, energy efficiency, water sensitive urban design). The key outcome of the paper is the formulation of a theoretical model that underpins the development of TODs.