An Idea Whose Time has Come
7 August 2004
One of the most productive meetings I've attended this year took
place at the University this week and focused on the future of
Sippy Downs.
This topic has been on and off the agenda for ten years. That
there should be a sub-regional or district town centre at the
entrance to the University was an outcome of a process to construct
a 'Development Control Plan' which was gazetted late in 1996 after
two years of discussion.
Subsequently the development of the neighbourhood centre at
Chancellor Park diverted attention from the major site because
there were commercial imperatives that were considered more
important by private developers.
But the idea of a new style of urban centre at Sippy Downs could
not be forced off the agenda and ideas about its future have
continued to evolve and there is now a momentum which suggests that
it is an idea whose time has come - and we know that that force can
be irresistible.
In 2000, with the Urban Design Master Plan, there was a further
contribution by Maroochy Shire Council to provide detail for the
new village or town centre. This followed earlier feasibility
studies which had generated ideas about the connection of the
University with the town. Those studies led to the creation of the
Incubator and its positioning at the entrance to the
University.
Since the late 1990s and 2000 there have been further studies
that have reaffirmed the Sippy Downs site as the most promising one
in the region to generate high-tech jobs and industries, supported
by the University's growing research capabilities and
infrastructure.
The idea is now clear: that we need a new boutique urban centre
within which there will be work, leisure, study and research
opportunities in an environmentally sensitive precinct in which
pedestrianisation is emphasised.
It will be a centre that should appeal to the thousands of
residents who want more than is on offer at the Sunshine Coast at
present.
It will be a centre with not only a range of high quality shops,
wine bars, cafés a boutique cinema, a small cultural centre and a
nearby sports precinct, but it will also have a technology precinct
in which Coast and imported firms will have unprecedented
opportunities to benefit from rapidly improving bandwidth
connections internationally, and exploring links and support with
the University, its staff and students.
Chancellor College, Siena and Matthew Flinders are all within or
near the Centre, providing huge opportunities for subject
specialisations linked to practical experiences that could be
gained within the area.
Properly scoped and properly executed, this is a completely new
township in the same way that the University has been started
anew.
In very few places in the world in the last fifty years has so
rare an opportunity been open to those who want to create a new
style of urban community that is an example, and that rises far
above the mundane and mediocre that characterises so much modern
urban development.
This idea is no longer a decade away. State and local government
is supportive. There are sympathetic developers emerging with a
sense of community obligation as well as commercial gain. The
schools and University are deeply involved. And there are
financiers and planners who also believe that the idea can be
realised - there are already lesser examples elsewhere - we can
learn from their mistakes and do it even better.
This is not a centre to rival Maroochydore. It is an altogether
different concept that will complement not compete with the
regional centre.
Let's hope that before too long we'll see some results from
recent discussions and that developers driven by commercial returns
for their shareholders as their only motive, fade away.
It's time for quality and imagination at Sippy Downs.
Professor Paul Thomas is Vice-Chancellor of University of
the Sunshine Coast