The historical rise and fall of community facility provision standards in the metropolitan planning of Melbourne

Underpinning strategic metropolitan planning is a host of planning standards that deal with the design and regulation of the built environment. This paper is particularly interested in identifying to what extent planning standards dealing with the provision of public open space had been used in strategic metropolitan plans for the city of Melbourne, Australia. Using a historical perspective, this paper traces the historical adoption and adaption of community facility delivery standards over a 100-year period, via the analysis of several metropolitan plans of Melbourne. Their initial adoption and then progressive demise is attributed to a variety of factors including shifts in planning practise, regional politics and the fluctuating economic fortunes of Melbourne since the mid-1970s. This city-specific example is considered to be unique not only because it captures the shifts that had taken place in the metropolitan planning of Melbourne but it also focuses upon the provision of community facilities which remains a much neglected feature of historic metropolitan strategic planning.