The Character of the Compact City: Intensification and Resident Opposition

Melbourne 2030 Metropolitan Strategy announced in 2001 focused on intensification of a network of activity centres associated with mass-transit. However, though the imperatives and justifications for intensification are well researched, widely advocated, and given policy support, there is intense resident opposition to raising urban densities. This opposition is inadequately understood, under-theorized, and not well addressed in policy or practice. This paper briefly traces the development of the concept of character associated with urban intensification in Melbourne, tracking its rise to become the primary criterion for assessing residential development proposals in established urban areas. To understand how character mediates opposition to higher-density development, resident activists’understandings of character are described through case studies in the middle-ring suburb of Camberwell and the inner-city suburb of Fitzroy, places where campaigns to protect existing character have been intense and very high-profile. The character of these two places is diametrically opposed, yet the similarities and differences in residents’characterizations provide insights into both the importance and difficulty of the qualitative dimensions of place-identity to sustainable planning policy.