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Theme 3: Creating an accessible place
Principles A place that people can move easily around, by foot,
bicycle or vehicle, is an attractive place. There are many elements
that make a place accessible. Pedestrians need to be able to
navigate an area by recognising familiar landmarks or consistent
public domain treatments and signage. People on foot like weather
protection and things to look at as they walk, and they need to
feel safe from physical attack and from vehicles. Cyclists also
need to feel safe and welcome in the street environment. Motorists
visiting the CBD need to be able to navigate the area easily to
find car parking that is convenient. Assisting motorists that are
using the CBD as a convenient through route is not the primary aim
of traffic design for a place that aspires to these principles.
Walking and Cycling
The Challenge The Bendigo CBD is, on the whole, a pedestrian
friendly city with many tree-lined streets and an easy to navigate
street grid. The opportunity exists to build on this strong base by
providing a safe, attractive, convenient and enjoyable pedestrian
environment at a human scale.
The potential long-term reclassification of that part of the
Inner Box that crosses the CBD area (specifically Wills Street and
Myers Street) provides a strong context to pursue diminished
vehicular priority for the entire CBD.
Over time the emphasis should shift to the management of all CBD
streets to optimise local access and circulation. Car travel is
essential to the economic viability and vitality of Bendigo, in
particular the needs of business and in supporting retail, leisure
and other activities in the CBD.
However, in managing the CBD network, the Council recognises the
importance of all modes of transport, including walking, bicycles
and public transport to access the City.
Ultimately Council’s traffic strategies for the CBD should be
designed to promote a consistent message to motorists that the CBD
is a traffic environment that is distinctly different to the rest
of the municipal area. As a result it requires special attention
with respect to the safety needs of vulnerable road users such as
pedestrians, cyclists including the growing aged population with
decreased mobility and the increased use of motorised scooters.
Many existing traffic management measures actively prioritise
road traffic over pedestrian traffic. Dedicated turn lanes often
necessitate a widened road pavement and therefore reduced
pedestrian pavement and/or wider and more complex road crossings.
Roundabouts facilitate constant traffic movement with less time and
safety for pedestrians,
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with car priority at all times. Pedestrian crossings at
roundabouts require queuing within the intersection, and motorist
visibility of pedestrians is often greatly reduced by the
configuration of a roundabout, particularly two-lane roundabouts.
Roundabouts in a CBD situation rarely add to the visual amenity of
a streetscape, and require just as many signs as traffic
signals.
Objectives Create a high-quality and safe environment and
improve the way pedestrians and cyclists move around the CBD.
Achieve an appropriate balance that maintains adequate vehicular
and public transport access, while providing improved space for
cyclists, encouraging increased street activity and enhancing
pedestrian safety.
Key Actions • Improve pedestrian access and signage between the
railway station precinct
/Marketplace and the CBD Retail Core, particularly along
Mitchell Street. (see Map 6: Pedestrian Priority Areas and
Routes)
• Improve pedestrian access throughout the Marketplace car park
(see Map 6: Pedestrian Priority Areas and Routes)
• Implement a package of identified engineering improvements,
including new crossings, centre-of-road refuges and other measures
to reduce crossing distances, enhance safety and facilitate
accessibility. (see Map 8: Traffic Circulation)
• Improve pedestrian and cyclist amenity through the provision
of seating, bike parking rails and drinking fountains, preferably
in shady locations, throughout the CBD.
• Review and improve, where necessary, the pedestrian crossing
facilities at all roundabouts in the CBD, including replacing
roundabouts with signalised crossings and/or replace two-lane
roundabouts with one-lane roundabouts.
• Avoid dedicated turn lanes. • Implement a package of
improvements to on-road bicycle facilities including exclusive
bicycle lanes on key roads leading into the CBD and bicycle
lanes at all signalised intersections within the CBD.
• Program traffic signals to allow more time for pedestrian
crossing movements throughout the CBD.
• Provide kerbside parallel parking to increase ‘friction’ for
traffic and to provide a buffer between pedestrians and moving
vehicles.
• Improve Edward Street as a walking environment, with standard
footpaths along both sides of the road.
Other Initiatives • Provide secure bicycle parking at all
Council buildings and community facilities and
Council-controlled off-street car parks.
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MAP 6: PEDESTRIAN PRIORITY AREAS AND ROUTES
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Lanes and Arcades
The Challenge In addition to the broad streets of the CBD, there
is a hidden network of mid-block links, including arcades through
historic structures, as well as outdoor laneways.
The ‘fine grain’ of circulation routes created by lanes and
arcades reduces the effective size of the city blocks for
pedestrians, improving convenience and accessibility, and providing
routes with weather protection. They also add choice, character and
interest to the urban environment with a variety of intimate and
sheltered public spaces.
Extensions to the existing lanes and arcades to make a more
continuous and extensive network, would enhance pedestrian access
and create places of special character within the CBD.
A common role of lanes is to provide for service access,
preserving valuable main street frontages for other uses and
protecting them from negative impacts. This is an important
function that should be maintained to enable deliveries, garbage
collection, car parking and other services.
Mid-block pedestrian routes also provide additional development
frontages. This is traditional in core retail precincts where
arcades provide a significant increase in shopfront exposure within
a compact area.
In addition, lanes and arcades can provide an address for uses
in upper levels of buildings without eroding valuable retail
frontages along the main streets, thereby supporting vertical land
use mixes within commercial precincts.
Improvements to Allans Walk include the restoration of the
historic mining exchange within the Beehive Building. The
restoration works have the potential to become a centrepiece within
the CBD as well as providing improved laneway connections.
Objectives • Encourage a fine-grained network of circulation
routes that will enhance pedestrian
amenity, convenience, flexibility and alternative frontage types
in the CBD.
• Enhance all existing lanes and arcades to provide an
interesting, active, accessible and safe environment.
• Provide mid-block links where possible in new developments to
improve pedestrian access.
• Use side lanes for access to housing or other uses of upper
floor levels to protect the continuity of valuable retail
frontages.
• Encourage the use of lanes to create additional development
frontages.
• Develop sheltered mid-block public spaces that contribute to
create a more diverse and intimate urban environment.
• Provide and encourage the use of rear lanes for access to
properties to protect main streets from impacts of service vehicles
and driveway crossovers.
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Key Actions • Create new east-west pedestrian laneways linking
Williamson Street and Mundy Street,
between Lyttleton Terrace and Myers Street, as part of new
developments in this area (See Map 7: Pedestrian Links).
• Improve access and the legibility of routes north-south
through BRIT connecting with the footbridge to the Golden Dragon
Museum, and create new north-south pedestrian laneways linking with
routes through BRIT, between Hargreaves and Queen Streets (See Map
7: Pedestrian Links).
• Create an east-west pedestrian route along the south side of
the Bendigo Creek/canal, linking the Golden Dragon Museum to
Charing Cross (See Map 7: Pedestrian Links).
• Enhance and create new north-south pedestrian links between
Mitchell and Edward Streets, extending from Charing Cross to the
Marketplace along the drainage easements (See Map 7: Pedestrian
Links).
Other Initiatives • Implement a program of upgrade for all
public lanes in the CBD to improve safety,
pedestrian access and linkages. • Implement a program to assist
and encourage the upgrade of arcades within the CBD to
improve appearance, lighting, safety, activity and hours of
access.
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MAP 7: PEDESTRIAN LINKS
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Road System
The Challenge As a well-defined activity centre, the Bendigo CBD
faces a number of challenges in relation to vehicular access and
mobility.
On a regional scale, there are a number of arterial roads that
form a system of circumferential inner and outer ring roads – known
as the Inner Box and the Outer Box. These roads provide bypasses to
the inner urban area of Bendigo.
Despite the existence of the ring road system, there has been a
history of use of many of the key roads in the central area by
through traffic, including trucks. This has worked against the
pedestrian scale and amenity of the area.
Immediate opportunities exist to complete the circumferential
Inner Box road system and improve its use through signage; however,
the long-term appropriateness of this arrangement may need to be
reviewed.
In particular, the role of Inner Box roads should progressively
change to CBD access routes, as increased expansion of CBD
activities occurs all around the Inner Box and strong directions
emerge for a southwards expansion of the CBD (to improve synergy
with the Bendigo Marketplace and the Railway Station
precincts).
Objectives Manage the CBD road network to improve safety and
amenity, reduce the level of non-local through traffic and redirect
truck movements to appropriate alternate arterial routes.
Key Actions • Improve directional signage (eg. ‘CBD By-pass’)
and enhance traffic priority along the
Inner and Outer Boxes to encourage their use for through traffic
in preference to routes through the CBD.
• Reduce traffic capacity of the Charing Cross intersection in
order to allow for significant improvement of pedestrian amenity,
safety and convenience in the area.
• Extend Edward Street to High Street and encourage use of
Edward Street for access from High Street to Marketplace and other
CBD development south-west of Mitchell Street (ie. in preference to
turns from High Street or Pall Mall into Mitchell Street).
• Implement a 40 km/hour speed limit throughout the Pedestrian
Priority Area of the CBD (see Map 6: Pedestrian Priority Areas and
Routes).
• Restrict truck movements (other than delivery trucks) by
applying a truck ban in the CBD and diverting non-local truck
movements to the Inner and Outer Box road systems ( see Map 8
Traffic Circulation).
• Investigate long term shift of the Inner Box southwards to
improve synergy between the Railway precinct, Marketplace and other
areas within the CBD (see Map 8 Traffic Circulation).
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Other Initiatives • Use traffic calming measures as appropriate
to deal with evolving traffic pressures, such
as minimise lane widths and traffic speeds, but avoid any full
road closures.
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MAP 8: TRAFFIC CIRCULATION
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Public Transport
The Challenge Within the Bendigo CBD there is generally good
access to public transport bus facilities, although there are
issues related to frequency of services and service routes to and
from the CBD.
The Bendigo Transport Interchange/Urban Design/Master Planning
Study in 2003 confirmed the anecdotal views that there is limited
demand for interchanging between the town bus services, and coach
and train services.
The Study also identified that there would likely be a negative
impact on passenger convenience by locating the town bus
interchange at the railway station with limited services to the
existing stops at Mitchell and Hargreaves Streets.
In this context, options for improvement should focus on
examining convenience and accessibility of existing routes to
ensure thorough coverage of the CBD, improving the frequency of
services and providing additional, more comfortable amenities.
The “Bendigo Regional and City Bus Service Review” in being
conducted by Booz Allen Hamilton on behalf of the Department of
Infrastructure to identify improvements to the regional and city
bus services. The study is due to be completed late 2005.
Objective • Support, promote and improve public transport
coverage, frequency and comfort in the
CBD.
Key Actions • Retain current bus stop locations in Mitchell
Street but review routes to ensure optimum
coverage of CBD. • Advocate the improvement of all bus services
through increased frequencies and
extension of services into weeknights and weekends. • Install
high quality shelters for waiting bus passengers and generally
enhance all bus
stops in the CBD through the provision of seating, lighting,
litter bins and timetable information.
• Upgrade bus terminus facilities in Mitchell Street and at
other busy locations by widening footpaths to accommodate improved
bus stop facilities.
• Implement active bus priority through introduction of special
traffic signal phases for buses (second to pedestrians), where
appropriate, at CBD traffic signal sites.
• Provide real-time service information at all key bus stops in
the CBD.
Other Initiatives • Provide physical priority for buses through
additional road space at key locations – this
can take the form of exclusive bus lanes for priority
progression at busy intersections. • Continue to implement the
improvements identified for the Bendigo Station precinct in
the Bendigo Transport Interchange / Urban Design /
Masterplanning Study, 2003.
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• Develop a public awareness program to promote the alternative
modes of transport to access the CBD.
• Investigate providing park and ride facilities along public
transport corridors providing access to the CBD to reduce pressure
for parking within the CBD.
Parking
The Challenge Good planning in the past has resulted in the CBD
being well served by a number of car parks. Council’s recent study
has concluded that there is a shortfall in car parking in the CBD.
Parking Precinct Plans will be implemented to ensure new
development provides adequate car parking to meet individual needs,
however the Council needs to determine its approach to the existing
identified shortfall.
Future parking needs should be considered in the context of
improvements to other modes of travel and the aim to discourage
excessive and unnecessary car trips. In order to reduce reliance on
the use of private cars, adequate parking should also be provided
for bicycles.
The priority, at least for the immediate future, is to better
manage the parking areas to provide a greater number of short term
spaces near the heart of the CBD Retail Core and entertainments
areas. Greater use of angled parking will improve access for people
with disabilities. Tourist bus and caravan parking also need to be
considered.
Council’s Central Business District Car Parking Study identifies
opportunities for the provision of additional car parking capacity
and these should be progressively pursued. A Parking Precinct Plan
is being prepared for the Bendigo CBD area to implement the
recommendations of the Car Parking Study.
One way to encourage the re-use of existing buildings for
residential purposes is to reduce the car parking requirement. New
developments have the opportunity to design for the convenient
provision of car parking (usually underground) that is not
available in situations of building recycling.
Objective To appropriately locate car parking to meet the needs
of retailers, businesses, residents, institutions and visitors.
Key Actions • Pursue the development of additional multi-level
carparking structures in the vicinity of
Edwards Street as identified in the Central Business District
Car Parking Study. • Improve signage and lighting to all
Council-controlled off-street carparks and review
pedestrian routes to these carparks to ensure that they are also
well lit and signed.
Other Initiatives • Introduce a local policy into the Greater
Bendigo Planning Scheme to reduce Scheme
car parking requirements for redevelopment of existing buildings
for residential use in the CBD.
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• Investigate opportunities to provide angle parking spaces to
improve access for disabled people.
• Investigate the needs of tourist bus operators and the need
for holding bays, either near tourist facilities, or outside the
CBD.
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Theme 4: Designing a high quality environment
Principles The public domain - streetscapes, spaces to gather
and meet, footpaths and road treatments – all add to the appearance
and ambience of a place. While buildings are one part of the
equation, the spaces between buildings are just as important. The
public domain can be used to reinforce the image of the CBD,
reflect its role and improve its attractiveness and
functionality.
Pedestrian Amenity
The Challenge Although there are generous green spaces nearby in
Rosalind Park, as well as smaller spaces near the Town Hall, the
streets are the city’s most extensive and important public
spaces.
All of the streets are wide enough to accommodate pedestrians,
cyclists and cars with minimal conflict. However, there has been a
past bias towards use of the space for cars, with large areas
designated for parking, and inconvenient and potentially unsafe
pedestrian crossing points.
Pedestrian accessibility can be enhanced through a variety of
design and management changes.
There is potential to provide extra pedestrian space in special
locations to create places for people to gather and for community
events, although this should not occur at the expense of
streetscape amenity and connections throughout the CBD – it should
not create pedestrian enclaves and exaggerate traffic pressures in
other areas.
Hargreaves Street Mall is an important pedestrian space.
However, there are concerns regarding safety, amenity and conflicts
between users within it. There is an opportunity to review the
treatment of the Hargreaves Street Mall, including potential
extension of the pedestrian priority area with limited traffic
access (including the existing mall), as well as a general
refurbishment of its paving and other treatments.
Bull Street and St Andrews Avenue are quiet local streets, and
they have the potential to be treated as pedestrian-oriented spaces
accommodating a variety of social and civic activities.
The open space around the Town Hall between Lyttleton Terrace,
Hargreaves, Mundy and Williamson Streets provides a park setting
that also accentuates the Town Hall’s importance. Council
consolidation of the properties between Lyttleton Terrace,
Hargreaves, Mundy and Williamson Streets as an open space would
allow for enhancement of the Town Hall’s civic setting and provide
a high quality open space. The area adjoining the library and Town
Hall
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is a pleasant sitting area that has the potential for use as a
gathering place and for busking and other forms of
entertainment.
Pall Mall is Bendigo’s major spine because of its traditional
role as the highway through town, its grand formal character, the
adjoining Rosalind Park and grand civic and historic commercial
buildings along it. Charing Cross is a recognisable centre point of
Bendigo for tourists and locals alike. However, Pall Mall and
Charing Cross are designed primarily to manage traffic rather than
with consideration of pedestrian access and civic image. A clutter
of traffic islands, signs and signals surrounds the fountain. The
lane widths along Pall Mall are wide, making it difficult to cross
and encouraging reckless driving. The Bridge Street intersection
allows high turning speeds but provides poor visibility.
Significant improvements could be made in the streetscape design
of Pall Mall, Charing Cross and Bridge Street to give greater
priority to pedestrian amenity and safety, and to enhance the civic
image of Bendigo’s central tourist precinct. Pedestrian amenity and
safety can be improved through traffic management measures.
Objectives • Improve pedestrian amenity and safety throughout
the CBD road system. • Accommodate pedestrian oriented activities
and spaces wherever possible in the CBD. • Focus particular
attention to improvements within Pall Mall and Charing Cross as a
key
landmark and gateway to the CBD.
Key Actions • Undertake improvement works to the Charing
Cross/Pall Mall entry to the Bendigo CBD. • Undertake improvement
works to Hargreaves Street (including Hargreaves Mall). • Encourage
the restoration of the heritage façade of the building located on
the south
east corner of Pall Mall and Mitchell Street in particular as a
key location, and other heritage buildings wherever possible.
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MAP 9: VIEWS AND VISTAS
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Streetscapes
The Challenge Most of Bendigo’s CBD streets are laid out in a
simple grid that makes the area easy to access and understand.
Interrupting this basic grid, Lyttleton Terrace forms a pair of
diagonals aligned with the Town Hall. This, combined with the axis
through the Town Hall along Bull Street and St Andrews Avenue,
gives a distinctive formal character to the CBD, similar to central
Melbourne, Geelong and other 19th century Victorian cities.
Over the past few years, a suite of high-quality paving and
furniture details has been used for streetscape works in the CBD.
Areas remain with varied older treatments, but it is Council policy
to apply these new standards over time, to the entire CBD. This
will enhance the presentation of individual streets and give a
sense of cohesion to the CBD as a whole.
There has been a lack of consistency in streetscape design on a
broader scale, with changes from block to block in the layout of
parking and medians. The Hargreaves Mall marks out the traditional
retail centre, yet shops are spread over a much wider area.
These inconsistencies make the overall street network less
legible and inviting to pedestrians. Application of more consistent
street design principles at a larger scale would contribute to the
accessibility and character of the CBD and help to improve links
between it and other areas.
Views to the Town Hall along Lyttleton Terrace, Bull Street and
St Andrews Avenue provide links between Bendigo’s daily city
activities and its civic spaces. These views are important to
Bendigo’s identity and also support orientation and way-finding
(see Map 9 Views and Vistas).. However, this view is obscured in
Lyttleton Terrace by its cluttered layout, low trees and public
toilets.
Views along Mitchell Street are also important to reinforce
links between the Marketplace, CBD and the View Street
precinct.
Street design elements often vary block by block and sometimes
within streets, providing a confusing and disjointed streetscape. A
consistent street design (including trees, footpaths widths,
medians if any, lighting, etc.) along the length of each street (or
at least within segments that relate to the broader urban pattern)
will add to the cohesiveness of the CBD, and assist orientation and
understanding of the Precincts, and present more visually appealing
streetscapes. A simple formal geometry should be maintained in the
layout of kerbs, trees, lights and other features in the street.
Future streetscape treatments should also consider the traditional
materials and design used in existing streetscapes and public
spaces. Traffic measures should not interfere with the formality of
this pattern, for example widening of intersections should be
avoided.
Objectives • Protect and express the Victorian formality of
Bendigo’s CBD street pattern
• Open up and protect important vistas along streets to
landmarks and identifiable places in the CBD to support orientation
and way-finding. Such vistas include views to: − Town Hall −
Heritage buildings along Pall Mall − Alexandra Fountain − Churches,
or church steeples
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• Design streets so as to reinforce Bendigo’s urban character
and sense of place, and to support orientation and way-finding
within the CBD and between the CBD and adjoining
neighbourhoods.
• Use a consistent suite of paving and other streetscape
materials throughout the CBD, utilising the highest quality
materials strategically to maximise their impact and contain costs.
The suite of materials should also consider the traditional
treatment of existing streetscapes to ensure they are in keeping
with the heritage and neighbourhood character of areas. (see Map
10: Streetscape Materials).
Key Actions • Undertake a program of streetscape upgrades
throughout the CBD, with consistent
application of a suite of street furniture, paving, trees,
kerbing, lighting, footpath widths and other details, within
defined areas. See Streetscape Materials Plan to indicate areas of
like-materials)
• Views along streets to the Town Hall should be opened up by
actions such as redesigning Lyttleton Terrace between Mitchell
Street and Williamson Street to create a simpler, less cluttered
streetscape with open views to the Town Hall (see Map 9 Views and
Vistas).
• Redesign Charing Cross to improve the setting, appearance and
appreciation of the Alexandra Fountain.
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MAP 9: STREETSCAPE MATERIALS
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Design Quality
The Challenge Many buildings from different eras contribute to
the identity, interest and amenity of the Bendigo CBD, as well as
having significance in their own right. However, not all buildings
merit preservation and the city is not frozen in time. There are
many opportunities for new development, even in areas covered by
Heritage Overlays.
New buildings and heritage buildings should jointly contribute
to Bendigo’s design quality, but integrating new development with
existing buildings does not require uniform, subservient or
recessive architecture.
‘Well-mannered’ architecture and consistency of building types
is important, as is provision of equivalent articulation and
detailing to provide a human scale and interest.
There is great variety in Bendigo’s historic buildings and this
adds to its charm. Varied materials and details help to tell a
story of the city’s history, and the different parapet lines and
building heights in the CBD provide visual interest and complement
the simple formal street grid.
Public and private amenity relies increasingly on more
sophisticated and responsive design solutions as development
density increases. Without good design, problems such as loss of
access to sunlight as well as impacts of noise from air
conditioners, rubbish collection, and entertainment activity may
result.
All developments should be designed to reasonably protect
amenity on their own and neighbouring sites. This will entail
consideration of issues such as future development on neighbouring
sites; acoustic and visual privacy; measures to buffer noise
sources; access to daylight and natural ventilation; and, waste
storage and disposable measures, provision of post boxes etc.
There are new DSE guidelines for higher-density residential
development currently under preparation, which will address these
issues to a large degree. These should be promoted and expanded
upon as necessary to guide new development.
The State Government planning policies (including the Transit
Cities Program) aim to support a more sustainable future for
Victoria. Among other things, sustainability relies on the detailed
design of buildings, use of materials in them, energy use to run
them, maintenance requirements, lifespan, and replacement costs.
All development in the Bendigo CBD should demonstrate high
standards of environmental sustainability.
Good quality design will contribute to the amenity of Bendigo
for people living and working there, and is an essential tool for
marketing the area to encourage local investment and shopping. This
applies to permanent features such as architecture, landscape
architecture, urban design, as well as more ephemeral features such
as retail presentation, shopfronts, advertising and promotional
materials.
Beyond expectations for a good general standard of development,
architectural emphasis and excellence is particularly important on
a number of landmark sites that enjoy unique prominence where
streets are interrupted by changes in the street pattern. The most
significant example of this is the Town Hall, and there are other
sites scattered around the CBD at the focal point of T
intersections and bends in street alignments.
In addition, the breadth of Pall Mall and vistas across Rosalind
Park make all buildings along Pall Mall and around Charing Cross
especially prominent. Outstanding architecture should
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especially be sought on these sites, as it will have a greater
impact on the character of the city than most other buildings.
A widespread understanding of the value of design is an
important basis for improving design results. Awards programs can
be an important way to develop this understanding, and new projects
also set important examples.
The Council and State Government are in a position to set good
examples through the development of their own facilities or through
commercial development of properties they own. Council also has an
ability to stimulate private-sector development through public
space enhancement, which can be used as a tool in bargaining with
developers to encourage them to attain higher standards in their
projects.
There is often scope to improve designs during pre-application
discussions and through the planning approvals process. The fact
that good design can expedite the approvals process should be made
clear from the outset.
Objectives • Protect significant buildings and to ensure that
new buildings contribute to public space
quality, private amenity, and enhance the identity and
sustainability of Bendigo as a whole.
• Promote sustainable building design and construction.
• Retain, protect and appropriately use heritage buildings to
strengthen the CBD’s character and appeal.
• Ensure that higher density developments protect the amenity of
their own and neighbouring sites.
• Ensure that new development is integrated with existing.
• Promote design excellence.
• Create outstanding architecture at prominent sites.
Key Actions • Develop a long term plan for streetscape
enhancements (see Public Spaces:
Streetscapes) and stage its implementation opportunistically to
stimulate desirable redevelopment and to assist in negotiations
with developers.
• Introduce a local policy into the Greater Bendigo Planning
Scheme to require superior performance under each of a number of
assessment criteria as a basis for permitting building heights
beyond preferred or discretionary limits, including:
− Achieving excellence in architectural design − Implementing
environmental sustainability principles − Achieving heritage
restoration and adaptive re-use − Enhancing public and private
amenity − Protection of the development potential of nearby
sites
• The Council undertake development projects to provide examples
of quality design and best practice ecological sustainability
principles.
• The Council consider employing an Urban Designer/Architect to
provide advice to development applicants and owners on ESD and
quality design.
• Investigate the Design Panel model as a method of obtaining
high quality design and its appropriateness for Bendigo.
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Other Initiatives • Develop a process to audit amenity impacts
of high density residential development
proposals including benchmarks for acceptable and superior
design. • Develop a process to audit the sustainability of
development proposals including
benchmarks for acceptable and superior design. • Develop a
standard range of criteria to evaluate development proposals to
ensure
protection of development potential of adjoining sites. •
Develop guidelines to minimise signage, for sympathetic awning
design, provision of
lighting on building facades for heritage buildings. • Develop
additional design guidelines if required to tailor the new DSE
higher density
residential guidelines to issues specific to Bendigo. • Continue
to support restoration of heritage buildings through interest-free
loans via
Council’s Heritage Restoration Assistance Program, and provision
of advice through Council’s Heritage Advisor and the Heritage
Advisory Committee.
• Encourage developers to use qualified and experienced design
professionals. Reinforce the message that good design can save
costs by expediting approvals as well as by providing potentially
higher returns on capital investments.
• Consider establishment of a local Design Awards program to
promote design excellence, or sponsor a special award within an
existing awards program (e.g. RAIA, AILA, API).
• Continue the refurbishment and redevelopment of the Beehive
Building as a major Council initiative to demonstrate the potential
sympathetic re-use of important heritage buildings.
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