Which Plan Next?

I liked this extract from a paper by Chris Berg, research fellow with the Institute of Public Affairs:

"The first major plan for Sydney, the 1948 County of Cumberland Plan, was supposed to be in place up to 1980. It was supplanted by a new plan in 1968, supposed to last until 2000. Then came one in 1988, another in 1994, in 1997, in 1998 and in 1999. That last plan should have lasted until 2016. It didn't. The planners imagine that the next one will last till 2036. It won't."

Makes you wonder whether the states and shires of Australia should go ahead with the latest plan, to re-zone large tracts of the capital cities of Australia for multi-storey residential development, in preparation for the federal government's anticipated population in 2050! Trouble is, once those re-zonings have been approved, they are unlikely to be reversed by the next Major Plan for Sydney. The damage to the character of our city will be permanent.

And of course the pressure to implement the latest plan "demands" that the state has the power to compulsorily acquire people's property to make way for all the new developments. And sure enough those powers are now being drawn up, or extended, and will also no doubt remain when the next plan comes out.