Missed Opportunities? An appraisal of Hobart's CBD

Abstract

This study was concerned with assessing the costs associated with inefficient uses of the urban spaces in inner-city Hobart. Working from the premise that metropolitan spaces have become increasingly important in terms of determining a region's national and global competitiveness and being mindful of the contemporary issues specific to Hobart (i.e. housing affordability; an aging population; economic development; and, the need to manage the uncertainty of energy/environmental constraints) this study showed that there was considerable need for greater balance in the diversity of land-uses in this area, particularly residential land uses. Such diversity is essential if Tasmania and Hobart wish to make this central area of Hobart more accessible and 'livable', and, in doing so, contribute significantly to competitiveness, and therefore the viability, of the broader region. This report considers the need to identify opportunity sites for residential development under conditions of growing housing stress and economic development in the Tasmanian context. As an example of the need for such appraisal the report looks at the central business district (CBD) of Hobart and the dominance of current land uses which differ significantly from the kind of residential re-orientation that has been seen in other Australian state capitals.