Brisbane residents are being empowered to take the future of their neighbourhoods into their own hands, as part of Brisbane City Council’s Plan Your Brisbane initiative, which launched yesterday.
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said Brisbane’s 1.2 million residents had been set the challenge of shaping the city’s next exciting chapter through an interactive game experience, which would provide important feedback to Council to help plan for future growth.
“Brisbane is already considered to be a great place to live, work and relax, but with more than 1300 people moving to the city each month, Council is committed to working with the community to carefully plan for the future,” Cr Quirk said.
“In an engagement experience befitting our New World City, a simulated-city game will invite players to build homes to accommodate Brisbane’s growing population and decide what should be the highest priorities for the suburbs.
“The Plan Your Brisbane game will allow players to choose a mix of houses, duplexes, and apartment buildings to accommodate a growing population, at the same time making choices about how we prioritise lifestyle, transport, housing affordability and availability of green space.
“As Australia’s most consultative Council, we know that planning Brisbane’s future involves a genuine conversation with the community about how we balance everyone’s needs, which is why we are giving people of all ages the chance to help shape where our city’s headed.”
City Planning Chairman Julian Simmonds said that with the Queensland Government projecting an additional 386,000 Brisbane residents by 2041, it was vital that Council understood what residents valued most about their city.
“We’re asking people to take as little as five minutes to have their say about the most important priorities for our city’s future, so that we can put plans in place to achieve these priorities as our population grows,” Cr Simmonds said.
“Feedback from the interactive game and other community engagement will inform a Charter of Principles to guide future planning decisions and ensure our city continues to thrive as a friendly and liveable place for future generations.”
Cr Simmonds said the Plan Your Brisbane game would complement a range of activities including a community forum to give residents more opportunities to provide input in the Charter of Principles.
The Plan your Brisbane interactive game will be available at yoursay.brisbane.qld.gov.au until mid-April 2018, further information about how people can get involved is available from Council on 3403 8888.