Hansen Partnership’s urban design team collaborated with highly regarded economic analysts HillPDA to deliver an activity centre strategy for the City of Ballarat in Victoria.

The project sought to develop a solid base of economic data through extensive data collection as well as developing a greater awareness of the existing design issues affecting activity centres in Ballarat. In addition, extensive survey work was undertaken by HillPDA across the whole of Ballarat, targeting both business owners and shoppers to establish drivers and determine key issues. Hansen’s role was to then develop a policy which fit within the existing planning framework for Ballarat, while broadening the existing (retail focused) policy to reflect current best practice relating to mixed use activity centres.

Hansen worked to ensure that the framework was developed in a way which was consistent with state planning policy and definitions to improve the usability of the planning scheme. For both larger centres and those identified for significant growth, a series of actions to begin improvements to the public realm and to encourage a mix of uses in the centres was developed. The strategy progressed smoothly through Council and will provide a clear and consistent framework for future decision making in Ballarat’s activity centres.