Unsolicited urbanism: development monopolies,regulatory-technical fixes and planning-as-deal-making

Abstract

This article identifies the evolution of, and critiques, unsolicited urbanism—a project of city-shaping favouring powerful market actors but inconsistent with the neoliberal tenet of competition. Marked by predetermined outcomes, unsolicited urbanism legitimates secretive monopolies over specific sites and the normalization of planning-as-deal-making. Such features are not uncommon globally, as circuits of capital seek rent opportunities latent in urban land, and as market actors increasingly exercise power over development decision-making. But following casino-led mega-development in Melbourne (Southbank/Docklands) and Sydney (Barangaroo), Australia, unsolicited urbanism has coalesced as a clearly-identifiable project, inflected by relationships forged in the Asia-Pacific. The project, promoted by coalitions of developers, global capital, state government, and real estate, engineering and financing consultants, targets not just new sites for development, but the planning system itself. At its heart is a novel urban planning instrument, Unsolicited Proposals, that codifies and legitimizes bold and secretive bids for sites and assets over which governments and communities have not signalled intent or need for change. Unsolicited Proposal guidelines solicit premeditated, commercial-in-confidence bids to redevelop key urban assets without outside competition. Originating in two high-profile waterfront sites in Australia, the formalized Unsolicited Proposal planning process has spread elsewhere as a ‘fix’ to ‘unlock’ urban spaces for casino development, infrastructure financing and quasi-privatizations, with foreboding signs of its rapid mobility. The project of unsolicited urbanism connects money and power in new ways to reshape cities, and this analysis shows how a suite of regulatory-technical processes has been reconfigured to make this possible.

Keywords

Real estate planning-as-deal-making casino development urban governance unsolicited proposal

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aalbers

(2013) Debate on neoliberalism in and after the neoliberal crisis. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 37(3): 1053–1057.

Ashton

Christophers

(2018) Remaking mortgage markets by remaking mortgages: US housing finance after the crisis. Economic Geography 94(3): 238–258.

Australian Government (2015) Infrastructure growth package – Asset recycling fund. Available at: www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/BudgetReview201415/InfrastructureGrowth (accessed 10 August 2020).

Barns

(2015) Talking point: Unsolicited proposals lack the scrutiny that competition brings. The Mercury, 2 November. Available at: https://www.themercury.com.au/news/opinion/talking-point-unsolicited-proposals-lack-the-scrutiny-that-competition-brings/news-story/18310cd6b997072aa2788261063141e2 (accessed 20 December 2019).

Barangaroo Delivery Authority Annual Report (2009) Barangaroo Delivery Authority Annual Report 2009/2010. Available at: https://resource.barangaroo.com/hc/en-us/articles/115008800368-Annual-Report-2009-2010 (accessed 20 December 2019).

Barangaroo Delivery Authority (2020) Barangaroo Delivery Authority. Available at: www.barangaroo.com/the-project/infrastructure-nsw/ (accessed 20 November 2019).

Bleby

(2020) NSW to spend $70 million and speed-up shovel-ready projects. Australian Financial Review, 3 April. Available at: www.afr.com/property/commercial/nsw-to-spend-70-million-and-speed-up-shovel-ready-projects-20200402-p54gfr (accessed 10 August 2020).

Bok

Coe

(2017) Geographies of policy knowledge: The state and corporate dimensions of contemporary policy mobilities. Cities 63: 51–57.

Bowditch

(2018) Private capital missing in action. Available at: https://garrybowditch.com/2018/05/14/private-capital-missing-in-action/ (accessed 30 July 2019).

10.

Brenner N, Peck J and Theodore N (2010) Variegated neoliberalization: geographies, modalities, pathways. Global Networks 10(2): 182–222.

11.

Chiodelli

(2019) The illicit side of urban development: Corruption and organised crime in the field of urban planning. Urban Studies 56(8): 1611–1627.

12.

Condon

(2015) Mirvac sees no housing bubble. The Australian, 9 April 2018. Available at: www.theaustralian.com.au/business/latest/mirvac-sees-no-housing-bubble/news-story/5e8698f7deee60e7426e3bae918eae4a (accessed 10 August 2020).

13.

Darcy

Rogers

(2016) Place, political culture and post-Green ban resistance: Public housing in millers point. Cities 57: 47–54.

14.

Dela Rama

Lester

(2019) Anti-corruption commissions: Lessons for the Asia-Pacific region from a proposed Australian federal anti-corruption watchdog. Asia Pacific Business Review 25(4): 571–599.

15.

Dovey

(2005) Fluid City. Sydney: UNSW Press.

16.

Gibson

(2019) Economic geography, to what ends? From privilege to progressive performances of expertise. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 51(3): 805–813.

17.

Gurran

Phibbs

(2014) Evidence-free zone? Examining claims about planning performance and reform in New South Wales. Australian Planner 51(3): 232–242.

18.

Hall

Hubbard

(1996) The entrepreneurial city: New urban politics, new urban geographies? Progress in Human Geography 20(2): 153–174.

19.

Harris

(2018) Barangaroo: Machiavellian megaproject or erosion of intent? In: Ruming

(ed.) Urban Regeneration in Australia: Policies, Processes and Projects of Contemporary Urban Change. Oxon: Routledge, pp 111–134.

20.

Harvey

(1989) From managerialism to entrepreneurialism: The transformation of urban governance in late capitalism. Geografiska Annaler 71(1): 3–17.

21.

Inch A (2018) Open for business? Neoliberalism and the cultural politics of modernising planning in Scotland. Urban Studies 55(5): 1076–1092.

22.

Jacobs K (2015) The ‘politics’ of Australian housing: the role of lobbyists and their influence in shaping policy. Housing Studies 30(5): 694–710.

23.

Luke

(2012) Casinopolitanism. The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Globalisation. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

24.

McAuliffe

Rogers

(2019) The politics of value in urban development: Valuing conflict in agonistic pluralism. Planning Theory 18(3): 300–318.

25.

McCann

Ward

(2012) Assembling urbanism: Following policies and ‘studying through’ the sites and situations of policy making. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 44(1): 42–51.

26.

Macdonald

(2018) Has planning been de-democratised in Sydney? Geographical Research 56(2): 230–240.

27.

McGuirk

(2003) Producing the capacity to govern in global Sydney. Journal of Urban Affairs 25(2): 201–223.

28.

McGuirk

(2004) State, strategy and scale in the competitive city: A neo-Gramscian analysis of the governance of ‘Global Sydney’. Environment and Planning A 36(6): 1019–1043.

29.

Malpine Pty Ltd (2018) What we do. Available at: https://malpine.com.au/services/ (accessed 30 September 2019).

30.

Mather

Thomson

(2018) Union funds offer to lend firms more. Australian Financial Review, 3 September. Available at: https://www.lendlease.com/au/better-places/20180903-afr-series-how-lendlease-took-a-big-bet-to-become-a-world-developer/-/media/be3a0d63fff742918ef83f8e25956612.ashx (accessed 16 June 2019).

31.

Mitchell T (2002) Rule of Experts. Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity. Berkeley: University of California Press.

32.

Mitchell

(2008) Rethinking economy. Geoforum 39(3): 1116–1121.

33.

Murphy

(2019) Performing calculative practices: Residual valuation, the residential development process and affordable housing. Housing Studies.

34.

Murray

Frijters

(2016) Clean money, dirty system: Connected landowners capture beneficial land rezoning. Journal of Urban Economics 93: 99–114.

35.

Murray

Frijters

(2017) Game of Mates. Brisbane: Murray & Frijters.

36.

Nelles

Gross

Kennedy

(2018) The role of governance networks in building metropolitan scale. Territory, Politics, Governance 6(2): 159–181.

37.

NSWDPE (2015) Pre-Gateway Review: Findings and Recommendations Report. Sydney: NSW Government.

38.

NSW Government (2018) Unsolicited proposals. Available at: www.nsw.gov.au/contact-us/unsolicited-proposals/ (accessed 30 September 2019).

39.

NSW Parliament (2017) Issues backgrounder: Unsolicited proposals. NSW Parliamentary Research Service, Number 5. Sydney: NSW Government. Available at: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/researchpapers/Documents/Unsolicited%20proposals.pdf (accessed 27 December 2019).

40.

O’Sullivan M (2018) ACCC slams states for accepting developer-led toll road proposals. Sydney Morning Herald 30 August. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/accc-slams-states-for-accepting-developer-led-toll-road-proposals-20180830-p500pf.html (accessed 20 December 2019).

41.

Park H (2010) NSW planning framework: History of reforms. Sydney: NSW Parliamentary Library Research Service. Available at: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/researchpapers/Documents/nsw-planning-framework-history-of-reforms/NSW%20Planning%20Framework%20History%20of%20Reforms%20e%20brief10%202010.pdf (accessed 27 December 2019).

42.

Peck

(2013) Explaining (with) neoliberalism. Territory, Politics, Governance 1(2): 132–157.

43.

Peck

(2017a) Transatlantic city, part 1: Conjunctural urbanism. Urban Studies 54(1): 4–30.

44.

Peck

(2017b) Transatlantic city, part 2: Late entrepreneurialism. Urban Studies 54(2): 327–363.

45.

Peck

Theodore

Brenner

(2013) Neoliberal urbanism redux? International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 37(3): 1091–1099.

46.

Peck J and Theodore N (2015) Fast Policy: Experimental Statecraft at the Thresholds of Neoliberalism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

47.

Piracha

(2010) The NSW (Australia) planning reforms and their implications for planning education and natural and built environment. Local Economy: The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit 25(3): 240–250.

48.

Raco M and Savini F (2019) (ed.) Planning and Knowledge: How New Forms of Technocracy Are Shaping Contemporary Cities. Bristol: Policy Press.

49.

Rogers

(2014) The Sydney metropolitan strategy as a zoning technology: Analysing the spatial and temporal dimensions of obsolescence. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 32(1): 108–127.

50.

Rogers

(2017) The Geopolitics of Real Estate: Reconfiguring Property, Capital and Rights. London: Rowman & Littlefield International.

51.

Ruming

Gurran

(2014) Australian planning system reform. Australian Planner 51(2): 102–107.

52.

Saulwick

(2018) Macquarie group seals deal for new Martin Place metro station and towers. Sydney Morning Herald, September 2018. Available at: www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/macquarie-group-seals-deal-for-new-martin-place-metro-station-and-towers-20180912-p5038p.html (accessed 10 August 2020).

53.

Schatz

Rogers

(2016) Participatory, technocratic and neoliberal planning: An untenable planning governance ménage à trois. Australian Planner 53(1): 37–45.

54.

Searle

Bunker

(2010) Metropolitan strategic planning: An Australian paradigm? Planning Theory 9(3): 163–180.

55.

Shaw K (2018) Murky waters: The politics of Melbourne’s waterfront regeneration projects. In Ruming, K (ed) Urban Regeneration in Australia. London: Routledge, pp. 135–158.

56.

Sigler

Mouat

Searle

, et al. (2019) “Networked coalitions” as metropolitan governance: Lessons from the emergence of Australia’s Committees for Cities and Regions. Journal of Urban Affairs.

57.

Sisson

Rogers

Gibson

(2019) Property speculation, global capital, urban planning and financialisation: Sydney boom, Sydney bust redux. Australian Geographer 50(1): 1–9.

58.

Smith

(2018) Ambitious secret plan to create Sydney’s Silicon Valley. Sydney Morning Herald, 2 March. Available at: www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/ambitious-secret-plan-to-create-sydney-s-silicon-valley-20180302-p4z2k0.html (accessed 10 August 2020).

59.

Thalis P (2012) Barangaroo: Development interests counter the public interest. Available at: https://theconversation.com/barangaroo-development-interests-counter-the-public-interest-10837 (accessed 20 December 2019).

60.

Thompson

Macdonald

Moullakis

(2016) IFM Investors, Australian Super lob unsolicited proposal for Ausgrid. Australian Financial Review, 23 September. Available at: www.afr.com/street-talk/ifm-investors-australiansuper-lob-bid-for-ausgrid-20160923-grmovr (accessed 10 August 2020).

61.

Tomlinson

(2017) An argument for metropolitan government in Australia. Cities 63: 149–153.

62.

Transfield Pty Ltd (2018) The Sydney harbour tunnel. Available at: www.transfield.com.au/THfirst60years/15-the-sydney-harbour-tunnel (accessed 30 September 2019).

63.

Ward

(2018) Urban redevelopment policies on the move: rethinking the geographies of comparison, exchange and learning. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 42(4): 666–683.

64.

Weller

(2009) Shifting spatialities of power: The case of Australasian aviation. Geoforum 40(5): 790–799.

65.

Weber

O’Neill-Kohl

(2013) The historical roots of tax increment financing, or how real estate consultants kept urban renewal alive. Economic Development Quarterly 27(3): 193–207.