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Please email nsw@planning.org.au if you have any questions.

This lunchtime webinar delved into The Healthier Higher Density Living for Families with Children Guide, which recently won the Community Wellbeing and Diversity category at the NSW Awards for Planning Excellence 2024.

More children are living in higher density than ever before, and the traditional notion that households with children will relocate to a detached house has been challenged. Raising children in higher density poses challenges for us all, whether we are practitioners or parents. The Guide provides strong guidance to inform the design community of family-friendly design principles and how to embed these principles into their designs.

The Healthier Higher Density Living for Families with Children Guide traverses both issues of social planning and statutory planning, and is underpinned by a thorough analysis of the literature and strong collaboration between health and planning experts, local government and community. It is relevant to planners, designers and architects across Australia, although it is most directly applicable to the NSW context.

Join us for the presentation on the Guide from the project team. We then opened up the discussion for a wide-ranging panel session on creating cities for high density family living, chaired by 91porn Fellow Norma Shankie-Williams. Our presenters were joined by guest speaker Dr Sophie-May Kerr, who has published widely on housing suitability and compact city policies. The panel will cover topics including the experiences of families in higher density, risk and success factors, and – perhaps most importantly – steps planners can take to implement healthy density.

Facilitator:

Norma Shankie-Williams M91porn (Fellow)

Norma has been a member of the planning profession for 45 years, starting her career in local government in the UK, then moving to North Sydney Council when she emigrated to Australia at the end of the 1980s. Norma joined State Government in 1992 and from 2006-2013 was Director of Metropolitan and Regional Planning with the Department of Planning producing the Metropolitan Plan for Sydney 2036.

Norma went on to take up the role of Technical Director Planning and Design in 2014 with AECOM and took up a final career position with local government in 2016, leading the Strategic Planning Team at Willoughby Council. Norma was nominated for the Dr Helen Proudfoot Award in 2022 and retired from Council in 2023. She remains active in supporting the Planning Institute and currently chair the Local Government Sub-Committee.

Presenters:

Belinda Duckworth

Belinda is a Health Promotion Program Officer at Western Sydney Local Health District’s Centre for Population Health, and the Community Engagement Lead for the Health Promotion team. Her career spans over 25 years at national, state and local health district levels. Her early career experience as an Occupational Therapist brings a depth of understanding to community and stakeholder engagement. She is passionate about creating healthy built environments and committed to authentic stakeholder engagement to inform health promotion strategies.

Melissa Mason

Melissa Mason is a Health Promotion Program Officer at Western Sydney Local Health District’s Centre for Population Health. Mel has worked on the Healthy Higher Density project with the City of Parramatta since it began in 2017. Mel has co-authored three research papers on healthy higher density housing for families with children, and played a key role in writing the content of The Guide. Mel is passionate about advocating for the creation of healthy places within built and natural environments to improve population health outcomes.

Natalia Krysiak

Natalia is a practising architect, involved in child friendly urban initiatives around the world and founder of Cities for Play. In 2019, Natalia was awarded a Churchill Fellowship exploring best practice for designing child-friendly, high-density neighbourhoods in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Canada and the UK. Her research explores how we can create more playful and child-friendly urban environments.

Mark Egan

Mark Egan is City Strategy Manager at City of Parramatta Council. Mark is committed to making Parramatta a socially and environmentally sustainable community and using strategy as the vehicle to deliver this outcome. Key areas of interest include affordable housing policy and community infrastructure planning. Mark helped prepare City of Parramatta Council’s first Community Infrastructure Strategy and also wrote Council’s current Affordable Rental Housing Policy. Mark has led social planning teams at both Liverpool and City of Parramatta councils. Since August Mark also now leads the Environmental Strategy team at Parramatta – this team is tasked with implementing Council’s recently endorsed Environmental Sustainability Strategy.

Dr Sophie-May Kerr

Dr Sophie-May Kerr is a Research Fellow at City Futures Research Centre, University of New South Wales. Her research advocates for high-density dwellings to be designed as long-term homes that cater to diverse needs. Sophie-May’s doctorate examined the experiences of families with children living in apartments across Sydney. She is passionate about translating residents lived experiences into actionable policy and planning insights.