Compact City Reset: Towards Alternatives to Market-driven Density

State and local governments around Australia and the world now routinely promote the idea that dense, interconnected nodes of transit-rich, mixed-use places are indispensable for sustainable and resilient urban futures. From 20-minute neighbourhoods and 15-minute cities to compact activity centres and transit-oriented developments, the drive for urban density is now a ubiquitous feature of planning policies and is considered the antidote to the range of problems that plague our cities.

To deliver on these compact city visions, urban planners have long appealed to the market with calls for ever more flexible zoning and building codes (Steele 2009). However, with compact city policies now into their third decade, both the implementation and efficacy of market-driven density remain in doubt.

This special issue of Urban Policy and Research contributes a range of new research that explores both the problems and prospects of market-driven density. By doing so, it suggests new approaches and lines of inquiry that can reset the compact city vision and policy.