North Arm Cove Initiative
The North Arm Cove Initiative is a grass-roots initiative aimed at preserving and sustainably developing North Arm Cove, NSW, Australia.
Their goal is to develop a sustainable, resilient community for the 21st century, in a location where more than 3000 lots were planned by Walter Burley Griffin as an urban layout in 1918.
The Initiative cooperative has grown largely through social media, using various pages and groups on Facebook until there was sufficient interest to sustain a website.
History
In 2019, a group of North Arm Cove landowners, with assistance from a team of architects and planners from DESIM-Arch, laid the foundations of the "North Arm Cove Initiative". Their aim was to promote urban development of North Arm Cove, incorporating the heritage plans of Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin and using 21st Century technology to implement and improve the Griffins' vision, thereby creating a regenerative, resilient, sustainable, model precinct and community.One of the first activities of the Initiative was organizing an Australia-wide student research competition, "Back to the future - North Arm Cove", seeking to engage the vision of young architects and planners for the future of regional urban living in Australia. The competition involved an initial two weeks of lectures and online presentations by experts in heritage, urban planning, infrastructure and sustainability, setting out frameworks which the competition entrants could incorporate into their proposals. The winning submission was from the "Back on Track" team.
In 2022, a peer-reviewed research paper by DESIM-Arch's Tatjana Djuric-Simovic and Dejan Simovic – "Back to the future - North Arm Cove Initiative" – was presented at the international SEEDS Conference in Bristol, UK. The paper was awarded a High Commendation in the Project Management category. The research paper outlined a framework for planning, designing and developing sustainable communities based on Circular Economy principles. It contains a PESTEL analysis of constraints and opportunities for North Arm Cove's urban development, as well as a proposal for an innovative, collaborative development framework by means of a "Sustainability Research Centre - SRCe".
At the 2023 SEEDS conference the following year, further research was presented by the same authors, elaborating on alternative planning frameworks for sustainable communities, and especially concentrating on social impacts - 'SUSTAINABILITY RESEARCH CENTRE – MEASURING COMMUNITY OUTCOMES'.
Throughout the early 2020s, the Initiative participated in the strategic planning process of creating a new Local Environmental Plan for MidCoast Council, NSW. This activity has resulted in the NSW Government recognizing NAC as a Planning Priority in the, and rezoning of the NAC historic subdivision into a C4-Environmental Living zone.
On 6th December 2024, North Arm Cove Initiative registered as the "Marion and Walter" Living Lab Co-operative Pty Ltd, a not-for-profit organization aimed at facilitating future planning, development and governance at North Arm Cove historic subdivision.
Further steps will involve creation of a Development Plan for the whole precinct, establishment of adequate infrastructure to minimize environmental impacts, and creation of a governance structure that will secure a sustainable future for North Arm Cove.