Nick Reece reveals plan to make Melbourne the “Garden City”

A re-elected Lord Mayor Nick Reece would construct 28 new parks across the city, with a new undercroft park in Southbank underneath the West Gate Bridge among the new initiatives proposed.

As one of the centrepieces of the Team Reece campaign, the Garden City Initiative will deliver a new park or green space to nearly every neighbourhood in the City of Melbourne.

While many of the “new parks” are existing open space projects that the council has already committed to or commenced planning on, his announcement includes a suite of new projects and grants programs aimed at boosting greening across the city.

Among the proposals pitched by Mr Reece as part of his election platform are a plan to fast-track investment for new green open space between Banana Alley and Enterprise Park as per the vision of Greenline.

He has also committed to a new undercroft park in Southbank underneath the West Gate Bridge, while also promising to progress existing projects at the Kings Way undercroft and the new Normanby Rd linear park.

“Victoria was once known as the Garden State, I want Melbourne to be the Garden City. This is the biggest addition to our city’s parks and gardens since Charles La Trobe mapped out Melbourne’s parks in the 1840s,” Mr Reece said.

“Every great city is defined by its parks and gardens, and with this plan, we are taking Melbourne’s green spaces to the next level.”

Nearly every area of Melbourne will receive at least one new park or green space under this initiative – making our city an even better and greener place to live.

As part of Team Reece’s Garden City Initiative, renowned landscape designer Paul Bangay has agreed to be the program’s ambassador, providing input on park and green space design.

“Melbourne's parks and gardens are some of the best in the world and I'm so excited by this plan to make us a Garden City,” Mr Bungay said.

“As more people call Melbourne home, creating green spaces - whether that is more public parks or on building rooftops – is more important than ever.”

Mr Reece said funding for the new parks would come from unlocking the council’s Public Open Space Fund, and development contribution schemes, which would enable more than $40 million of investment.