TITLE:
Urban Planning and Productivity: An Australian “Abundance” Approach to Net Zero Cities
AUTHORS:
Peter Newman
KEYWORDS:
Productivity, Net Zero, Housing, Tram Boulevards, Greyfields, Value Capture, Entrepreneur Rail
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.14 No.2,
May
28,
2026
ABSTRACT: The productivity agenda has been raised as the next big challenge in Australian cities and similar sprawling cities. The approach in this paper shows how planning can mirror the understandings from the best-selling book Abundance on how solving homelessness and productivity needs greater urban regeneration and reduced automobile dependence. The paper shows how urban planning strategies can improve productivity and multiple other benefits for well-located affordable housing, and it illustrates this through Net Zero Tram Boulevard Corridors. The delivery mechanisms, based on Greening the Greyfields, Land Value Capture and The Entrepreneur Rail Model, are outlined along with case studies and research in Australian cities over the past ten years. It shows that historic urbanism can enable urban productivity improvements if regulations and planning strategies are revised, rather than removed. This approach can enable major transformations to global cities as economic waves of technological innovation are creatively adapted.