The City of Melbourne has allocated $1.2 million in seed money to a new Urban Forest Fund in its latest effort to encourage more greening in the city.
The fund will be used to encourage the community and private enterprise to contribute to the greening of the city by “planting trees, creating parks, green walls, roofs and facades and stormwater projects.”
Lord Mayor Robert Doyle launched the Urban Forest Fund on 30 May 2017 on the top of the new Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, designed by Silver Thomas Hanley, DesignInc and McBride Charles Ryan, which holds one the largest rooftop gardens in Australia, at 1,400 square metres.
“As well as protecting us from extreme heat, our trees and parks are a major contributor to Melbourne’s liveability,” he said.
“The City of Melbourne is increasing public green space and planting 3,000 trees a year. This initiative, to stimulate greening of private property, which represents 73 percent of land in our municipality, is the next frontier.”
The council aims to grow the initial seed money to $10 million through contributions from organizations and individuals who want to create a greener city.
For every dollar that a private investor pays into the fund, the City of Melbourne will provide an additional dollar towards a greening project.
As part of its efforts to create a greener city the council has developed what they think could be a world first – an online tool which maps all the rooftops in the municipality to see if they have the potential to be turned into solar, cool or green roofs.
The City of Melbourne estimates that if they could grow the fund to $2 million, that would pay for:
- 6,000 square metres of green roofs – the equivalent area of 10 tennis courts
- 4,600 square metres of green facades – the equivalent area of 7.75 tennis courts
- 900 square metres of green walls – the equivalent area of 1.5 tennis courts
- 4,000 street trees – 1,000 more trees than the City of Melbourne plants annually.
The establishment of this fund is the latest initiative to come from the council’s much-lauded Urban Forest Strategy and Precinct Plans. The Urban Forest Strategy aims to increase the city’s canopy cover from 22 percent to 40 percent by 2040 and improve the city’s biodiversity in order to adapt to climate change and mitigate the “urban heat island” effect. In 2014 the City of Melbourne was awarded the Victorian Medal for Landscape Architecture for the strategy and in 2016 it took home the National Landscape ArchitectureAward of Excellence for Research, Policy and Communication.
The City of Melbourne is seeking expressions of interest for greening projects in need of financial support. To apply for the funding, click here.
