Building Back Healthier? The Transformative Potential and Reality of City Planning Responses to Covid-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted urban lifestyles and systems, creating planning policy challenges but also opportunities to deliver healthier and more resilient cities. For example, improving public open spaces, and supporting active transport and well-designed higher-density housing can have co-benefits for prevention of infectious and non-communicable diseases. This paper examines the implications of COVID-19 for planning healthy, resilient cities. We reviewed the international academic literature to explore best-practice city planning responses to COVID-19. Using Melbourne, Australia as a case study, we analysed City of Melbourne and state government city planning policy responses to COVID-19, and their implications for health and longer-term resilience. Policy changes included public space adjustments, supporting walking and cycling, and addressing housing affordability and homelessness. While most policy actions were consistent with evidence on planning healthy, resilient cities in response to COVID-19, they did not represent a major shift in city planning approaches, and some innovations were short lived. Melbourne’s city planning responses to COVID-19 prioritised ‘bouncing back’ to pre-pandemic conditions, rather than ‘evolutionary’ urban resilience, which aims for positive transformation of cities in response to disruption. We develop recommendations for city planning that prepares for future pandemics and builds resilience to other shocks and stresses.