investLogan is urging communities to demand more from their developers and councils with the release of a Community Benefit Assessment Framework.
The Australian-first, which has been developed in partnership with development consultants Urbis, is designed to identify key benchmarks for assessing community impacts and quantifying benefits of projects.
investLogan Director Medy Hassan said that developers and project owners needed to be held accountable for the benefits their projects were reaping for local communities.
“The industry was crying out for a coherent framework for assessing community benefit,” said Mr Hassan.
“Our constitution requires us to deliver benefit to the community through our investments, so we needed a framework to assess benefits and ensure that our developments deliver for the community.”
The framework assesses benefits across five elements: economic and employment benefits, character and place, community services and facilities, community access and participation and accessibility and inclusion.
A full assessment involves identifying benefits within these elements and adjusting for their likelihood, which yields an assessment of the total positive impact of a development on the community.
“We are making the framework public so that governments, community groups and developers have a tool for assessing their community impacts – in Logan and beyond,” said Mr Hassan.
“While this framework has been developed specifically for assessing impacts in Logan, we believe that with minor changes it can be applied anywhere in Australia.
“We hope that by making this framework publicly available, we can start a genuine conversation about the community impacts of developments and can push communities across Australia to demand more from their councils and from developers.”
investLogan is using the framework to quantify the benefits delivered by its current development project, known as The York, in Beenleigh which is expected to deliver $40 million to the local economy.
“We targeted this project because of its potential to revitalise an important hub in Logan City,” said Mr Hassan.
“This project delivers a range of public benefits including useable public spaces, local employment and a proposed facelift to John Lane.
“It will bring the laneway culture of Australia’s metropolitan centres to Beenleigh, with the provision of public art and digital connectivity adding to the amenity of this exciting new space for Logan residents.
“Many developers, however, spruik the community benefits of developments like York Street – we now have the capability to measure and assess these benefits, to ensure that Logan residents are getting a space which delivers real outcomes.”
The York is currently awaiting State Government approval.
Click here to download the full Community Benefit Assessment Framework.
