Beyond borders: steering metropolitan growth priorities through spatial imaginaries

ABSTRACT Borders and boundaries are practical ways of organising spatial relations in metropolitan regions. They usefully define administrative divisions between local government areas, informing the constraints of land-use plans, and describe individual sites necessary for the transaction and development of property and land. However, functional divisions of space are not always clear cut. Contemporary challenges of urbanisation and globalisation often ignore administrative-political boundaries, thus statutory divisions of space are required to be woven into other functional spatial layers drawing attention to the strategic-statutory interface of planning systems and governance arrangements. Although not new, experiments with spatial imaginaries have accelerated, and have become central to metropolitan strategies. In Sydney, the Greater Parramatta and Olympic Peninsula functional economic corridor introduces both new mechanisms for implementation and statutory weight on top of strategic direction. We draw attention to the way this spatial imaginary utilises (or ignores) existing borders and boundaries in an attempt to rebalance the spatial structure of the metropolitan region. Through this case study, we highlight the challenges of rebalancing the Sydney metropolitan region, and the broader implications that emerge through the use of spatial imaginaries.