Cities around Australia and New Zealand are growing rapidly. Professionals from a range of disciplines are struggling with how to enable this growth in a way that also delivers social and environmental outcomes. Many of us are being asked what is ‘affordable’ in the context of the organizations tasked with planning, funding, and delivering both the places (land) and infrastructure required to support the growth in our urban environments.

Parks planning and management is often not well integrated into legislative and regulatory systems, with endless debate around what might be considered ‘nice to haves’ versus ‘statutory requirements’. In this environment, how do we ensure the value proposition of resourcing Botanic Gardens is part of the discussion and remains a priority?

This presentation will present ideas around approaches to parks network planning and where a Botanic Garden ‘fits’ in that network. It will provide some examples of how we might seek to articulate ‘value’ in local, regional, national and international contexts. Being new to Botanic Gardens management, I will share some observations from a planning and city growth lens that might help build our ability to speak confidently to our value proposition in the increasingly difficult financial times