Another issue detrimental to a number of waterfront developments is the desire to provide too much within too short a timeframe. Far more effort should be put into the feasibility and desirability of staging projects - again, this should be identified at the outset of projects rather than becoming a fall-back position. There should also be contingencies within strategy programs for unforeseen impacts, such as changes in economic circumstance, The Darling Harbour project is a good example of the need for contingent staging programs.
3.2 Master Plans
General principles for a successful master plan are:
(｡)a master plan that has enough flexibility to respond to a changing economic circumstance;
(｢) a master plan that allows the public sector to adapt to changes in the public and private financing environment and can take advantage of future opportunities that may arise in projects that are underway or that have already been completed;
(｣) a master plan in which the basic and most important goals do not vary but allow for achievement through the broadest range of development projects;
(､) a process that builds and maintains a general level of consensus among the population for achieving master plan goals and objectives; and
(･) a pro active marketing approach
The Japanese projects appear to recognise the above listed principles; how well they achieve them will have to be monitored over time. Darling Harbour has delivered on points (｡) - (｣) but has been weak to date on points (iv) - (v). These shortcomings have been recognised and a conscious decision has been taken to rectify the situation.
An important element of master planning at Darling flarbour was to create a public pedestrian environment at the core of the development whicn was more than the usual city or waterfront park. Not all the following design principle can be directly applied to the Japanese projects but they are offered as guidelines developed from the successful Darling Harbour project:
(｡)turn the city around to rediscover its waterfront;
(｢)provide direct, legible and convenient access between the existing urban areas and the waterfront (usually very difficult and expensive to achieve);
