Design guidelines promote a safer city

Auckland City is looking at introducing a new approach to public safety in the isthmus with design guidelines that reduce opportunities for crime.

Proposed plan change 141 introduces Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) provisions and a set of guidelines which outline best practice in applying these.

This proposed plan change will be publicly notified on Sunday 18 July with the associated guidelines and will be available for viewing on the Auckland City website. Submissions close on Friday 13 August 2004.

“Crime prevention through environmental design is based on the concept that crime and fear of crime can be minimised through effective planning and designing of our built environment,” says the chairperson of the City Development Committee, Councillor Juliet Yates.

The safety of people within the city contributes to the liveability of the city and the extent to which the public use particular areas. The concepts of CPTED focus on the relationships between people and their environments; design aspects which make people feel safe (such as good lighting) act as deterrents to crime.

CPTED assessment will be applied to certain building developments that require a resource consent. However, the guidelines will be available so that individuals and private landowners can undertake their own assessments.

Activities triggering a safety assessment will be assessed against a range of safety criteria to ensure there is: clear visibility and clear sight lines of building entrances and exits as well as public areas within a development windows and doors overlook or interact with public areas walls and fences at the street edge have sufficient transparency to allow informal surveillance appropriate lighting of public and semi-public areas including paths, parking areas, plazas, building entrances and exits no entrapment spots and areas that may isolate user of public areas from public view.

“CPTED is not seen as a cure-all for crime prevention in the city, but will enhance built environments to assist in reducing opportunistic crime,” says Mrs Yates.

These environmental design guidelines have been developed by Safer Auckland City in consultation with the police and are in keeping with the environmental safety component of the council’s Safer Auckland City policy.

Safer Auckland City is a partnership between Auckland City Council, Ngati Whatua O Orakei, the Auckland City District Police and the Crime Prevention Unit and aims to continually improve community safety and reduce crime.

For further information on the CPTED provisions and guidelines or any related issue, please phone (09) 379 2020 or visit www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/isthmusdistrictplan.

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