Official Call Made To Give More Weight To Urban Design

A timely new Ministry for the Environment report has recommended giving more effective weight to the expertise of urban design panels as a key tool in the decision making process followed by councils around New Zealand.

It also suggests that projects of national significance - including large infrastructure projects - may benefit from a nationwide urban design approach and the advice of a pool of expert advisors.

Report author Sarah Duffell found that urban design panels that are operating effectively can save time and money, for both applicants and councils, because consents can be decided on “better-resolved designs”.

On the other hand she also found many local authorities are viewing the relevance of urban design in terms that are too confined to compliance with rules or to new developments only, such as subdivisions, and that an incorrect perception has taken hold that urban design is a matter primarily limited to metropolitan centres.

“During this survey it became apparent that the perception of the scope and definition of what ‘urban design’ involves varies widely across the country.

“This shows that an opportunity exists to raise awareness of what urban design can do, and its benefits to places of all sizes and demographics.”

Auckland-based urban designer James Lunday of Common Ground Studio agrees: “There is no doubt that more weight needs to be given to good urban design. This report is a strong indication that the Ministry for the Environment’s Urban Design Protocol and a greater emphasis on consistent application of urban design principles will need to feature prominently in the second phase of Resource Management Act reforms now approaching completion.”

“It is a concern that the many provincial or rural councils who could benefit from urban design advice for large or significant projects are missing out. The development decisions made outside our cities are too important to miss out on expert urban design advice, so it is especially pleasing to see that this report has identified the need to investigate ways to change that situation as a priority.”

The Ministry’s report about urban design panels was released this week (on Wednesday 10 August). It brings together findings from a ‘national stocktake’ responded to by eight city councils and three district councils who have some form of urban design panel in place for processes such as resource consent reviews, technical advice or independent appraisals of specific projects.

The report draws attention to the lack of professionals in New Zealand with formal urban design qualifications, which as a discipline offers much broader skills than offered by architecture, landscape architecture or planning alone.

Sarah Duffell notes that most panels have not yet been operating long enough to witness the construction of a significant number of projects they have provided advice on; with notable exceptions being Auckland City Council and Queenstown Lakes District Council.

Based on responses to her survey some of the obstacles to the ability of urban design panels to raise standards of urban design and to effect change, include instances when projects don’t come before a panel at an early enough stage or advice is given that isn’t supported by provisions in the district plan.

Comments made about other difficulties faced by urban design panels included instances where their qualitative assessments are over-ruled by quantitative considerations, for example considerations that allow too much weight to be given to traffic counts or parking space numbers.

Amongst more internally focused difficulties was an observation that some panel members were perceived to be guilty of straying into supplying irrelevant or commercially unviable “architectural critique or areas of personal taste” rather than keeping to matters of urban design.

The report pointed to the positive outcomes that an urban design panel can help achieve, as follows:

• Better relationships between buildings and streets

• Less car parking in front of buildings

• More provision for pedestrians

• Better relationships with adjacent open spaces

• Better site layout

The report recommends a best practice and ‘best fit’ approach rather than a ‘one size fits all’ answer. At the same time it favours providing urban design panels with standard terms of reference and nationwide training.

The stocktake of councils around the country demonstrated that a large number of councils are not using urban design panels. Twenty local authorities (28% of city and district councils) failed to give any response at all to the survey. Regional councils were not surveyed.

ENDS

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