Urban design framework

Designing great places for our people

Implementation

How we will do it

Auckland City Council has a number of implementation methods within its remit that cover the four following areas.

Leadership
Policy and regulation
Raising awareness
Recognition

The council will move towards the six urban design goals of a more human, distinctive, compact, connected, sustainable and beautiful city by using the tools available within these four areas.

This section sets out what the council is already doing with respect to urban design in these four areas and identifies a series of actions that will help us to achieve these urban design goals. This list of actions will be incorporated into an action plan, which looks more specifically at the delivery implications of these actions.

4.1 Leadership

We will lead by example in delivering quality urban design for Auckland.

What we are doing already

Ministry for the Environment's Urban Design Protocol: Auckland City Council is a signatory to the Urban Design Protocol and therefore committed to urban design best practice.
Mayoral Task Force on Urban Design: the council continues to work with the task force on issues relating to urban design and continues to report on progress against the action plan within the 2005 report "Designing Auckland: A springboard for action".
Urban design staff: the council appointed an internationally recognised urban designer to champion the cause of urban design within Auckland and has 15 highly trained urban design staff working across key council areas - including transport, policy, consents, property, community development and CBD special projects.
Council capital works projects: we are reviewing and assessing all council physical work projects against the Ministry for the Environment's "seven Cs" to ensure best practice urban design. This includes community facilities, buildings, open spaces and infrastructure.
High-level objectives: the council's chief executive and all of the executive team have objectives in their personal development plans that relate to urban design.
Property Enterprise Board: the council uses a forum of leading business people with skills in urban design, property development, investment, town planning and policy to provide us with independent expertise on demonstration and catalytic projects.
Tangata whenua: we work with tangata whenua to embrace a bicultural perspective to urban design, supportive of indigenous cultural practices and kaitiaki responsibilities.
Key projects: we will actively pursue the best possible urban design outcomes on key city wide projects through advocacy, negotiation and a strategic collaboration with key stakeholder partners to overcome any potential barriers to quality urban design decision-making.
Community involvement: we involve the public in planning and urban design processes in their community in pursuit of a common vision.

What we will do

Demonstration projects: we will undertake building projects, possibly with private or public stakeholders that demonstrate innovative, sustainable urban design as a model to the marketplace.
Catalytic projects: we will undertake building projects in key locations (for example growth nodes across the city), possibly with private or public stakeholders, as a catalyst or "trigger" for regeneration.
Relationship building: we will strengthen our existing relationships with all Auckland region territorial authorities, Auckland Regional Council, public bodies (including Ports of Auckland) and major infrastructure providers (such as Transit and Auckland International Airport Limited) to address urban design issues at the regional scale and at city boundaries.
Advocacy on legislative change: we will advocate to central government for appropriate legislative change to remove existing hurdles and enable further statutory tools, for realising positive urban design outcomes (including tools for comprehensive urban regeneration projects).
Initiate the "urban design wins" programme: we will identify and target projects in the short, medium and long term that can transform the physical environment.

4.2 Policy and regulation

We will have a design-led focus to policy and regulation.

What we are doing already

Urban design panel: the council uses a body of independent, built-environment professionals to review and give input on all CBD development and a significant amount of development in the isthmus and Hauraki Gulf islands.
Area planning: we tailor urban design responses to an area, based on its specific context and character. Current examples of this include the central area's quarter plans, together with liveable community plans, business precinct plans and centre plans in the isthmus. We anticipate area planning having an even stronger design focus in the future.
Design-led plan changes: we notify district plan changes containing urban design related objectives, policies and design assessment criteria.
Officer panel: recent investment and improvement of our in-house urban design capability has meant that we are now able to review proposals that would otherwise have been viewed by the urban design panel. An officers' panel meets weekly to discuss and debate key projects.

What we will do

Strategic themes: we will ensure that the emerging strategic themes (economic opportunities; lifestyle choices; quality natural environment; quality urban environment; strong communities; transport choices; an efficient and capable council), which are the council's seven primary strategies under our city vision, reflect the goals and objectives set by this framework.
District plan: we will notify a new district plan for the isthmus in 2009, informed in part by this framework. It will have a strengthened design focus that includes further urban design related objectives, policies, rules, design assessment criteria and statutory design guides.
Spatial master plans: we will investigate using spatial master plans that are tailored to the land use and urban form needs of the city's neighbourhoods. These master plans will set out proposals for buildings, spaces, movement and land use in three dimensions. They will also contain an implementation strategy.
Key site briefs: we will ensure that key strategic sites within the city (including, but not limited to, council-owned sites in sensitive or prominent areas) have developed briefs that encapsulate urban design objectives for any future redevelopment.
CBD urban design framework: we will publish an urban design plan for Auckland's CBD that is tailored to its specific character and context.

4.3 Raising awareness

We will promote, inform and disseminate information of best practice urban design.

What we are doing already

Pre-application meetings: the council makes urban design staff available for urban design input to development proposals prior to applying for resource consent.
Regional urban design forum: Auckland City Council provides administrative support to AUDOG (a regional urban design forum), which shares and disseminates best practice between territorial local authorities (TLAs) in the region.
Professional bodies: we work with and support the endeavours of built-environment professional institutes to raise awareness and discussion on urban design issues facing the city.
Mayoral conversations: we host a series of presentations and seminars by New Zealand and international professionals to promote, inform and learn about challenges and solutions through quality urban design.
Training: we have regular, short training courses on urban design for staff and elected members.
Design competitions: we use design competitions for significant public developments to engage the public, design professionals and students in a discourse on urban design and to realise superior design outcomes.
Staff scholarships: we support key staff to undertake professional urban design education and encourage internships for talented students to receive practical expertise while they carry out their studies.

What we will do

Non-statutory design guidelines: we will publish guidelines to raise awareness and educate private development on how to achieve high-quality urban design. These guidelines may relate to developments within specific areas of the city (such as town centres and industrial areas) and to certain development types (such as tall buildings and big box retail).

4.4 Recognition

We will recognise and celebrate best practice urban design.

What we are doing already

Mayoral urban design awards and the Property Council Awards: the council sponsors these annual awards, which recognise developments exhibiting exemplary urban design.
Cultural landscapes: we work with the range of regionally significant iwi to identify, protect, interpret and celebrate sites and areas that are significant as repositories of memory, are culturally significant and important in the appreciation of our urban landscape.

What we will do

Exemplar projects publication: we will release a publication showcasing Auckland developments (individual projects, streetscapes, open spaces and other constituents of the built form) that demonstrate best practice urban design.
Pre-lodgement "fairwinds process": building on the success of the streamlined consenting process, which recognises good planning practices, we will develop and initiate an innovative pre-lodgement system. This will provide an incentive for applicants to produce high-quality urban design outcomes by scoring applications against agreed urban design principles. The proposals that "pass" will be fast tracked through this streamlined process. Proposals that fail to reflect urban design excellence will need to be re-designed, or follow the current statutory processing time frames.

Published January 2008