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Urban leader - A newsletter for urban design champions

Issue no. INFO 220 | 27 August 2007

Welcome

Welcome. This newsletter aims to help you champion good urban design in New Zealand by providing regular, informative and relevant information about urban design initiatives.
In this issue we have:

Urban Design Protocol now has 142 Signatories

A big welcome to the latest signatories to the Protocol: Melview Developments Limited, Western Bay of Plenty District Council, ANSA Properties Limited, and Wanganui District Council.

For a list of all 142 signatories go to: http://www.mfe.govt.nz/issues/urban/design-protocol/signatories.html

Tauranga Urban Design Champions’ Workshop

It was fantastic to see almost 50 urban design champions, supporters and prospective signatories at the recent Tauranga ‘smaller city centres’ urban design champions’ workshop.

To give an international perspective on this topic, the Ministry for the Environment brought Mike Scott, Director of Planisphere, over from Melbourne to present on urban design strategies and community engagement. Presentations were also given by Jan McCredie, Urban Design Manager, Manukau City Council; Paul Bowman, Senior Strategic Planner, Hamilton City Council; Paul Bowker, H & H Developments Ltd; and Martin Bryant from Wraight Associates.

A big thank you to Josie Schroder from Tauranga City Council who organised the first ever Urban Design Week and to Tauranga City Councillor Anne Pankhurst who facilitated the workshop for us.

For a copy of the speakers' presentations please go to the Champion’s webspace: https://see.govt.nz/environment/Urban/default.aspx and enter your password details.

Action Plans

Thank you to those of you who have sent us your new action plans. Over time we will be adding these to the champions' webspace.

All organisations who signed up before April 2007 need to send an up-to-date action plan to the Ministry for the Environment by 1 October 2007. These new action plans should have a timeframe that keeps them relevant at least until the next round of monitoring in August 2008. Please advise us if this will not be possible.

We would like to work with as many signatories as possible to help you develop your action plans. Please let us know when you are at a point with your action plan where our help may be useful. A review process will also be put into place to provide feedback on draft action plans. You might like to allow time for this in your action plan finalisation and sign-off process.

The action plan template can be found on the champions’ webspace in the action plan library. If you have any questions about developing your action plan contact either Janna Murray at janna.murray@mfe.govt.nz or Erica Sefton at erica.sefton@mfe.govt.nz.

Urban Design Conferences and Events

IntensCITY 2007, hosted by Wellington City Council, is a week-long programme of events aimed at raising public awareness of the importance of urban design. IntensCITY week will run from 27 September to 5 October in various locations around central Wellington. Events include a forum for urban developers to highlight the value of urban design, a design competition to raise the level of debate about transport movements, and a billboard campaign.

The Sustainable Building 2007 conference is being held in Auckland from 14-16 November. Themed ‘Transforming our built environment’ the conference will separate the different stages of a building's life to highlight and give focus to the key issues of each stage. SB07 will bring together a range of industry stakeholders to focus on the issue of sustainable building in the New Zealand environment.

The ‘Great Places, Great Cities’ conference will be held in Brussels from the 23-25 September 2007. The conference brings together leading experts from around the world to discuss approaches to pushing the boundaries in urban design, transportation, community development and city renewal.

Useful Links

  • The magazine ‘Commercial Design Trends’ recently published a feature article “A Brave New World” looking at how urban design is the concept behind Auckland City Council's drive to take the city from good to great. The Ministry for the Environment has 10 hard copies of this magazine to give away - email janna.murray@mfe.govt.nz for a copy.
  • Transit NZ, along with other transport sector agencies and the Ministry for the Environment have recently launched the Integrated Approach to Planning (IAP) web page. IAP aims to identify gaps and barriers to achieving better integration, both within and between transport and land-use planning.
  • Building Health: Creating and enhancing places for healthy, active lives: What needs to be done? is a new report by the UK’s National Heart Forum, Living Streets and CABE which explores how current transport and planning policies are creating places that discourage physical activity and contribute to heart disease and rising obesity rates.
  • A recent report by the Princes Foundation, Valuing Sustainable Urbanism, compares the value of sustainable urbanism to standard practice and shows that sustainable communities are a viable antidote to urban sprawl.

Do You Want Your News in Here?

If you have something you want to share with the champions in the next newsletter email Janna Murray janna.murray@mfe.govt.nz

Note: articles submitted may be edited by the Ministry for the Environment.

Last updated: 14 January 2009