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4.0 Current urban design capacity

The survey results presented in this section of the report outline the current urban design capacity within local government authorities responding to the survey.

The results point to the fact that urban design advice is currently provided by relatively few individuals within local government authorities who have specific or related urban design qualifications, and that these people represent a very diverse group with different position titles and backgrounds, and therefore, with different job responsibilities.

4.1 Providing urban design advice

As noted in the Methodology section of this report, survey respondents were recruited with the direct assistance of the local government authorities invited to participate in the survey. In other words, the survey respondents were those people considered by their own organisation to be the 'most qualified' to complete the interview. This should be kept in mind when considering the following results.

As noted previously in Section 3.1.2, respondents varied in terms of position and title and therefore, in their background. Reflecting this, when invited to identify the areas covered by their current role, these also varied considerably (Table 5). The areas most frequently identified in this regard were as follows:

Providing policy advice on land use planning and policy (n=42 of n=55).
Providing policy advice as part of strategic policy development processes (n=38).
Providing policy advice as part of spatial planning processes (n=37).
Providing a mentoring role for new staff or staff interested in upskilling (n=33).
Providing executive leadership, contributing to organisation direction (n=28).
Providing or assisting with training for council staff, consultants (n=25).

Against this background, respondents were then asked to identify the areas in which they provided urban design advice (Table 6):

Less than one-half of all respondents who considered their current role covered each of the areas outlined above, reported that they provided urban design advice in relation to these areas. For example:

h. n=42 respondents reported than their work involved providing policy advice on land use planning and policy, and n=17 (or 40%) also reported that they provided urban design advice in relation to this work.

i. Similarly, n=38 respondents reported that their work involved providing policy advice as part of strategic policy development processes, and n=16 (or 42%) also reported, they specifically provided urban design advice in relation to this work.

Although urban design advice was not frequently provided in relation to the most frequently identified areas of work, note that urban design advice was provided in relation to some other areas. For example, and as one would expect:

j. n=16 respondents reported that their work involved providing design advice or input into the design of projects, and n=14 (or 87%) also reported that they specifically provided urban design advice in relation to this work.

k. Similarly, n=13 respondents reported that their work involved processing resource consent applications for land use and subdivision activities, and n=9 (or 69%) also reported that they provided urban design advice in relation to this work.

l. n=20 respondents reported that their work involved the preparation of (providing) advice on the development of design guidelines, and n=11 (or 55%) also reported that they specifically provided advice on urban design in relation to this work.

Table 5: Areas of current role

Q4. In your current role, which of the following do you do?

	Total n=55	Metropolitan n=11	Provincial n=21	Regional n=7	Rural n=16
Provide policy advice on land use planning and policy, e.g. district plans, regional land use, regional coastal plans, open space and recreation plans, reserve management plans	42	8	17	5	12
Provide policy advice as part of strategic policy development processes (excludes RMA land use policy and planning), e.g. urban development, transport, economic development, housing, community outcomes, built environment	38	9	13	6	10
Provide policy advice as part of spatial planning processes e.g. structure planning, master planning, place making, planning for the development of communities	37	10	16	4	7
Provide a mentoring role for new staff or staff interested in upskilling	33	7	12	5	9
Provide executive leadership, set or contribute to organisational direction, champion new council initiatives and strategic directions	28	6	11	3	8
Provide or assist with training for council staff, politicians, consultants or developers	25	6	9	1	9
Prepare or provide advice on the development of design guidelines	20	8	7	2	3
Provide specialist advice for resource consent application assessment, e.g. heritage, roading, engineering, urban design, landscape, open space	16	4	7	1	4
Provide design advice or input into the design of Council projects throughout the design and construction phases e.g. new facilities and buildings, parks and reserves, street improvements, roading proposals, other infrastructure	16	6	6	0	4
Process resource consent applications for land use and subdivision activities	13	2	4	0	7
Prepare or provide advice on the development of council asset management and operational policy, e.g. asset management plans, safety audits	13	3	6	1	3
Other	0	0	0	0	0
Total	**	**	**	**	**

Table 6: Areas of role specifically providing urban design advice

Q4. And in which areas (if any) do you specifically provide advice on urban design?

	Areas of current role	Areas specifically providing urban design advice
	Total sample n=55	Total n=55	Metropolitan n=11	Provincial n=21	Regional n=7	Rural n=16
Provide policy advice on land use planning and policy, e.g. district plans, regional land use, regional coastal plans, open space and recreation plans, reserve management plans	42	17	7	5	3	2
Provide policy advice as part of strategic policy development processes (excludes RMA land use policy and planning), e.g. urban development, transport, economic development, housing, community outcomes, built environment	38	16	7	5	3	1
Provide policy advice as part of spatial planning processes e.g. structure planning, master planning, place making, planning for the development of communities	37	17	6	7	3	1
Provide a mentoring role for new staff or staff interested in upskilling	33	10	4	3	2	1
Provide executive leadership, set or contribute to organisational direction, champion new council initiatives and strategic directions	28	9	3	4	1	1
Provide or assist with training for council staff, politicians, consultants or developers	25	10	5	4	0	1
Prepare or provide advice on the development of design guidelines	20	11	6	3	2	0
Provide specialist advice for resource consent application assessment, e.g. heritage, roading, engineering, urban design, landscape, open space	16	7	4	3	0	0
Provide design advice or input into the design of Council projects throughout the design and construction phases e.g. new facilities and buildings, parks and reserves, street improvements, roading proposals, other infrastructure	16	14	6	6	0	2
Process resource consent applications for land use and subdivision activities	13	9	5	4	0	0
Prepare or provide advice on the development of council asset management and operational policy, e.g. asset management plans, safety audits	13	6	4	2	0	0
Other	0	2	0	1	0	1
Total	**	**	**	**	**	**

4.2 Keeping up to date with urban design issues

Respondents were invited to identify all the different ways they currently kept up to date with urban design issues (Table 7).

In this regard, respondents reported using a wide range of different methods, with the most frequently mentioned being passive methods such as reading books and periodicals (n=48) and using the Internet (n=48).
Also frequently mentioned were attendance at seminars (n=46), and networking at formal events (n=43). While regional meetings were the least frequently mentioned method, it is important to note that a significant number of respondents (n=39) also identified this as a method that they used.

Table 7: Methods used to keep up-to-date

Q5 Which do you personally use, to keep up-to-date with urban design issues?

	Total n=55	Metropolitan n=11	Provincial n=21	Regional n=7	Rural n=16
Reading books and periodicals	48	10	20	6	12
Sourcing urban design information from the internet	48	11	19	6	12
Attending conferences, seminars and workshops	46	10	20	5	11
Networking at formal events with others involved in urban design	43	11	19	3	10
Informal networking via email/phone/ catch-ups over coffee	42	11	18	4	9
Regional-level meetings/catch-ups	39	11	15	3	10
Other	2	1	0	1	0
Total	**	**	**	**	**

Having identified what respondents used to keep with urban design issues, we asked these respondents to express whether they were satisfied with each of these methods (Table 8 to Table 12).

Overall, the results point to a reasonably high level of satisfaction with current methods. However, there are differences in satisfaction between the particular methodologies used.
In terms of those methods most frequently used (viz. reading books and periodicals, the Internet), it would appear that the respondents using these methods were also the respondents most satisfied. For example, n=35 of the n=48 respondents reading books and periodicals as a means of keeping up to date with urban design issues identified themselves as being satisfied.
In comparison, the highest levels of dissatisfaction recorded were from respondents who used regional level meetings as a method of keeping up to date (n=14 of n=39 users). This was also the case with those who used conferences and seminars (n=10 of n=46).

Table 8: Satisfaction overall with methods used - Total sample