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A Survey of Local Government Authorities Urban Design Capability

1.0 Executive Summary

2.0 Introduction

3.0 Methodology

4.0 Current urban design capacity

5.0 Building urban design capacity

Appendix A: Questionnaire

Appendix B: Urban design qualifications

Appendix C: Verbatim

5.0 Building urban design capacity

The survey results presented in this section of the report outline the extent and steps that local government authorities are currently undertaking in order to develop their urban design capacity for the future.

The results point to the fact that there is a need to assist the sector to understand the importance of urban design and to incorporate urban design principles in organisational policies and plans. When this point is reached, then local government authorities will be prepared to commit to making the necessary investment to develop their urban design capacity. At present, this commitment appears to be lacking, although it is also compounded by issues outside of individual organisations' control.

5.1 Importance of urban design

Clearly, local government authorities will invest in building their urban design capacity if they feel that the area is of importance. Respondents were invited to identify whether this was the case for their organisation. Table 25 shows that few respondents (n=9 of n=55) regarded urban design as being 'Extremely important', with most (n=28) responding that it was 'Somewhat important'.

Importantly, a significant number of respondents (n=16) considered that urban design was 'Not at all important', 'Somewhat unimportant', 'Neither unimportant nor important', or were 'Unsure'.

Respondents from Metropolitan (n=9) and Provincial local government authorities (n=17) considered their organisation placed greater importance on urban design compared with respondents from other types of sector groups, who were more likely to claim that their organisation did not place importance on urban design.

Table 25: Importance of urban design

Q22.Overall, how important is urban design in your council?

This result was reflected in the extent to which respondents agreed or disagreed with a number of specific statements about the 'position' or attention afforded urban design by their organisation (Table 26 to Table 30). For example, respondents were more likely to agree with statements about the importance of urban design from a community perspective and the extent to which it was supported by senior management within their organisation:

• A quality urban environment is identified as a key priority in our community outcomes (n=37 agreed that this statement applied to their council).
• Senior management in this council strongly support(s) urban design (n=29 agreed that this statement applied to their organisation).

However, in contrast, they were more likely to disagree or give a neutral response to many statements about the application of urban design within their organisation. For example:

• Urban design principles are taken into account in most major council projects (n=12 disagreed that this statement applied to their organisation, or n=13 gave a neutral response).
• Urban design concepts influence new policy development in this council (n=11 disagreed that this statement applied to their organisation, or n=11 gave a neutral response).
• We take a cross-divisional approach to urban design in this council (n=10 disagreed that this statement applied to their organisation, or n=20 gave a neutral response).
• The elected representatives strongly support urban design (n=10 disagreed that this statement applied to their organisation, or n=12 gave a neutral response).

As expected, given the earlier results reflecting the current capacity and use of urban design (reported earlier in Section 4), differences were recorded between the different sector groups. In general, respondents from Metropolitan and Provincial local government authorities were more likely to agree with these statements than their counterparts from Regional and Rural local government authorities. However, it is important to point out that respondents from Metropolitan/Provincial local government authorities did not necessarily unanimously agree with these statements.

Table 26: Opinions on urban design overall - Total sample

Q23. Which of the following statements do you agree or disagree with?

Table 27: Opinions on urban design - Metropolitan

Q23. Which of the following statements do you agree or disagree with?

Table 28: Opinions on urban design - Provincial

Q23. Which of the following statements do you agree or disagree with?

Table 29: Opinions on urban design - Regional

Q23. Which of the following statements do you agree or disagree with?

Table 30: Opinions on urban design - Rural

Q23. Which of the following statements do you agree or disagree with?

One of the specific statements, the results for which were reported earlier, related to the extent to which respondents felt that a cross-divisional approach to urban design was taken in their council. As noted, n=18 of n=55 respondents agreed that this was the approach taken to urban design within their organisation, while n=30 disagreed or gave a neutral response. To further investigate this matter, a specific question was asked to determine whether respondents' organisations had a dedicated urban design team and/or whether urban design roles were 'spread across a number of teams and functions' (Table 31 to Table 35).

The majority of respondents (n=43 of n=55) reported that their local government authority did not have a dedicated urban design team, with a greater number indicating that urban design roles were 'spread across a number of teams and functions' (n=29). Note, however, that a similar number (n=24) claimed that even this was not the case, suggesting that, organisationally, their organisation did not yet have a predetermined approach to urban design.

Again, differences were recorded between the different sector groups, with respondents from Metropolitan local government authorities most likely to indicate that their organisations (being larger) had a dedicated urban design team. In contrast, respondents from Regional and especially Rural local government authorities were more likely to indicate that their organisation neither had such a team nor an approach in which urban design roles were spread across teams and functions.

Table 31: Organisational structure overall - Total sample

Q24. And thinking about the organisational structure within your council, which of the following apply?

Table 32: Organisational structure overall - Metropolitan

Q24. And thinking about the organisational structure within your council, which of the following apply?

Table 33: Organisational structure overall - Provincial

Q24. And thinking about the organisational structure within your council, which of the following apply?

Table 34: Organisational structure overall - Regional

Q24. And thinking about the organisational structure within your council, which of the following apply?

Table 35: Organisational structure overall - Rural

Q24. And thinking about the organisational structure within your council, which of the following apply?

In order to investigate further the extent to which local government authorities had embraced urban design within their organisation, another question was asked aimed at identifying the areas that 'urban design principles (were) recognised and incorporated' (Table 36).

Overall, with the exception of 'District plans', less than one-half of all respondents reported that urban design principles were incorporated in all the listed areas provided. In fact, n=5 of n=55 respondents claimed that their local government authority had not incorporated urban design principles in any of the areas.

The areas in which urban design principles were most frequently mentioned as being incorporated were as follows:

• District Plan (n=33 of n=55).
• Long Term Council Community Plan (n=27).
• Structure plans (n=25).
• Open space and recreation strategies (n=24).

In contrast, the areas that were less frequently mentioned were:

• Regional plan(s) (n=3 of n=55).
• Housing strategy (n=4).
• Regional Policy Statement (n=7).
• Asset management plans (n=8).
• Economic development strategy (n=8).

Given earlier results, respondents from Metropolitan and Provincial local government authorities were more likely to identify that their organisations had incorporated urban design principles into the listed areas provided, compared with respondents from Regional and especially Rural local government authorities. In fact, respondents from Rural local government authorities were the most likely to report that their organisation had not incorporated these principles in any areas.

Table 36: Areas urban design principles are recognised and incorporated

Q25. Thinking about the policies and plans your council is responsible for (both statutory and non-statutory), in which of the following are urban design principles recognised and incorporated?