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C M Y CM MY CY CMY K
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Li ve+Wor k+Pl ay
L I VABL E URBAN E NVI RONME NT S :
pr ocess, st r at egy, act i on
Cr eat i ng gr eat pl aces t o
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your strategy
A good consultation exercise will have
already given you the basics for a
strategy. You know what people want in
their urban environment, and (ideally)
how they want you to measure whether
its happening.
Now its time to put things together:
design the strategy that draws together
what council and community can do to
help create a liveable urban environment.
Design
The essential elements of a well-designed
strategy are:
a clear vision and strategic direction
coordination within and outside council
a mix of management methods
community involvement
clear documentation.
A well-designed strategy will be diverse,
coordinated, and easy to measure. It will
also be realistic, based on the time and
resources available, while reflecting what
most people in the community want.
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Following its five-day charette,
Waitakere City Council developed a
diverse, coordinated strategy to achieve
the outcomes in its Community Plan. The
strategy included:
seminars for people interested in land
development
a council-formed property development
company to lead by example
assistance for residents at the early
stages of applying for resource consent
dedicated pathway leaders to
coordinate the strategy
flexibility in its District Plan and
non-statutory design guides.
Have a clear timeframe in mind. Will your strategy
be ongoing, or do you aim to have achieved it
within a specific timeframe? Your timeframe can
be flexible but setting one now will help you
plan resources and coordinate activities.
Project trial: Waitakere
CD and web reference material
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Design your strategy
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What do you want to achieve with your
strategy? Reduced housing density, more
open space, better traffic flows or a
combination of these?
Write down a strategic direction. It doesnt
need to be detailed, and it might change
as the strategy develops. At this stage,
it provides the broad vision of where
you want your strategy to take you.
Set a clear strategic direction
Christchurch City Councils St Albans Neighbourhood Plan had a broad strategic
direction, developed with the community during consultation. The Plan aimed to
enhance traffic, building, pedestrian, landscape, and open space features. The strategy
combined council projects and community initiatives.
Palmerston North City Council used the standard list of qualities during its focus
group workshop, but later refined the list to help develop its strategic direction.
Following feedback from the community, the council finally grouped the things the
community valued under these qualities:
Sense of place: Tararua windfarm, Tararua ranges, the Square
Legibility: logical layout, visual and physical connections, visible church spires
Amenity: wide streets and footpaths, extensive walkways, green corridors, clear air,
safe for children
Diversity and choice: a wide variety of bars, cafes, and cultural and sporting facilities;
a variety of living environments
Robustness: large public spaces for community events
Accessibility: good scale, flat terrain, easy access to and within the city.
This enabled the Council to make sure its strategy protected and enhanced the
attributes the community valued.
Its the starting point to help you decide
what management methods to include in
your strategy.
You might have developed the strategic
direction with the community during
consultation, or you might need to
develop it now, with the community.
Either approach can work, as these case
studies show.
Many units within council will be doing
work that contributes to your strategy.
Incorporate this work into your strategy
where possible. You can:
set up project teams that include
people from the relevant council units
Coordinate your strategy within council
coordinate all the works and services
for the urban environment youre
working with
set up clear reporting mechanisms
so that all the works are treated in
an integrated way.
i Information sheet: attributes
Case study: Christchurch
Project trial: Palmerston North
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Many councils use rules and standards
under the RMA to help create a liveable
urban environment. Rules are useful, but
are not the only management method to
use, and relying on the rules alone can
be limiting.
Use whatever regulatory (legally
enforceable) and non-regulatory (non-
legally enforceable) management methods
are best for the strategy. Remember that
if you choose regulatory activities, a
variation or plan change may be needed.
The table below is a summary of the
management methods available.
Use a mix of management methods
Whatever management methods you choose,
remember to coordinate them within council.
Set up clear lines of responsibility and reporting,
and make sure your strategy doesnt duplicate
work already being done.
Checklist
To select the best management methods,
rate each one against these criteria:
alignment with strategic direction
effectiveness
availability of resources
budgetary requirements.
Use whatever gets the best total ratings
in your strategy.
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Using a mix of management methods
Assessing current management
methods
Template five: Management methods
Regulatory methods Good for
Rules in plans Helping avoid adverse effects of
urban development
Signage bylaws Enabling legal enforcement
Design guides Providing discretion and flexibility
Non-regulatory methods Good for
Design guides Providing discretion, getting
community buy-in
Council services (roading, parks) Meeting community expectations
Mainstreet programmes, Getting direct results in improving
CBD enhancement safety, appearance, vibrancy, and
community well-being
Strategic, annual, asset Encouraging public involvement,
management, and reserve plans enabling a coordinated approach
Information and education Encouraging public involvement,
keeping communities informed
Incentives Targeting resources
Direct investment Providing examples and direction
for others
Advocacy Representing community issues and
concerns at central government level
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Keep the community involved
What community activities are underway
that you can include in your strategy?
What activities would you like to
encourage, or devel op wi th the
community? Your strategy doesnt need
to only include management methods
from within council.
Community groups, business, and other
agencies can all be involved with the
strategy, as this case study shows.
Hold regular meetings with the
community to let people know how
the strategy is developing. If your
approach isnt meeting the
communitys needs change it!
Christchurch City Councils and Housing
New Zealands Community Renewal
Programme for Aranui was designed to
involve members of the community. The
many features of this programme
included:
exploring ways for business to become
involved in improving Aranuis
physical environment
strengthening individual, community,
and business connections
encouraging Housing New Zealand
tenants to become involved in projects
that aimed to improve housing in
the suburb
fostering networks, skills, and
resources in the community to keep
the programmes momentum going.
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By now, you should have:
a clear strategic direction and
timeframe
a list of management methods from
within council to achieve that strategic
direction
project teams within council where
appropriate
a list of possible community, business,
and other agency activities
ideas on how you will measure the
success of your strategy.
Now you need to document all these
things, to create a clear and accountable
record. Include your strategic direction,
the methods youve chosen, the person
or people responsible for each one,
reporting mechanisms, community,
business, and other agency activities,
contact peopl e from wi thi n the
community, and (broadly) how youll
measure your success.
Whatever you include in your strategy, remember
to keep asking: how will we measure it? How will
we know that the strategy has succeeded, or that
we need to change it?
Document your strategy
Strategy review
Is your strategy diverse enough to
meet the communitys expectations?
Is it well coordinated?
Have you kept the community
i nvol ved? Have you i ncl uded
community activities, and based the
strategy on the communitys values?
Have you included work being done
by other agencies?
Have you clearly documented the
what and the who of each activity?
Have you got clear ideas about how
youll measure the success of your
strategy?
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Checklist
To create a good strategy:
know where youre going
keep the community involved
use a creative mix of methods
be flexible give the strategy
room to change
keep asking, how will I measure it?.
Template six: Strategy document
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Throughout this process, weve
emphasised the importance of
measuring the outcomes of your
decisions and actions. A strategy
isnt any use unless you can measure
how well it works.
success of your strategy
Measure the
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Make sure your work is integrated with councils overall
monitoring strategy. Monitoring can be costly and time
consuming, and sharing resources makes the process
much more efficient and cost-effective. How you store
and share your information makes a big difference.
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Is traffic increasing, or decreasing?
Is air quality better, or worse? Are
parks and other open spaces being
used more or less often? Do people
feel safer? Overall, is your strategy
contributing to a place thats good
to live, work, and play?
A well planned monitoring programme
will allow you to measure the success of
your strategy, and to make any necessary
changes. You need to decide:
what you will monitor
when you will monitor it and
how you will monitor it.
Christchurch City Council has developed an easy-to-use monitoring database that
coordinates, stores, retrieves and generates the many different types of monitoring
information held by the Council. The database begins with the City Plan at the top
and cascades down to the monitoring data. However, as more monitoring programmes
develop, the structure can be changed so the data is at the core, and links move
outwards to each relevant monitoring programme.
Information sheet: integrated monitoring
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Measure the success of your strategy
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What will you monitor?
Make a list of things to monitor. If youve
developed your strategy carefully, and
based it on what you learned during
consultation, making a list of things
to monitor will be simple. Make sure
your list is based on what matters
t o t he communi t y, and on t he
resources available.
Youve already learned what issues the
community is concerned about, and what
changes the community wants. These
changes might be specific: We want more
lighting in our street. The trees in the
local park need to be protected. They
might be broad: The city centre should
look more attractive. We want to feel safer
in our homes.
Your strategy will aim to achieve these
changes, and your monitoring will tell
you how well youve achieved them.
Once youve listed the things you need
to monitor, find the relevant AER
(Anticipated Environmental Result) for
each one in the district or regional plan.
AERs are outcome focused, and help
you get specific about what changes
youre monitoring.
They also help make sure your
monitoring fits with other monitoring
being done in council like monitoring of:
district plans, compliance, complaints,
noise, annual or strategic plans, and state
of the environment monitoring and
reporting. However, if one of the things
you need to monitor doesnt have a
related AER, make sure you still include
it in your list.
The process doesnt need to be complex.
Sometimes youll simply be monitoring
the city or district plan itself.
AERs: a place to start
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In response to concerns from local businesses and residents, Auckland City Council
used face to face and telephone surveys to assess whether the District Plan rules
for Business 4 Zone were achieving the Councils and communitys needs. Staff gained
a lot of on-site and off-site information that will be useful for other projects, and
expect the time and resources required to lessen each time the survey is repeated.
Case study: Auckland
When will you do the monitoring?
Template seven: Monitoring priorities
Rate each item on your list as priority
one, two, or three. Think about:
the resources youll need, within and
outside council, to do the monitoring
the importance to council and the
community
how each one relates to policies
in the city or district plan, and to
councils wider monitoring work
whether information is already
available that will make monitoring
easier
the links between the things youre
monitoring. For example, if you want
to monitor air quality during the next
year, it can be useful to monitor traffic
density as well.
Once youve made a list of what youll
monitor, decide:
what youll monitor within the next
year (priority one)
what youll monitor after one year
(priority two)
what youll monitor after two years
or more years (priority three).
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How will you do the monitoring?
Having established what to monitor
and when, decide how youll do the
monitoring what indicators youll use.
An indicator could be:
changes in decibel levels (to monitor
noise)
number of accidents to pedestrians
(to monitor pedestrian safety)
number of complaints received by
council staff (to monitor dog controls).
Brainstorm all the possible indicators
you could use for each of the things youll
monitor. Choose the best indicator or
indicators by assessing them against
these criteria:
is it policy relevant?
is it analytically valid?
is it cost effective?
is it simple and easy to understand?
These are standard criteria that are
widely used internationally.
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i
i
Once youve chosen an indicator or
indicators, make sure each one has
a clear location and timeframe.
Using indicator criteria
Developing indicators from attributes
Information sheet: attributes
Information sheet: indicators
Information sheet: identifying indicators
for Maori
Using the PSR framework
Project trial: Waimakariri
i

Waimakariri District Council rated the AER a pedestrian-friendly Rangiora
township priority one for monitoring. Possible indicators included: number of
accidents for pedestrians, number of road closures, number and location of facilities,
and feelings of safety reported by pedestrians.
Each possible indicator was assessed against the standard criteria, and one of the
indicators selected was feelings of safety reported by participants. Staff then
reworded it to include a location and a timeframe:
Annual or two-yearly changes of community perceptions of pedestrian safety on High
Street (Business One Zone).
This exercise was part of a one-day workshop in which council staff used the Pressure-
State-Response framework to develop their indicators.
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Finally sort out the detail
Who will do the monitoring? How will
they collect the data? Where will they do
it, and how often? Where will you report
the results of the monitoring? How much
change do you want to see? What existing
monitoring can you use? How can we
integrate the monitoring into the
wider councils monitoring strategy?
Heres an example of a plan for
Waimakariri District Councils selected
indicator.
Indicator: Annual or two-yearly changes of community perceptions
of pedestrian safety on High Street (Business One Zone)
Who will monitor Franks staff, students
Data collected from Phone and pedestrian surveys
Where: scale and extent Phone surveys: random
Pedestrian surveys:
Business 1 Post Office to railway line
How often Two yearly: before the annual plan
Information reported to Annual plan
Degree of change required Improvement over time
not a specific threshold
Existing monitoring Complaints, submissions to annual plan
Central business liaison group
Community constable
Template eight: Monitoring plan
Project trial: Waimakariri
Checklist
To make monitoring a success:
make the best use of whats already
available
integrate your monitoring with councils
wider strategy
keep all the information in one place.
Monitoring review
Is the monitoring integrated with
councils overall monitoring strategy?
Have you repeated any work being
done by another council or unit within
council?
Does the monitoring use existing
information where possible, and
provide information that other
monitoring programs can use?
Is the what, when, and how clearly
documented and supported?
Are the details clear who will do
the monitoring, how often, and with
what tools?
Are you monitoring the right things,
and using the right indicators?
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Act on
your results!
Monitoring without action is meaningless.
Keep track of the results of your
monitoring, and make the changes that
you need to. This is an ongoing process.
If your monitoring shows that youre not
achieving your desired results in
improving the urban environment
change whatever isnt working.
If your monitoring shows that you need
to take action, but you dont have
the resources prioritise the things
you can do now.
Helping create liveable urban environments is a process of constantly
learning, revising, and communicating. Properly done, it involves the
community, has measurable actions and outcomes, and is part of councils
bigger picture. Ultimately, it leads to urban environments that are great
places to live, work, and play.
Template nine: Monitoring review
Checklist
What changes in the urban environment
has monitoring identified?
Are they the changes you wanted?
Is the strategy working? Do you need
to change it?
Does the community need to be
consulted about any action youre taking?
Have all the right people
received feedback?
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The Urban Amenity Project consultant team comprised:
Karen Bell (Enviro Solutions NZ Ltd)
Peter Glasson and Fiona Hill (Glasson Potts Fowler Ltd)
The Urban Amenity Focus Group members were:
Graeme McIndoe (Urban Design, Wellington)
Paul Honeybone (Sustainable Cities Trust, Christchurch)
Rewi Thompson (Architect, Auckland)
Greg Vossler (Palmerston North City Council)
Philip Brown (Waitakere City Council)
Philippa Richardson (Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment)
Bob Nixon (Christchurch City Council)
Stephen Colson (Rotorua District Council)
Robyn Fisher (Hutt City Council)
James Corbett (Manakau City Council)
Clive Anstey (Landscape Architect, Wellington)
The report was peer-reviewed by Professor David Yencken and Professor Ian Lowe and
Bob Nixon (Christchurch City Council) and Sue Veart (Porirua City Council).
It needs to be acknowledged that this guide like many others the Ministry for the
Environment produces could not have been achieved without the generous contributions
of local authorities and their staff.
Acknowledgements
This project has been a collaborative
effort, and the involvement of all the people
mentioned below has been invaluable and
is gratefully acknowledged. The Ministry
for the Environment thanks you for
your contributions.
The councils and people involved in the urban
amenity trials were:
Palmerston North City Greg Vossler
Waitakere City Phillip Brown
Rotorua District Stephen Colson, Ingrid Haverkamp and Calum Revfem
Waimakariri District Richard Johnson, Kathy Perreau and Nick Harrison
In addition to the people mentioned above, useful discussions and examples were
provided by Janet Reeves, Janine Sowerby and Ian McKenzie (Christchurch City Council);
Brenna Waghorn (Auckland Regional Council); and Bill King (Housing New Zealand).
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Act on your results!
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Councils and people involved
in the case studies were:
Tasman District Steve Markham and
Rose Biss
Waimakariri District Richard Johnson,
Kathy Perreau, Deborah Hewett and
Mary Sparrow
Christchurch City Corinne Macintyre
and David Price
Palmerston North City Peter Frawley
and Rochelle Viles
Auckland City Kathryn Elliff,
Karen A. Bell, Rennae Shirley, Penny Pirit,
Bruce Young, Heather Haylock,
David Saunders and Tania Richmond.
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The Ministry for the Environment works with others to identify New Zealands
environmental problems and get action on solutions. Our focus is on the effects
peoples everyday activities have on the environment, so our work programmes cover
both the natural world and the places where people live and work.
We advise the Government on New Zealands environmental laws, policies, standards
and guidelines, monitor how they are working in practice, and take any action needed
to improve them. Through reporting on the state of our environment, we help raise
community awareness and provide the information needed by decision makers. We
also play our part in international action on global environmental issues.
On behalf of the Minister for the Environment, who has duties under various laws,
we report on local government performance on environmental matters and on the
work of the Environmental Risk Management Authority and the Energy Efficiency
and Conservation Authority.
Besides the Environment Act 1986 under which it was set up, the Ministry is
responsible for administering the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Act 1941, the
Resource Management Act 1991, the Ozone Layer Protection Act 1996, and the
Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996.
About the Ministry for the Environment
Head Office
Grand Annexe Building
84 Boulcott Street
PO Box 10362
Wellington, New Zealand
Phone (04) 917 7400
Fax (04) 917 7523
Northern Regions Office
8-10 Whitaker Place
PO Box 8270
Auckland
Phone (09) 913 1640
Fax (09) 913 1649
South Island Office
Level 4, Price Waterhouse Centre
119 Armagh Street
PO Box 1345
Christchurch
Phone (03) 963 0940
Fax (03) 963 2050
Internet www.mfe.govt.nz
For further information and resources use
the CD Rom at the back of this guide or
go to www.mfe.govt.nz
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