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Local Authority Urban Design Forum LAUDF
DESIGN IN DEVELOPMENT PLANNING WORLD CAFE RESOURCE SHEETS
LAUDF 03 |15 MAY 2014
The topic of Design in the Development Planning process was selected to attract a variety of participants and to cover various areas that had been raised as key issues for discussion through participant feedback.
As we all know design in the development planning process takes many different forms and so the World Cafe approach was selected as an ideal way to cover a wide range of topics under the development planning umbrella.
The intention of the session was to provide the opportunity for individuals to hear about a wide range of topics and select the topics most relevant to their own learning and development.
Although the sessions are short, the aim of the World Cafe approach is to provide a snapshot of a particular topic that encourages discussion and inspires each individuals personal learning experience which they can choose to pursue further.
The atmosphere and level of discussion on the day is testament that the approach worked well and the learning that was captured is articulated through the following resources notes.
Lesley Wells, Co-Chair
Notes by Jennifer Horn, East Dunbartonshire Council. Produced by A+DS on behalf of LAUDF steering group. For more information about getting involved with the Local Authority Urban Design Forum, please contact [email protected]
Local Authority Urban Design ForumLAUDF
From LAUDF 03 Meeting on15 May 2014
RESOURCE SHEET 01 | Charrettes and the development planning process
HIGHLAND’S EXPERIENCESUna Lee from Highland Council presented on the authority’s experiences of using charrettes as part of their development planning process. Detailed information on the work undertaken in Highland is available through links on the right.
SUPPORTING INFORMATIONTown Centre Action Plans (Nairn, Tain, Fort William) http://www.highland.gov.uk/info/178/local_and_statutory_development_plans/201/planning_guidance_for_particular_developments/7
Muirtown & South KessockVideo of primary school pupils interviewing officials (Council, Scottish Canals +) about the charrette:
http://www.mobygratis.com/videos/muirtown-south-kessock-charrettehttp://www.scottishcanals.co.uk/media-centre/press-releases-and-news-items/new-vision-for-muirtown-and-south-kessock-takes-a-step-forward
Wick & Thursohttp://www.highland.gov.uk/downloads/download/279/wick_and_thurso_charrettes
Torvean & Ness-side development brief: http://www.highland.gov.uk/info/178/local_and_statutory_development_plans/201/planning_guidance_for_particular_developments/2
Sandown, Nairnhttp://www.highland.gov.uk/news/article/5804/sandown_charrette_launched_by_chief_planner
DISCUSSION POINTSKey Charrette benefits? Most valued outcome for Highland was the opportunity for immediacy and instant dialogue. Seeing drawings evolve quickly with community input builds rapport – a really effective communication tool and a good way of breaking down barriers.
Simple point BUT hands on input from communities leads to better design and buy in to change. Highlights complexities of planning process and produces better design outcomes.
Top Tips? Good atmosphere - good facilitators – involve school children – have a strategy for managing expectations. Promote widely and build inclusion – reach out to alternative / minority groups. Consultations need to create a good atmosphere from the start and need to listen. Walkabouts were included in charrettes. Choose communities with a strong identity – innovating communities.
Are charrettes expensive? Can be, but techniques are transferable. Highland’s Charrettes have been both council and developer led, from a variety of funding sources. Council now reflecting on how to manage process in house to reduce consultancy costs.
Who should facilitate? Planners, community planning, consultants, PAS. Independent ‘consultants’ are valuable – as they are seen by the community as impartial.
How do you manage expectations? Shared ownership of charrettes helps – mapping ideas together. Awareness builds that its more than just council involved in delivering identified priorities on the ground.
This in turn helps mobilise effort for (collaborative) delivery of outcomes – altogether more satisfactory. e.g. priority projects in Nairn – wish list…ball park costs from consultant helped trigger community’s realism. Who will do what in context of reduced council funding?....
Are proposals taken forward? How does the process tie in with the LDP etc? LDP applicable - undertaken at pre-MIR stage to identify/help share land use decisions. In Nairn – Town Centre Action Plan was produced. LDP outcomes satisfactory and extra value at brief stage. Works best / most effective at development brief stage.
What is the value? Collaboration builds bridges: different communities of interest brought together, bonding. Successful collaborations achieved with schools in Tain and Wick who
kicked off the process - put down ideas of what they want to see. Taintastic! Presented visions and reduced cynicism. Results: relationships built between council and community. Options reviewed/changed in association with communities.
Notes by Lesley Wells, North Ayrshire Council. Produced by A+DS on behalf of LAUDF steering group. For more information about getting involved with the Local Authority Urban Design Forum, please contact [email protected]
Local Authority Urban Design Forum
From LAUDF 03 Meeting on15 May 2014
RESOURCE SHEET 02 | Charrettes and the community planning process
CHARRETTEplus David Wood of Planning Aid Scotland led a world cafe session on Planning Aid Scotland’s Charretteplus™ approach, which provides a crucial link between planning and community planning; allowing for earlier and more meaningful engagement in place making.
Charretteplus™ builds upon the traditional charrette model of engagement, promoted and supported by the Scottish Government through their Charrette Mainstreaming Programme. Charretteplus™ draws on Planning Aid Scotland’s network of professional volunteers, associates, and staff and builds capacity in local authority staff. It links spatial planning to community planning and is focussed on place linking design, action and delivery.
DISCUSSION POINTS• Charretteplus was funded by Scottish Government grants
following a PAS proposal.
• Pilot project delivered in partnership with a local authority that was approached by PAS (Fife Council).
• Focus on bringing together community planning with planning departments to realise spatial outcomes of community plans.
• Key factor is involvement of PAS volunteers in delivery of the process – planners, architects and others as required. PAS Associate(s) and staff will lead the process, and also involve relevant local authority staff who provide local expertise).
• Aims to reduce costs and resource implications that are associated with charrettes through compressed timeframe and involving PAS volunteers. Replicable and efficient.
SUPPORTING INFORMATIONFurther information on Charretteplus available here...
http://www.planningaidscotland.org.uk/charretteplus/
• Council is the client / PAS as facilitator of the engagement process. Council/local community decide what proposals to take forward.
• Perceived neutrality of PAS is one of the key benefits.
• The example discussed was the pilot event in Levenmouth, Fife.
• Choice of venue is key in encouraging people to turn up and drop in.
• Pilot projects had a 3 month lead in time / 3-4 day event - intensive working during the process, plus a final public exhibition of proposals 1-2 weeks later.
• Varying scales of projects identified from pilot – some small and immediately able to be implemented.
• Next Steps: having linked Community Planning with the LDP (as Planning Circular 6/2013 Development Planning suggests) the outcomes of Charretteplus to inform future spatial development of the areas in future – possibly as supplementary guidance.
• Provides excellent experience to volunteers: planners, architects, students and others
• Up-skill local authority staff via outcomes - promote a legacy of skills in planning authorities.
• Potential to have more projects on future - grant/resource dependant.
Notes by Danny McKendry, East Renfrewshire Council. Produced by A+DS on behalf of LAUDF steering group. For more information about getting involved with the Local Authority Urban Design Forum, please contact [email protected]
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LAUDF 03 Meeting on15 May 2014
RESOURCE SHEET 03 | Engaging communities through design
THE NEILSTON EXPERIENCEDanny McKendry of East Renfrewshire Council led a world cafe session on Neilston’s experiences of engaging communities through design.
The Neilston Development Trust (NDT) initiated their Space to Live agenda in 2006 combining the desire to develop the physical and community potential of the village. When NDT purchased the closed down bank via Community Right to Buy, the Council recognised the potential of the Trust as a key community anchor. The community of Neilston carried out a charrette (Renaissance Town) process in 2009, involving an initial round of consultation, engagement and development with local stakeholders, consultants, Architecture and Design Scotland (A+DS) etc. That led to the production of the Neilston Town Charter. The quality of the work, and its product, the Charter, led to a Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning (an SAQP) award in 2010.
So far, so very good. In the intervening years, some Charter projects have been taken forward, notably community investment in a joint venture wind farm, but finding an appropriate delivery mechanism which respects the fluidity of the original charrette process has emerged as a prerequisite for further progress .Happily, East Renfrewshire Council, in collaboration with ‘community anchor ‘Neilston Development Trust(NDT) and other stakeholders, and with the assistance of the Council’s Community Planning team have developed a governance framework for the Charter process (See above).
The achievement of this structure sets the scene for meaningful progress, which promises to be groundbreaking in evidencing the possibility of ongoing transparency and democratic input in the statutory planning process.
A Stage 2 charrette which took place in March 2014 takes the visioning of the Charter and transforms it into useful instruments of local plan-making. Detailed progress in three key
SUPPORTING INFORMATIONInformation and blog about recent Mainstreaming charrette in Neilston which built on the 2009 Charter
http://www.neilstongoingplaces.com/
Neilston Town Charter
http://www.neilstontrust.co.uk/what-we-do/town-charter/renaissance-town.html
Charter areas, identified in the Proposed Local Development Plan (PLDP): Village in-fill strategy; Culture and leisure facilities, open space , greenspace and access; Consideration of the heritage and future potential of Neilston Mill and its adjacent estate; Also, consideration could be given to the opportunities presented by the proposed green field housing releases.
The result of this work will be: Production of Supplementary Planning Guidelines SPG for incorporation into the local development plan sections affecting Neilston; An implementation plan, including Identification of a number of ‘early-delivery’ projects and a roadmap for financial viability, including suggestions for co-investment between ERC, NDT (via its windfarm income) and other funders; An increased and continuing engagement with local residents around projects affecting them, teasing out contentious issues head-on and thereby reducing the risk of objections to planning applications later in the process.
DISCUSSION POINTSA key issue is capacity building, so the participants in the process are building capacity as individuals, as are the institutions in handling this increased capacity.
The Neilston project is also a good example of a way of understanding how places grow the capacity to do things, to learn and to build the confidence and competence to take risks, and share rewards for community benefit.
Part of the project is about the people skills and the localised institutional capacity i.e. the collaboration that actually works, built on trust etc.
The charrette is the means of getting there, but that’s only a vehicle. Planning in timescales longer than the Local Development Plan is essential ,as well as identifying key local individuals who are engaged for the long-run.
There was discussion around the transferability of the process to other locations in Scotland and around the importance of leadership and stewardship. Continuity of input from key figures in the Local Authority and Development Trust having driven the process through the years).
Notes by Craig McIntyre, North Lanarkshire Council. Produced by A+DS on behalf of LAUDF steering group. For more information about getting involved with the Local Authority Urban Design Forum, please contact [email protected]
Local Authority Urban Design Forum
From LAUDF 03 Meeting on15 May 2014
RESOURCE SHEET 04| Graphic approaches: Visioning and storyboarding techniques
VISIONING AND STORYBOARDINGEric Dawson of A+DS presented a series of graphic documents to promote the value of using graphics as opposed to text to communicate ideas and information as part of the visioning element of a project whether that be a Strategic Development Plan (SDP), Local Development Plan (LDP) or other place based / spatial project e.g. Strategic Development Framework, Masterplan etc. Eric advised everyone to view ‘Graphic Communications in Strategic Development Plans’ and stressed the need for planning officers to embrace the pen and to sketch out ideas rather than to focus on prose, as Telly Savalas said “ a picture paints a thousand words....”Some key points from Eric’s presentation and the following discussions were:• The need for a clearly expressed vision - preferably
upfront in the plan (traditionally plans have located the key diagram/illustration at the end; as if to reflect a linear process of survey / analysis / PLAN and thereby substantiate and justify the eventual outcome)
• Who is the plan for? Make information accessible to different audiences (different user groups need to access information - i.e. community groups; house builders; etc - AND planning development management decision makers)
• The importance of using graphics - words are a barrier to engagement for different audiences
• A need for different visual techniques at different stage/s of plan production - graphics to engage different stakeholders at different stages in the plan making process
• The possibility for hyperlinks to provide access to nested information – the plan becoming a portal to access information – raising an interesting debate..‘what is a plan?’
• Avoid the desire to look back to accommodate decision making. Look forward to promote a visionary approach
• The opportunity to stitch together the different SDP and LDP plans and unite them where required to provide a consistent read across - almost as one larger map that divides into separate SDPs – with possible implications for the next scale up / NPF3
• The potential for storyboarding to tell a process and a story of change (i.e. how to make a plan using graphic content to describe a process of change)
• The benefits in employing a narrative approach to graphics to lead people to a better understanding of the outcomes of the document rather than a dry list of statistics and facts.
• Development Plans need to be assessed against the following 6 criteria:Place: is the plan rooted in appreciation of place identity?Vision: does the plan convey an inspiring vision?Focus and hierarchy: does the plan communicate the scale, location and priorities of change?Richness: is there a three-dimensional richness to the plan that makes it come alive?The Story: does the plan explain the rationale – Analysis > Strategy > Delivery?Scaler: does the plan span the scales – from strategic to local levels?
Eric encouraged all planners to rediscover drawing and graphics as a means of communicating complex ideas in a simple way...don’t be afraid of the pen!
SUPPORTING INFORMATIONResearch report on graphics in planmaking http://ads.org.uk/urbanism/features/graphical-communication-in-planmaking
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/planning/Development-Planning/Strategic-Planning
Strategic planning pamphlet and associated video http://ads.org.uk/urbanism/features/participate-in-plan-making
Sciberiahttp://www.scriberia.co.uk/scribing/
Notes by Matthew Spurway, Renfrewshire Council. Produced by A+DS on behalf of LAUDF steering group. For more information about getting involved with the Local Authority Urban Design Forum, please contact [email protected]
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LAUDF 03 Meeting on15 May 2014
RESOURCE SHEET 05 | Graphic techniques for local development plans
RENFREWSHIRE’S EXPERIENCESMatthew Spurway, Renfrewshire Council presented the story of key graphics in the Renfrewshire Local Development Plan. Drivers for change in Johnstone South West and Braehead were different, but the process of developing and illustrating the “mini-development frameworks”, to highlight the Council’s design aspirations for the key areas of change, bore similarities.
In Braehead, the masterplanning exercise was a creative and iterative process where the council worked with the developer to agree principles, in consultation with A+DS. The developer provided a resource for working up design ideas, later represented within the LDP diagram. Different approaches were taken at the Main Issues Report and Proposed Plan stages. Indicative MIR diagrams were produced by the graphics team, with more detailed ones for the Proposed Plan prepared in-house by a planner with experience of graphic packages.
In Johnstone, the process was public-sector led. The allocation of the site as a community growth area enabled funding to be levered in. Two projects helped to provide the design support for the masterplan which eventually fed into the Proposed Plan. Arriving at the key principles and concepts to illustrate was resource intensive and required support from designers. Once the principles had been established however, the Council had the confidence to illustrate the design aspirations in the plan.
The role of supplementary guidance in supporting such diagrams was discussed. In Renfrewshire, there were no plans to support key diagrams with dedicated supplementary guidance although further guidance would be produced for a number of sites, some of which are covered by the strategy diagrams.
Resourcing and skills capacity within councils to deliver comparable diagrams was another discussion point. In both Renfrewshire examples a significant amount of background work had been required. There was also debate on communicating what diagrams should look like to graphics teams and associated to this, the value of bench-marking what worked or not elsewhere. Other questions included whether further work had
been carried out to represent the proposals in a more 3D or graphical way. In Renfrewshire, while the developer had done such work to support their planning application, inclusion of this within the council’s document was not felt appropriate.
Participants felt having street level illustration would be really valuable for engaging public and illustrating place quality. One participant indicated this would be part of their process whether through an internal drawing workshop or through commissioning an artist. Another participant had created 3D models of proposals, which could not be published due to ownership issues.
Questions were raised about whether developers would be held to indicative block layouts and the weight that would be given to the diagrams in practice. This had been challenged in Renfrewshire, and developers had not been held to indicative layouts. However, there was still felt to be value in visually representing what development could look like.
Might indicative proposals be used to help lever in funding? There was discussion around the potential to represent other proposals and projects a council might be trying to bring forward. While this was not an explicit aim in Renfrewshire, it had been felt beneficial to include some pipeline projects without firm funding commitments, in a visual way (eg: indicative route for Fastlink continuing to Glasgow Airport)
There was discussion around engagement, the importance of getting the right feel for people, and the value of visuals to help communicate complex ideas. Graphics using aerial photos in place of plan drawings had been used successfully by one authority at Pre-MIR stage. Renfrewshire’s A3 format plan was felt to be accessible format. It was unclear whether diagrams generated more interest in the Proposed Plan, but parties in Renfrewshire with interests in particular issues did point to the diagrams, which was seen as a success for engagement.
A final comment noted that “graphic skills within authorities is a problem but [there is a] need to learn from good practice such as Renfrewshire, [it is] not as difficult as it may seem.”
SUPPORTING INFORMATIONRenfrewshire Main Issues Report and Proposed Planhttp://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/webcontent/home/services/planning+and+building+standards/development+planning/pt-ldp-mainissuesreport http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/webcontent/home/services/planning+and+building+standards/development+planning/pt-proposed-ldp
The Johnstone South West Charrette Report
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/AandP/Projects/SSCI/Mainstreaming/Johnstonerept
Notes by David Givan, City of Edinburgh Council. Produced by A+DS on behalf of LAUDF steering group. For more information about getting involved with the Local Authority Urban Design Forum, please contact [email protected]
Local Authority Urban Design Forum
LAUDF 03 Meeting on15 May 2014
RESOURCE SHEET 06| Measuring the quality of outcomes: Edinburgh’s Quality Indicators Project
EDINBURGH’S EXPERIENCESJulie Dewar and David Givan of the City of Edinburgh Council presented on their experiences of developing two methods for monitoring quality of outcomes: Quality Indicators and Added Value.
QUALITY INDICATORS
Julie and David introduces the Quality Indicators project, which was initiated in 2012 and explained there are three parts to it:
Direct rating of Perceptions of users
A question about the quality of new developments is included in the Edinburgh Peoples Survey, a survey of citizen’s attitudes to services. 5000 people complete the survey and it covers a range of council services including Planning.
Focus Group Meetings are held with the public, in locations such as libraries and community centres as well as small sample of amenity and professional groups. The sessions record people’s response to particular buildings by showing them a range of images of new buildings.
Feedback has been positive, with both the People’s Survey and the focus groups recording that the majority of people are either fairly satisfied or very satisfied with the quality of new development.
The City Biodiversity Index
This index provide a way of measuring the performance of Edinburgh again other Cites through a series of indicators such as does the City have a Biodiversity Action Plan.
Awards
The service measure its performance against the following three awards.• Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning • RTPI Awards• Civic Trust Awards
SUPPORTING INFORMATIONEdinburgh People’s Survey
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/20029/consultations_and_participation/921/edinburgh_peoples_survey
ADDED VALUE
Using the Uniform system for processing planning applications, the Council has created an Added Value module. This allows officers to record at both pre-application and application stage the improvements that officers have made to the quality of new development. The Added Value module is split into themes and each theme is broken into individual issues that directly relate to aspects of policy and guidance. The project will allow the Council’s improvements to development quality to be assessed and in the longer term may provide a means of complementing quantitative methods of assessing planning’s service such as application determination times.
Discussion
In a series of lively discussions at the World Café session, there was general welcome for the notion of monitoring quality. A number of key issues were explored:
• The impacts on already stretched resources on recording added value and the need to ensure these impacts are minimised.
• The need to include both the good quality development and the “bog standard stuff” so that planning’s input can be fairly assessed.
• The notion of finding out from people who live or use new development what their thoughts are / a post occupancy survey.
• More work need to be done on how these result can be fed back into the development management process.
