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APPENDIX 3: A+DS'S COMMENTS IN RELATION TO SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT COMMISSIONED RESEARCH ON: 'BARRIERS TO DELIVERING MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT'
Introduction
3.1 This response draws on evidence and experience gained through A+DS's design review, enabling, urbanism, and other programmes or work activity.
3.2 Mixed use development is commonly regarded as desirable; concepts of mixed use and mixed communities are seen as central to achieving sustainable places that minimise travel and support local demand for goods and services in a walkable catchment. Our experience is that there is a lack of detailed understanding of the subject. We therefore welcome this research.
Barriers to Mixed Use - General Comments
3.3 As evidenced from the research workshops, the topic and the barriers to be overcome are varied and complex. There is no absolute definition of 'mixed use', and the term may be widely applied with varying connotations relative to scales of activity, and differing land use relationships. Mixes of uses exist horizontally and vertically; adjacent pockets of single use are claimed to represent mixed use development.
3.4 The issue is linked to economics with implications for land ownership, place management, short term development interest and long term investment strategies. Private sector delivery is typically driven by 'what the market demands', historical data analysis and operator/user requirements. Mixed use proposals may be challenging; single use projects are perceived to limit risk. Such thinking influences attitudes and ambition. Purely 'market driven' views do not account for externalities resulting from poor environments that fail to create sustainable places.
3.5 Whilst unit value is readily understood and quantifiable, place value is less so. Rarely, in our experience, has the whole life potential of urban form been assessed; only occasionally is the integration, impact and influence on uses outwith a red lined boundary considered.
3.6 Contexts change, and an ability to be flexible or adaptable over time is dependent on an understanding of urban structures that permit 'long life, loose fit'. Although relationships at various scales differ, key ingredients remain broadly constant: a structuring framework of block, street and plot that set the context for land use, density, accessibility and permeability. Choice is gained through appropriate densities which support facilities and services, permeable networks that aid footfall, and mixed uses that activate and enliven places.
3.7 It may not be practical or desirable for everywhere to be 'mixed use', but the planning of places should contribute positively to creating cohesive mixed use environments. A breakdown in understanding has created tensions resulting from the impact of what are typically monotype edge of settlement places - housing or business/retail/commercial parks - on the vibrancy and vitality of established places. In some cases the rationale of existing settlements has been undermined.
A+DS Observations
3.8 Of the emerging themes A+DS's interests most closely associate with 'planning and placemaking'; however, barriers overlap and intertwine, and this has implications for broadening awareness of the topic, and for how a skills training course might be structured.
3.9 It is possible to draw broad observations from A+DS's design review function. In relation to health and schools projects, reports have suggested that proposals might better integrate with their urban context. Comments relating to masterplan projects have advocated the benefits of mixed use which: ensures activity at different times of day; integrated mixed_use communities bring together residential, employment, retailing and other uses, along with easy access to good public transport connections. In general masterplans proposing single use zonings have been the least well received at design review.
Overcoming Barriers - Opportunities
3.10 Planning reform presents an opportunity; particularly in relation to a reformed ambitious visionary development planning system that guides what goes where and why.
3.11 The rationalisation of national policy ( SPP's, etc) will place greater emphasis on 'translating policy into action'; and implementing this will require appropriate skills at the appropriate levels.
3.12 The current economic downturn offers a chance to stimulate and deliver development, and there may be opportunities for the public sector to adopt a more proactive role to sponsor, promote or pilot projects that act as a catalyst to achieve broader mixed use development.
3.13A+DS's role is to 'translate policy ambition into action'; hence there is scope for A+DS to take on an enhanced role, particularly in the context of planning reform and economic downturn.
How A+DS is Contributing
3.14A+DS's aim is to create places where people want to be. To achieve this requires an understanding of the spatial implications of sustainable economic growth, in order to guide what goes where and why. Our experience through design review is that issues concerning urban structure are not well understood. Our work activity therefore seeks to address this.
3.15A+DS actively promotes mixed use through a variety of activity: in relation to its framework agreements with health and education; through involvement with URC's; and inputting into the SSCI process. Furthermore work programmes have been initiated based on:
- Visioning - considering place futures and the necessary conditions to make them work
- Delivery - facilitating practical methods that deliver tangible outcomes
- Effective use of public sector assets - aligning public sector investments and community interests to create the conditions for viable places which support a range of uses
- Delivering planning reform - working jointly with other agencies to achieve better places.
(More detailed information on this is provided below)
3.16 Other opportunities for A+DS to work to overcome barriers to mixed use may exist through engagement with forthcoming housing charettes, future Scotland debate series, and in relation to as yet uncommitted (or undefined) areas, such as the Scottish Futures Trust, town centre regeneration, etc.
3.17 Whilst A+DS's design review function isn't currently structured to immediately access specific data on mixed use development, this might feature in future monitoring to gauge the extent to which barriers to mixed use have been overcome. The topic of 'mixed use' might also more strongly inform a design review conversation. The gathering of data on mixed use might usefully be reported as part of the 'lessons learned from design review' series.
Appendix: Detailed Examples of How A+DS is Making a Contribution
3.18 City Visioning: thinking about what kind of place and the necessary conditions to make it work - Highland Council / Inverness City Vision; Stirling Council / Stirling vision; University of Strathclyde research: urban structures over time, what works and why.
3.19 Renaissance Towns: align public sector investments and community interests to create the conditions for viable places which support a range of work, retail and residential amenities. East Renfrewshire / Neilston; consider alternative models of using local assets in public sector ownership as levers in achieving better urban development. This may include the development of 'local asset based vehicles', where the public sector retains equity in the delivery process by putting in the land and using say prudential borrowing to match private sector capital. The approach means that the public sector is not just a passive participant using the regulatory framework of the local plan; they become an active and important participant.
3.20 Support to Local Authorities: e.g. Fife in Strategic Land Allocations, giving critical feedback on urban structure and urban form assumptions.
3.21 Inverclyde: examine how public sector partners through processes of strategic asset management might rationalize land and property holdings to achieve savings, generate long life value and improve service delivery. This investment, aligned with investment through single outcome agreements and planning alignment through spg and local plan frameworks create the infrastructure for sustainable places with mixed use potential.
3.22 Housing charettes; looking at the urban block in island, small town, mixed use and city centre contexts [mixed use might be island/small town/city].
3.23 Clydegateway charette proposed to look at the Dalmarnock to Bridgeton axis and how a street, blocks and plot structure could be organized to support a long life loose fit concept for a regenerating area of the city
3.24 Planning reform - deliver A+DS's SIP; work with joint agencies to understand the spatial consequences of sustainable economic growth to guide what goes where and why.
12 March 2009
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