Activity Centre Planning

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Activity Centre Planning

• International examples of Activity Centre Policies

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Dispersal of activities

• The dispersal of activities, particularly
  retailing and office based employment is an
  international trend.
• Many countries, particularly in Europe, have
  developed policies to protect their traditional
  town centres, e.g. France, Germany, Belgium,
  Holland, Denmark, Spain and Portugal.

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Dispersal of activities

• In North America cities such as Toronto,
  Vancouver and Portland have centres policies,
  but most have less planning intervention.
• Melbournes urban form has elements of both
  archetypes
• We will focus on three European examples
  Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands.

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British Policy

• Britain experienced rapid retail expansion with
  the increase in car ownership. 33 of households
  owned a car in 1950s to 62 in 1994.
• British planning system has the national
  government issuing guidance notes which must be
  complied with.

5
British Policy

• Following unprecedented de-regulation, the
  Thatcher Government recognised the need for
  tighter controls.
• British PPG6 adopted first in 1993 and
  strengthened in 1996.
• Requires all new developments to be directed into
  town centres, freestanding sites only if no other
  option.

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British Policy

• Objectives of PPG6 include
• to sustain and enhance the vitality viability
  of town centres
• to focus development, especially retail, in
  locations which reduce car dependency
• to ensure the availability of a wide range of
  shops, employment, services and facilities
  accessible by a range of means of transport.

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British Policy

• Hierarchy of locations from best to worst
• town centres
• edge of centres sites
• out-of-centre sites in locations that are
  accessible by a choice of means of transport.
• Lack of available suitable sites within the
  centre of towns should be addressed by the local
  authority.
• All local governments must prepare structure
  plans.
• Can be viewed at http//www.planning.odpm.gov.uk/p
  pg/ppg6/index.htm

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Danish Policy

• 1997 changes to national Planning Act following
  concern over rapid expansion of stand alone
  shopping centres. 50 of the retail floorspace
  built from 1987 to 1994 had been located away
  from city core locations.

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Danish Policy

• Danish Government concerned that these trends
  would
• reduce provision for the 50 of the population
  who cannot shop by car
• would increase car dependency
• would also weaken the traditional city centres.

10
Danish Policy

• 1997 Amendment to National Planning Act requires
  planning authorities to locate shopping areas
  within the cores of towns and larger
  neighbourhoods of big cities.
• Only 4 exceptions allowed
• small neighbourhood shops for local areas
• retail outlets at the point of production
• situations where historic conservation measures
  make it impossible to locate additional shops in
  a central area
• shops which sell only space demanding goods.

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Danish Policy

• Space demanding goods tightly defined. Includes
  timber, building materials and cars, but not
  food, white goods, furniture, electrical
  equipment.
• The protection of the historic built form has led
  to the creation of a new shopping precinct
  Ørestad, outside Copenhagen to cater for the
  larger formats retailers now want.

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Ørestad

• Ørestad
• is being developed by a public company owned 45
  by the Danish government and 55 by the
  Municipality of Copenhagen.
• will be linked by underground train (taking less
  than 5 min) to the centre of Copenhagen. Trains
  will run every 2 minutes in daylight hours.
• While it is out-of-centre it is transit-oriented.

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The Netherlands

• Policy adopted in 1989 known as the Dutch ABC
  location policy. The 1995 guidance policy was
  called The Right Business in the Right Place.
• The policy requires local planning authorities to
  classify locations according to their
  accessibility and to use this to guide the
  location of travel generating uses.

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The Netherlands

• A locations are places with excellent public
  transport and poor car accessibility. They are
  suitable for large offices. They must be within
  600m of a railway interchange or 400 m of a high
  quality tram or bus stop.
• Within this there are AI which are directly
  adjacent to a railway station, and AII locations
  which are not.

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The Netherlands

• B locations have good public transport and car
  accessibility. Good locations for offices which
  need to use cars as part of their work.
• Must be within 400 m of a tram or bus stop and
  not more than 5 minutes ride from a train
  station. No more than 400 m from a main road
  connected to a highway. Subcategories of BI, BII
  and BIII.

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The Netherlands

• C locations are places with poor public
  transport and good car access. Suitable for
  freight intensive industries, warehouses etc..
• Each of these classifications has its own ratio
  for car parking minimums and maximums to
  floorspace.
• The ABC policy is designed to bring about a more
  compact, less car dependent city.

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A range of policy options

• These examples highlight some particular choices
  available for policy makers
• to dictate or simply encourage
• to place the onus for site selection on the
  proponent or the planning authority
• to designate centres or establish criteria

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A range of policy options

• should centres be ranked according to a central
  place hierarchy or a hierarchy based on
  sustainabilty criteria
• within a framework of triple bottom line
  sustainability, should the environment (i.e.
  transport implications) get priority.

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A return to regulation

• These policies (and many others) represent a
  return to some form of regulatory approach.
• Many commentators now believe that sustainable
  development cannot be achieved without increased
  government intervention (e.g Blowers 1993,
  Gleeson and Low 2000).

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Towards sustainable development

• Laissez-faire policies have been unsustainable
  in their own right and have encouraged
  environmentally, socially and economically
  damaging patterns of land use and activity.
  Sustainable development can only be achieved
  through government interventionIn order to
  achieve it, it is important to discourage
  unnecessary car use, reduce energy consumption
  and pollution, and avoid loss of open land,
• Ibrahim and McGoldrick, 200337.
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Activity Centre Planning

• International examples of Activity Centre Policies