The Village Organising Company from a Planner's perspective
We are not a developer, yet we propose to develop a 10,000 population, medium density urban community on 50 hectares of land surrounded by 150 hectares of greenbelt with a 15 hectare industrial park. We propose that the community be a parallel village surrounded by a wall, and inside there are no cars - everything is not only within a 10-minute walk, but we take 6,000 cars off the road permanently. No mass-transit, we use shoe leather, bicycles and very slow NEV's.
We are Village Organising Company, not a developer. Our brief includes focusing on the effects of development, including sustainable management of resources, not solely the pecuniary interest that characterises the brief of a developer.
The implications of the difference may be a learning curve for some council planners, as the fundamental relationship between developer and council is shifted. The difference was inspired by pondering the stated purpose of New Zealand's Resource Management Act. It speaks about sustainable management of resources which it defines as enabling people and communities to provide for their social, economic, and cultural wellbeing and for their health and safety while protecting and preserving the environment. Noble words, but how can we actually do this? How do we enable both people and communities to provide?
We took a hint from a book that is required reading for architects, planners, designers and builders in many training programs around the world - A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander who wrote "...most of the wonderful places of the world were not made by architects but by the people."
So we developed a process, a series of workshops, in which ordinary people are supported by a formal process to design a habitat that has an authenticity and character that gives it the potential to become one of those "wonderful places" that Alexander speaks of. The process, called Dynamic Engagement functions similar to that of the jury system, where ordinary people make the final decision, but within the context of a formal process supported by experts (lawyers, judges and rules of conduct in the case of a trial, or building & landscape architects, planners, designers and engineers in the case of a parallel village).
This means we organise the people who will live there into communities called neighbourhood plazas, and then we engage them in the design process. As future residents and a future community, their primary interest is not pecuniary but effects. How will the effects of the design shape the quality of their lives?
Conventionally, developers do not concern themselves with effects, because their motivating force is pecuniary interest: buy, rezone, subdivide, sell, build, exit with profit. Conventionally, the role of the council planner is to assess the effects and to prohibit development where the adverse effects are more than minor, or not properly mitigated.
A Village Organising Company turns that relationship upside down. While it functions as a private enterprise with profit expectations, and therefore has a pecuniary interest, its job is to enable the people and community to provide for their wellbeing. It therefore must pay careful attention to the effects because effects are the primary concern of its clientèle and the host community that must view the proposed village favourably.
It does this by reducing the variables. Unlike the normal process where the plan change, resource consents and subdivision are separate, in the parallel village, a scale model is set out along the What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) principle. Once the land is selected and the 50 hectares for buildings set out, the design process focuses on a precise outcome. The rezoning application will identify precisely what goes where, what size and what function, thus when it is locked there will be no variations except to fix errors. This eliminates the guessing game where the planner tries to anticipate all the potential variations a developer can dream up that fit into loopholes, and block them. This also allows the engineers to do their work days later, not months later, with the infrastructure aspects of the plan to comply with all regulations.
Lest one become suspicious or cynical about what sounds like too noble altruism, consider the common sense aspect of it: By engaging the future villagers in the design process, the buyers are known in advance, thus substantially reducing the risk of the project. By involving them in a Dynamic Engagement process, which is set to take three months, the exposure time is substantially reduced. By seeking to address local community concerns in the dynamic engagement no time or energy is tied up in court battles. By knowing precisely what will be built, the project can move forward in months, not years because we know what to build and can get on with it. By building the whole project in 12 months, not over years or decades, the residents do not live among a construction zone, and the bridge loans to finance the construction do not accrue years of interest... a significant that ultimately is paid by the buyer or that destroys the profit base of the development if units fail to sell.
As discussed in the Dynamic Engagement section, the working relationship with the Council Planners does not change in terms of its arms length relationship (i.e. the council planners are not there to participate in formulating the plan, but to regulate it for compliance purposes), but only in terms of the time, place and manner in which the subject matter is addressed.
Time - The Village Organising Company will negotiate with the Council to have the designated senior planners available full time for the project, so there is no other work-load that interferes with the review and approval process. It is expected this will require additional funding so not to burden the staff that is already carrying a normal caseload of applications.
Place - The Dynamic Engagement process will probably require a large building to hold the scale models and the people who work on the process. The Council Planners have a special role, where they determine if any changes have adverse effects as they are proposed rather than after the fact. The planners would report to work at that facility, and may find that work involves nights and weekends to accommodate for the schedules of the future villagers.
Subject Matter - We propose to use 100:1 scale models of the land, in which the 50 hectares is set out with the boundaries between the respective plaza neighbourhoods and the connecting pedestrian roads predetermined based on the character of the land. The scale model is then cut at the boundaries, so each table is a plaza surrounded by about 200 homes and 50 workplaces on neighbourhood streets, alleys and footpaths. Model makers will standby to make people's homes, where price and aspiration will determine size and scale. Some homes will be large, others will be owned apartments or flats, but almost all will be attached housing. The people will work out the details supported by professionals - architects, designers, master planners, landscape architects and engineers. They also will be supported by a system of pattern cards that sets out timeless patterns as to what works. Their job is to create a model of their neighbourhood, where they make financial decisions like a board game, only they must be backed by financials demonstrating they are prepared to pay for the real building within a year or so. They layout streets, orientation of buildings, and decide the look and feel of the plaza. While they are engaged in this activity, concerned persons may participate and ask questions - typically this will be affected parties, although with the 150 hectare surrounding greenbelt, we may find there are no such concerned people. In addition to all these participants, the Council Planners stand in the room, but they maintain their arms length role. They are to approve (provisionally) or to advise the participants that a particular design aspect will not receive approval and why. Without telling the participants what to do, a dialogue is then opened to find an acceptable resolution. This dialogue is similar to the settlement negotiations ordered by the Environment Court when a case is finally heard - only we seek to front end that process rather than wait years and spend money on lawyers that would be better spent on amenities for the village.
While the primary process will occur face-to-face, we intend to use the internet for real-time simulation of what is happening in the room so that parties who cannot physically attend can still participate. Using products such as Second Life, skilled animators will match the modelling on line and remote villagers will be able to have their elements put forth by the model makers. The process will use telepresence as much as possible.
When the neighbourhood plaza designs are all completed, the tables will be rejoined to show the full design. At this point the Council officers will assess the project in full, transforming the provisional approval into a locked approval. They may identify items that looked OK in isolation, but whose cumulative effects are adverse, for which a solution must be found. When these have been negotiated in the now familiar manner, the 3D design will be reduced to conventional paper documents for the official stamp of approval of recommended Plan Change, Resource Consent, Subdivision and Building Approval, noting that the intent is to set out about 25 master building plans with min-max specifications from which almost all buildings in the village will be based. Almost all buildings will use the same bulk material (Variable Density Concrete), thus simplifying both the design and the construction processes.
In some regards, this is a very new experience for many planners. Some embrace it, others are threatened by it, and look for ways to pick it apart. We seek out planners who will approach it with an open mind, and also suggest ways to improve it. Our goal is to achieve the highest common denominator, not the lowest, and to do so in short order. If you find this of interest, we welcome dialogue with you. Click the Contact Button and use the phone, email or send us a letter.
