Community engagement
When preparing design codes, communities need to be involved at each stage of the process.
The advice set out below outlines how to gain measurable community support for design codes. Community engagement needs to be appropriate to the scale and location of the development, recognising that some aspects of the development process are complex, some community groups are harder to reach, and that the occupants of new development are hard to identify.
The form and approach for community engagement needs to be decided locally and co-designed with community groups. Local planning authorities should refer to planning practice guidance on plan-making, including the Statement of Community Involvement.
The community involves all people living and working in and around the area for which the code is being produced together with local interest groups, stakeholders and elected representatives.
The consultation process will involve:
- identifying where the code will apply;
- defining and mapping the types of neighbourhood governed by the code;
- masterplanning the development;
- content of the design code;
- application of the design code and how it influences individual schemes.
The process should be transparent and collaborative, and it should precede each stage of the production of the design code. Engagement activities should be appropriate to the scale of the relevant area, with some elements of engagement taking place across the authority, and some at the settlement and neighbourhood level, to match stakeholder interests. At each stage, it should be easy for participants to engage with the process and see how their contributions have been used to develop its next stage.
The guidance set out in Planning Practice Guidance, Design: Process and Tools, provides advice on how to engage communities in the planning process. There are a range of in-person and digital engagement tools that can be used. Each has advantages and disadvantages for reaching different sections of the community. Using a combination of different techniques will often help in reaching the maximum number and range of people.
New digital technologies and applications are being developed and the process for engagement and measuring support will evolve over time. Local planning authorities will need to apply a balance of face-to-face and digital techniques appropriate to their circumstances and the type and scale of development.
- Visual preference surveys: surveying the local community on buildings, places, and streets they prefer, dislike or would like to improve.
- Place assessment tools: such as tools like Placecheck and Spaceshaper.
- Structured workshops and charrettes: hands-on events to explore the challenges and opportunities of a site or area, analyse options or develop design proposals at various stages in the process.
- Community panels or forums: to ensure the voice of the community is considered through formal and informal structures.
- Drop in events and exhibitions: to provide the opportunity to discuss the proposals with the consultation team and provide feedback in-person or via a questionnaire.
- Community representation on design review panels: design review panels are normally made up of professional experts, but they can be enriched by including representatives of local communities.
- The use of digital techniques can help to engage with hard-to-reach groups in the community, such as younger people, and can be used in addition to in person techniques referred to above.
- Social media platforms, apps, email campaigns and websites: can be used to promote in person events but could also be used to share information, allow online participation in consultation processes and get feedback.
- Digital models of design codes and their context, area or sites: to help to visualise concepts and the wider effects of development. These might include the use of gaming platforms to engage younger audiences in exploring spatial design.
- Other visualisation techniques for three dimensional models: to provide the community with a visual appreciation of the proposals.
- Community-level data gathering: to gauge levels of support for particular ideas along with accessible, transparent representation so the community can see the views of the whole community reflected statistically.
This will depend on the scale at which the code is being considered. The engagement process for the design code at the authority level will normally be run by the local planning authority, while for specific development sites, the developer may be expected to manage the process.
The team responsible for producing a code will need to be interdisciplinary, including architects, landscape architects, urban designers and local planning authority officers. Independent facilitators may be appointed to support community engagement.
Those leading the engagement will need to build the knowledge of the community about the purpose, application and development of design codes. It is important to provide participants with the right tools and information to engage fully. This could involve training at the outset to raise awareness and build skills. There may be a need for a period of networking, research and conversations to build a map of key interests and stakeholders. Initial engagement may include the actions set out in the box below.
- Meeting with community representatives, stakeholders, councillors, neighbourhood planning groups, and external consultees to explain the process and the role of a design code.
- Surveying local hopes, preferences and fears as widely as possible.
- Set up community panels or forums to represent the views of local communities in the development of the design code.
- Get early buy-in from developers and landowners linked to proposed development sites in order to agree roles and responsibilities.
- Publicise the process widely, with an emphasis on groups whose views may have been under-represented in the past.
Engagement may need to take place through a combination of workshops and interactive events as well as drop-ins and exhibitions. Community events need to cover geographical areas that the community can relate to. This could be the wider local planning authority area, although it is likely that separate workshops will be needed for different places. Workshops would be necessary for each stage of the process.
Engagement processes can have social benefits that extend beyond the task being undertaken, such as strengthening community cohesion and making connections between people who might not otherwise have met or interacted. Community engagement enablers may work closely with established organisations and groups within the community to organise events.
Those leading engagement will need to consider how they can demonstrate measurable community support. Activities that achieve this will need to be determined locally. Established techniques such as Enquiry by Design, BIMBY (Beauty in My Back Yard) and Planning for Real, as well as new emerging community engagement techniques, can be employed to deliver provably popular places that have measurable community support. The use of digital technology and social media platforms can support this.