Supporting communities  |  8 Apr 2019

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A host of community-centred ideas have culminated in a major national award for the Christchurch City Council.

The Council has been awarded the New Zealand Planning Institute Nancy Northcroft Planning Practice Award (Supreme Practice Award) for excellence in planning practice. 

It has also won the Best Practice Award in the non-statutory planning category.

Council Head of Urban Design, Regeneration and Heritage Carolyn Ingles says the honour reflects the success of the Council’s innovative approach to supporting community-led planning and place-making after the 2010-11 earthquakes.

“The development of a place-based planning framework has highlighted different leadership approaches, including which types of issues and places are ripe for community leadership and what the Council’s role might be – to lead, partner or to enable new place-making projects,” she says.

“Supported by our Shape Your Place Toolkit – an online resource providing ideas and tools for community-led place-making – communities are empowered to lead their own projects or work with us to benefit their own neighbourhoods.”

The awards recognise a range of “on-the-ground” examples that demonstrate different approaches to supporting community-led place-making.

The Council’s own Enliven Places Programme, which delivers temporary activations and amenity improvements, has recently taken a more deliberate approach of encouraging design and delivery by the community.

The Ibis mural, ShoPOP and Pop-up Gardens competitions are examples of this approach.

The Linwood Tiny Shops partnership project with Greening the Rubble, Te Whare Roimata, and the local community has brought new life to a stressed commercial centre and encouraged local entrepreneurship and community building.

Another project, Little River, Big Ideas, resulted from the Council supporting the development of a community-led plan for the Banks Peninsula settlements of Little River and Cooptown.

The document is now owned by the community and brings together multiple community aspirations, visions and projects for the locality.

“These projects showcase the power of supporting communities to be effective in the way they conceive and deliver place transformation initiatives. It’s great to know that our approach has now been recognised as best practice,” Ms Ingles says.