Your Development

Planners and estate developers have long recognised that problems persist with the consequences of inefficient land development. For example Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City concept in 1898 (Howard 1898 in LeGates and Stout (ed) 1996) recognised the need for localised retail and business opportunities, as well as strong public and civic buildings that draw residents to their own area and reduce the need for commuting and private vehicle travel. These concepts of accessibility and walkable cities have been further explored through the New Urbanism and Transit Oriented Development (TOD) movements (see for example Katz 1994, Calthorpe 1993) which look to further refine this notion of local pride and sustainability.
Today, a mix of uses within new neighbourhoods often forms part of an overall sales and development package, establishing a trend that encourages and facilitates local people living, working, being entertained and interacting with people in their local area. Mixed use does not necessarily imply shopping centres or high density development. In fact, many mixes of land use in residential areas go unnoticed or are simply recognised by an inconspicuous business sign or corner store where the owner also lives at the same premises.
A mix of uses can also include community development, such as community centres, community child-care or senior citizens clubs, all of which contribute to the foundation of stronger and more vibrant communities. Where possible, community uses should be co-located with other activities, such as retail shops or civic buildings so there is a spread of activity over a larger portion of the day.
Design should also ensure that potential conflicting land uses are adequately buffered. This may include additional noise attenuation or physical barriers between certain uses to ensure impacts are minimised, such as the spread of noise from a ground floor restaurant to a first floor residential unit. Some uses are never likely to be acceptable as mixed-use development, and careful consideration should be given to the ultimate uses to ensure that appropriate infrastructure is provided.

Mixed-use development

Providing for a variety of land uses, such as retail shops or commercial business suites can be difficult within a primarily residential setting or estate. However by providing “mixed-use” development, that is mixing residential development with other uses such as those described above, a vibrant community can be created.

Mixed-use development is not a new concept, with corner stores or shop top housing being common around the world for many years. However the concept of mixed-use development has been highly refined in many forms such as Transit Orientated Developments (TODs), work from home suites, as well as adaptive re-use of historic buildings and items of heritage value. The sketches and photos provide some typical mixed use development ideas.

Mixed use development examples with retail and commercial uses at ground floor and residential units above

Mixed use development is particularly effective in higher density areas where unit development can exist above retail shops or offices. The integration of retail functions within a street encourages an active street environment that is not necessarily confined to daytime office hours. At an even greater density, particularly within Australia’s inner-city areas, several uses can co-exist vertically within a single building, rather than being horizontally spread along a street. For example, uses such as child care, gyms, community meeting rooms, shops and residential units are often found together in modern high-rise residential development.

In areas of lesser density, mixes of use such as work from home suites will provide similar benefits. Similarly, providing a community meeting place or formal open space where community events can be held will encourage community members to interact, meet and talk. Community spaces can also be part of mixed retail or commercial development, and training spaces can be placed within schools to provide after hours training facilities. The image below provides an example of lower density mixed-use development.

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Community Based Development

Within residential estates, community facilities and civic buildings should be readily accessible and centrally located to be highly visible focal points of the road and pedestrian networks. Such development might include a community centre, meeting rooms integrated with retail or commercial offices, recreation facilities and clubrooms, or community facilities such as libraries, childcare or swimming pools.

Community and public buildings often provide an identity for an area, becoming a central meeting point and reference for way finding. Community based development is also often used at different times of the day to commercial offices or residential areas, providing activity and presence for a town centre. By different activities occurring at differing times, there is also increased safety through passive surveillance.

One example of a development that integrates community facilities with business and a range of residential dwellings is the town of Seaside, in Florida USA. The images provide some ideas as to the potential for layout around a central area that contains business and community uses, as well as a range of residential lot sizes, densities and styles.

Above right: Aerial photo of central area.

Middle right: Close up plan of central area incorporating retail, civic, commercial and a variety of residential development.

Bottom: Entire Seaside masterplan

Images source: www.seasidefl.com

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Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and New Urbanism

TOD and New Urbanist theory is based on the concept of reducing travel by private vehicles (cars) by ensuring that employment opportunities, services, shopping and reliable public transport is within reasonable walking distances (typically around 400m) of the majority of residents. Read the TOD factsheet for more details.

TOD’s are often centred on public transport hubs such as train stations, light rail or tram stops, or high frequency busways, however the principles of providing mixed development to reduce car use can be equally applied to greenfield subdivisions.

Accessibility is a key factor in TOD town or village design. Streets are laid out to provide clear, functional movement, and often consist of connected road patterns rather than dead end streets. Density of dwellings should also increase the closer they are to facilities, shops or transport hubs. For example, townhouses or units may be more common in central areas rather than at the edge of estates, whereas larger allotments may provide a buffer and a visually less abrupt edge between rural or open space areas further from town centres. The below plans identify options for newly created neighbourhood TODs and urban TODs that would typically involve brownfield redevelopment.

TOD layout options for incorporating a mix of uses (from Calthorpe 1993)

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Work from Home

A positive form of mixed use development within low density estates might include work from home suites, often known as small office, home office (SoHo) housing. Home office development is becoming more common through modern working arrangements whereby small businesses or professionals, such as architects, doctors or accountants may work from home, with minimal needs for traditional office facilities.

Work from home buildings may require particular attention to design detail, such as ensuring appropriate car parking is provided, separate entrances to the dwelling house and working space for clients, or the layout of spaces to ensure that separate bathroom facilities are provided. Work from home activities should also maintain the amenity of a residential area and not result in impacts from:

• the operation of machinery including vibration;
• electrical equipment or other equipment causing interference;
• light spill or other light impacts;
• smell, fumes, smoke, vapour, steam;
• soot, ash, grit, oil, dust; or
• waste water, waste products. (GCCC 2007)

A work from home dwelling functions particularly well where frontages to two roads are available, such as in the below layout plan. However it can work just as well where separate entrance to the office is available.

Layout based on Varsity Lakes SOHO Development with double frontage

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Case Study – Varsity SOHO, Gold Coast

The integrated residential, business, education and community development of Varsity Lakes on Queensland’s Gold Coast provides for a variety of use and dwelling types within an area typically known for standard suburban blocks.

The Varsity SoHo project, provided six work from home dwellings with specialist inclusions such as high speed internet access. The products respond to the desire of residents to maintain a work life balance through working from home and provide for small business and residential opportunities to intertwine with Varsity Lakes’ Market Square commercial area.

The Varsity Lakes community will ultimately house a population of around 7,800 people in some 3,000 dwellings. The area will additionally provide for around 4,500 jobs in localised and specialist business and educational areas.

Images from Varsity Lakes SOHO Development

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Key Issues

Benefits

Providing a mix of uses within a predominantly residential development has many benefits to the developer and community. The developer can spread the risk of development by providing a diversity of products, with a greater range of potential purchasers and a reduced risk of specific market areas weakening.

The variety of uses can also be a strong marketing tool. Vibrant and active communities are regularly used to promote new greenfield estates. Future residents may also be attracted by the prospect of potential local employment, having the flexibility to move into semi-retirement and work from home, and/or to have access to local community facilities and groups. Providing a range of non-residential facilities and services may also provide justification for an increase in adjacent residential densities.

For the community, a mix of uses can provide a strong neighbourhood centre and community focus, with improved opportunities for social interaction. Local employment opportunities and accessibility to necessary services also provide a strong foundation for sustainability communities, reducing private car travel and improving quality of life. Mixed use developments may also increase the opportunities for providing alternative, more affordable housing types, such as shop top housing.

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Risks

The extent of development that can be supported does need to be carefully considered to ensure that development of various land uses have the population or catchment to support that development. Providing extensive retail shops in a very low density area for example may result in extended vacancy rates and minimal activity.

If the appropriate level of development is provided, for example a corner store instead of a shopping centre, or home office facilities rather than commercial office suites, a good level of land use mix can be progressively introduced into newly developed areas.

Risks also lie in the possibility of amenity impacts between non-compatible uses. These impacts can easily arise through poor design or inappropriate siting of land uses. Where possible impacts arise, an intermediate land use between conflicting uses or provision of other buffers should be considered.

Be sure to:

• Know the market and catchment of the area;
• Ensure that proposals remain flexible to meet changing markets;
• Ensure selected land uses can reasonably co-exist; and
• Consider the longer term benefits of providing some community based development up front to help grow a strong community where people want to live – thus enabling higher sales prices for future stages.

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Savings

Possible savings can be achieved through using land that is commonly associated with mixed use development. Providing shops and business uses with residential units above can create additional sales opportunities and density which may otherwise be lost through more traditional greenfield low density residential development.

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Costs

The cost of providing a mix of uses is only relative to the development products being produced. Development of commercial or retail uses in areas where the population level is low needs to be carefully considered, however the actual cost would be reflected in the end product.

Providing a mix of uses via work from home dwellings can be achieved with little or no additional cost. Such a scheme would provide the flexibility of being sold as residential or work from home dwellings – that is that the office aspect of the development is not compulsory for the resident to use, and can easily be used as additional living spaces, as a “granny-flat” or as a guest bedroom. Added flexibility in marketing and sales would easily offset any additional cost.

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Barriers

Some barriers will exist to providing a mix of uses. For example, local planning authorities may require certain types of development in certain areas, and not allow others. This can curtail genuinely progressive development ideas, however discussing a mix of uses with planning approval authorities up front may be well received, particularly where community facilities and a win-win situation can be achieved between council, the developer and the community.

Providing a mix of development can also be problematic when seeking to raise capital. In these instances a mix of uses can still be provided where it forms part of another product – home office development being a good example. While the home office can function purely as a family home, it also has the added flexibility to be used as a small home office, reducing the risk of providing just one type of product.

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Benchmarks

There are rarely any set benchmarks for providing a mix of uses in estate development. Many attempts have been made to identify a typical amount of different uses that can provide for sustainable communities, however these concepts are not site specific and will differ significantly between different markets. One example is the mix of uses for neighbourhood transit orientated developments, where 10-15% of development is suggested to be public uses, 10-40% employment (retail and commercial) and 50-80% housing (Calthorpe 1993).

Where development occurs in specific “mixed-use” zones, certain levels of different use types may be required and these should be discussed with local planning authorities before any detailed design takes place.

Another benchmark for mixed use development is to seek a particular split of transport mode (private vehicles, public transport, walk, cycling etc). This so called “modal split” is a way to measure the transport sustainability of a development – the more people walking, cycling and catching public transport, the more sustainable. Some planning authorities may seek a certain modal split for walking or cycling, which can be achieved by incorporating a mix of uses within close proximity to where people live.

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Development phase actions

Feasibility

The feasibility of using a mix of uses requires careful research. Planning authority requirements, market trends and development densities are important inputs to the conceptualisation of the end product. Where planning around existing urban areas, the feasibility of using a greater mix of uses is always improved.

Where retail shops and commercial office type development mixes are being considered, it is important to be aware of the local competition and feasibility of new businesses being successful. Conversely, it is also important for local planning authorities to consider the impacts of new retail and commercial facilities on neighbouring areas – a new shopping centre attracting consumers away from another and resulting in its closure is not good planning. So the level of demand for services needs to be carefully considered and an economically sustainable level provided.

By using the flexibility of such mixed use development as work from home dwellings, a mix of uses will be more feasible. While many of the “home offices” may not operate as such initially, it provides for future changes once a local population increases or market forces change.

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Planning

Site analysis is an important step in planning for a mix of uses. It is important that employment and community development is located in central positions or at the junction of main thoroughfares to help form easily accessible places or “activity nodes”.

As previously articulated in example layouts for TODs and the Seaside development in Florida, higher density residential development and mixed uses should be centrally located within the proposal and preferably on the major roads of the estate. This central position allows the area to be more easily accessed by a greater number of people.

Topography and site elements must also be closely considered, with “activity nodes” typically being located in areas where there is a physical attraction – for example the beachside area utilised by the Seaside estate, or a train station in the TOD example.

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Design

Detailed design for a mix of uses is an important aspect of creating successful mixed-use areas. Design elements such as views and the use of landmarks such as strong corner elements can help visitors to easily orientate and recognise locations that can then be used for community and other types of uses.

Within estate design however, architectural design elements are often not required until later stages of development. Broader design issues need to be considerate of land use conflicts and neighbouring areas to ensure compatibility between proposed uses. This is particularly important in greenfield areas where neighbouring uses may be at much lower densities, such as pastoral, rural residential or natural areas.

Generally, by designing road layouts and lot configuration around central activity nodes as discussed above, the detailed architectural design will become the more important aspect of successfully implementing a mix of uses. It is also important to consider the ultimate operational needs of an area during the design stage. For example, if larger delivery trucks are needed to supply goods to retail shops, larger roads, turning spaces and delivery access points may be necessary within the initial design.

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Construction

Construction of mixed use development may require particular additional services or infrastructure to be considered during the construction phase eg high speed internet cables, dual reticulation systems, water reuse infrastructure or particular standards of roads.

Where construction of community or business based development is proposed, this development should be provided (at least in part) up front to encourage the establishment of a community centre focus. While this may create an additional up-front cost for the developer, such costs may be easily recouped by encouraging faster take-up of non-residential development or higher prices for residential units through improved marketing.

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Lot Creation

Appropriate lot design and siting is vital to the viability of mixed use opportunities. Inappropriately sized or located lots are unlikely to attract feasible business or community development opportunities, particularly if these lots are to be sold on an open market. During the lot creation stages, close attention should also be paid to infrastructure requirements of the proposed use.

Following the basic planning and design elements discussed earlier should ensure that lot location and siting is effective for the development of a mix of uses. The sizing of lots needs to be more closely considered, with possible design options and building types considered.

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Completion

At completion of the estate development process, a mix of uses may not have been completely achieved, but the foundations should have been set to ensure that as the population grows and needs of the community change, opportunities will be available to undertake more than just “living” in your estate.

Where mixed use buildings have been constructed by the developer, occupation certificates and inspections will be required, but otherwise providing a mix of use in land use planning terms will not require any specific completion requirements.

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