ASSESSMENT OF LANDCAPE PROVISIONS FOR PROPOSED PLAN CHANGE 1. Inner Business Zone. Outer Business Zone PALMERSTON NORTH CITY COUNCIL

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1 A division of Hudson Group Ltd ASSESSMENT OF LANDCAPE PROVISIONS FOR PROPOSED PLAN CHANGE 1 Inner Business Zone Outer Business Zone PALMERSTON NORTH CITY COUNCIL 1

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3 A division of Hudson Group Ltd Prepared by Hudson Associates Registered Landscape Architects PO Box 8823 Havelock North Ph For PALMERSTON NORTH CITY COUNCIL 23 February

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5 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS BACKGROUND INNER BUSINESS ZONE OUTER BUSINESS ZONE STREETSCAPE PUBLIC PLANTING STREETSCAPE PRIVATE PLANTING STREETSCAPE PEDESTRIAN PARKING AREAS SHRUB PLANTING OUTER BUSINESS ZONE/RESIDENTIAL ZONE INTERFACE CONCLUSION

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7 TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1 Proposed Plan Change 13 Figure 2 Streetscape improvements significantly enhance amenity around The Square. 17 Figure 3 Street tree planting in public land at a scale that creates character for the whole street. 17 Figure 4 Countdown frontage planting contributes positively to streetscape.. 19 Figure 5 Woolworths frontage planting contributes to streetscape. 19 Figure 6 New World planting forms an edge to the streetscape.. 21 Figure 7 Auto Service Centre planting has cumulative benefit with adjacent 21 New World planting. Figure 8 Dick Smith centre car park with expansive pavement and no trees within the car park 23 Figure 9 Broadway New World with large trees in the car park.. 23 Figure 10 Fergusson St PaknSave with expansive pavement and no trees within the car park 25 Figure 11 Bryant St New World with expansive pavement and no trees within the car park 25 Figure 12 Tree planting within the Countdown car park.. 27 Figure 13 Successful shrub planting at the King and Teppett Interiors car park 29 Figure 14 Successful shrub planting at the Modena car park 29 Figure 15 Some planting is poor due to species selection and maintenance 29 Figure 16 Poor species selection, ground preparation and maintenance. 31 Figure 17 Existing trees squeezed along car park edge. 31 Figure 18 Street trees overcome poor private frontage planting 31 Figure 19 Auto Service Centre planting on the footpath frontage, more effective for pedestrians amenity.. 33 Figure 20 Partmaster planting is back against the building, less effective for pedestrian amenity.. 33 Figure 21 Street trees can be dominant character and unify different zones either side of road. 35 Figure 22 Common boundary between OBZ and Residential 35 Figure 23 2m height at boundary and 30 0 recession plane gives similar results as existing provisions

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9 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS Inner Business Zone It is recommended that policies are amended as follows: 3.3 To ensure that a core pedestrian area is provided in the Inner Business Zone that is compact, conveniently interconnected, pleasant, safe and has a high standard of landscape design. 7.2 usability of buildings and their relationship with public space and publicly used private space. 7.9 Ensure that public spaces in the IBZ (including privately owned spaces that are characterised by patterns of public use) are suitably designed and lit. Outer Business Zone It is recommended that street tree planting be encouraged throughout the entire OBZ. Planting in the public realm has the potential to greatly benefit the entire street, and the street s individual properties along the way. It is trees that have the major effect in terms of streetscape as they are of a scale that relates to the width of the street and the speed of the traffic, whereas shrub planting relates to the scale of pedestrian activity. For the reason of the trees having a positive benefit on the streetscape scale, the current provisions requiring specimen trees within any frontage planting should be retained. By virtue of its size, a tree is of sufficient scale to make a far greater contribution to streetscape amenity than small edge planting, where their contribution is more towards pedestrian amenity. 9

10 In some cases, private carparks can be quite extensive, and can also be quite barren. Expansive sealed surfaces are dominant, shade is totally lacking, and the scale of the parking area is accentuated due to its unbroken expanse. The amenity of the carpark would be significantly improved if planting was incorporated into the layout, particularly with the inclusion of trees. This breaks up the expanse, provides shade in summer, and introduces an element that is taller than the car, thereby reducing the dominance of the vehicle It is recommended that planting within private car parks be required at the ratio of 1m 2 /car park This planting ratio can be reduced to 0.75m 2 /car park if large specimen trees are used at the ratio of one tree for every 7m 2 of planting An additional car parking assessment criterion is added that states: The extent to which planting within the carpark is designed and distributed to reduce the open expanse of asphalt and the apparent scale of the car park, and improve the amenity for users and viewers of the car park. An effective means of improving the amenity issues that arise where there is a road interface between the Outer Business Zone and the Residential Zone is to undertake street tree planting. Such planting can be of a scale that becomes sufficiently prominent to reduce the conflicting scale between the Outer Business and Residential zones. In reviewing a range of OBZ interface areas, it appears that setback land is not well used. In some cases it is used for driveway access, is built up to the boundary, or becomes an unused yard that gathers weeds and rubbish. In light of this situation, it appears that it is not necessary to have a setback within the OBZ land, but it could be feasible to allow building right to the boundary. However, there is merit in still requiring a recession plane to allow sunlight. This could be 2m height permitted on the boundary and 30 0 recession angle. This has a similar effect on the residential land as a 2m high boundary 10

11 fence, which is a permitted activity, but has the benefit of allowing full use of the Business Zone land. The effect of the currently proposed 4m 30 0 and 3m 30 0 requirements is very similar to the effect of a 2m boundary height and 30 0 recession plane. Amend Policy 2.3 to be: Promote the use of landscape or architectural design at the interface with residential areas to manage the visual effects of development. The review of sites throughout the city shows that the landscaping provisions appear to work in a satisfactory manner, but the variable results that are evident arise from poor design, implementation or maintenance. These are all factors that can be addressed by the Council without the need to amend the current provisions. The fact that many situations exist where good outcomes have been achieved demonstrates that the provisions can work well, provided the supporting horticultural expertise and monitoring is utilised in the process. 11

12 2 BACKGROUND PNCC is undertaking a change to the District Plan in relation of the Inner and Outer Business Zones. Current landscape provisions, which are aimed at improved amenity, have had mixed results. As background work to this plan change, Council has undertaken a review of all land that will be affected by the rezoning and of past consents granted within these areas. It is apparent that non compliance with signage and carparking provisions has been the primary reason triggering the need for resource consent, with other provisions such as height control coinciding with the areas of non compliance. It is also apparent that maintenance standards vary considerably, with well motivated consent holders maintaining planting to a high standard and this providing an excellent outcome, while unmaintained planting results in very poor outcomes. The review undertaken by Council suggests this as a compliance issue, whereby consent holders should be required to maintain their planting to a good standard in order to fulfil their conditions of consent. Where this is not being done, the review suggests that enforcement is the means of achieving the intended result. Mixed outcomes resulting from the existing provisions do not mean that such provisions should not exist. Because some outcomes are good, this indicates that owner motivation is a key factor in achieving high standards. Therefore it is possible that the existing approach can lead to good results. If greater compliance can improve the poorer sites, and enforcement is the way of addressing this, it is not necessarily the provisions themselves that are at fault. However, as part of my assessment, I have reflected on the practicality of the current provisions in light of the results achieved and considered this as part of my review of the landscape provisions. Part of Council s strategy in promoting the plan change is to reduce the extent of the Inner Business Zone so that it is more intensively developed and more pedestrian orientated. Coupled with this is recognition of the fact that the Outer Business Zone is primarily providing a service to people accessing the area by cars, whereas the Inner Business Zone primarily provides a service to pedestrians. As part of the plan change, greater emphasis is being placed on building design and urban design. 12

13 Figure 1. Proposed Plan Change 13

14 3 INNER BUSINESS ZONE When considered in relation to the Inner Business Zone, the intensification emphasis is primarily evidenced through the reduction of Inner Business Zoned land. Within this reduced area, pedestrian amenity is evidenced through provisions relating to setbacks, verandas and building height, amongst other things. Being focused on pedestrian amenity and comparative retail, the scope for landscape design in the private realm is limited, particularly as it relates to soft landscaping, except in relation to car parks and connectivity. Large new developments, such as The Plaza, have incorporated landscape design into their carpark, which is an essential component of the mall s and the adjacent Countdown s facilities. While the shops and buildings of the Inner Business Zone may have limited scope for landscape design, their associated facilities such as carparks and walkways do offer the opportunity for such design work, including both hard and soft landscaping. It should be noted that there is significant scope for landscape design in the public realm in the Inner Business Zone, as has been demonstrated by the excellent landscape design work in The Square. However, as these District Plan provisions relate to business zoned land, the public realm works fall outside their control. While Inner Business Zone objectives and policies promoted in the Plan Change relate to buildings and activities on private land, it is important that their inter reaction with public land is considered throughout the design phase to ensure private and public complementarity. While there is scope for landscape design considerations in the Inner Business Zone in relation to buildings and beyond facilities such as carparks and walkways, such considerations are typically at a scale that relate to the ambit of urban design and will be considered under these provisions. These landscape design factors concerning buildings include issues such as building form, location, relationship with local character, and relationship with public and private spaces, all of which will be considered as part of the urban design assessment (Objective 6, Policy 6.1, Objective 7 policy ). Connectivity will be considered under Objective 3 and policies 3.2, 3.3 and 3.5. To emphasis the role high quality landscape design (e.g. quality paving) can play in IBZ connectivity, it is recommended that policy 3.2 be amended to include the following: 14

15 3.2 To ensure that a core pedestrian area is provided in the Inner Business Zone that is compact, conveniently interconnected, pleasant and safe, and has a high standard of landscape design. To ensure the relationship of buildings to public space is considered in building design, it is recommended that policy 7.2 be amended to include the following additional words: 7.2 To enhance the public environment of the Inner Business Zone by guiding the design of new building development, and enhancing the accessibility and usability of buildings and their relationship with public space and publicly used private space. Connectivity is also referred to in both the proposed IBZ and OBZ assessment criteria which refer to the need for a Comprehensive Development Plan for all large scale development. I support this proposal, as the assessment criteria considers: the extent to which direct and safe public through site links are provided on very large blocks, where these provide a useful link between known or predicted destinations. To help achieve safety in these areas of public space, it is recommended that policy 7.9 be amended to include the need for safe design as well as good lighting. While lighting is a key to safety, CPTED principles include many design features that can be incorporated when planning new developments. 7.9 Ensure that public spaces in the IBZ (including privately owned spaces that are characterised by patterns of public use) are suitably designed and lit. 15

16 While there is scope for landscape design factors such as paving and hard landscaping to be included in the Inner Business Zone provisions, these are potentially covered in the architectural aspects of the provisions and also the urban design assessment criteria (Policies , particularly 7.2 as amended above). For these reasons, it is proposed to focus specific landscape provisions in the Inner Business Zone on issues relating to car parking, and to incorporate consideration of the other landscape issues noted above under the urban design and building design provisions of the zone as covered by the objectives and policies. The recommended landscape provisions for the Inner Business Zone typically relate to assessment criteria for buildings that fall within the discretionary (restricted) activity status, except for planting standards within car parks which applies to the permitted activities within this zone. 4 OUTER BUSINESS ZONE As part of the plan change, it is proposed that the extent of Outer Business Zone be expanded. Some of this expansion has come about through land that was formerly zoned as Inner Business being changed to Outer Business, while other expansion has occurred through land that was Residential being rezoned as Outer Business. Because of the recognised emphasis on cars, the need to consider vehicle oriented effects on amenity within this zone becomes particularly apparent. An assessment of the character of the Outer Business Zone shows that landscape amenity can be considered in relation to three separate aspects: Streetscape Parking (on site) Pedestrian Considering each of these in turn: 16

17 Figure 2. Streetscape improvements significantly enhance amenity around The Square Figure 3. Street tree planting in public land at a scale that creates character for the whole street 17

18 4.1 STREETSCAPE PUBLIC PLANTING The streetscape aspect relates to the character of the public road and the influence that landscaping can have. The streetscape effects of landscaping can be influenced through planting within the public road and/or planting within private land abutting the public road. In terms of the streetscape scale, it is typically tree planting that affects amenity and character. Small shrubs and strips of planting along front boundaries have lesser effect on the streetscape. In terms of planting within the public road, this is within Council s control rather than private control. Typically, landscaping within the street is oriented towards large trees, which are at a scale appropriate for the width and activity that occurs on a public road. The Council s City Square redevelopment is a good example of the manner in which Council has identified an area that is capable of accepting significant tree planting and also contribute in a major way to the amenity and character of the city. The Square is now an outstanding amenity feature for the city that could well be used as a catalyst for additional streetscape development throughout the central city in order to leverage off the significant investment and qualities that the Square offers. One such area of streetscape work that does leverage off the Square is the narrowed street and extended pavement in the southwest corner (Figure 2). In my view, extending this right around The Square and along George St would be one of the simplest and most effective ways of significantly enhancing the image and amenity of Palmerston North. In addition to this project, many streets within both the IBZ and OBZ have the potential to accommodate street tree planting that will make a positive contribution to the amenity and character of these streets and the city. In comparison to tree planting on individual private landholdings fronting the street, it is typically the public realm of the road that has the scale capable of accepting significant tree planting (Figure 3). This is particularly the case in Palmerston North due to the generous width of many streets. Additionally, the street provides the opportunity for repetitive street tree planting that can develop into avenues of a scale that cannot be achieved by piecemeal planting on individual properties. For these reasons, it is recommended that consideration be given to investigating street tree planting throughout the OBZ. 18

19 Figure 4. Countdown frontage planting contributes positively to streetscape Figure 5. Woolworths frontage planting makes valuable contribution to streetscape 19

20 4.2 STREETSCAPE PRIVATE PLANTING Streetscape is also affected by trees on private land. However, as noted above, while planting on individual properties can be undertaken, it does not normally have the extensiveness or opportunity for repetitiveness that can be achieved with street tree planting. Despite this, tree planting on frontages of private land as part of a development can make a very meaningful contribution to the streetscape. This is especially the case where extensive frontages occur, such as with the Woolworths carpark in Featherston Street and the Countdown carpark in Ferguson Street. The Ferguson Street example will show over time as the trees mature that planting of large trees on private land can have a significant effect on streetscapes (Figure 4). In this case, the combined effect of planting on private plus Council planting within the road will amplify the positive effect. Similarly, the Woolworths Featherston Street example shows how planting has along the frontage (Figure 5), will have major benefits for the streetscape. It must be noted that while tree planting within smaller private sites may make a lesser contribution to streetscapes than extensive frontage planting and planting within the public road, private planting can undoubtedly make a very positive contribution to the amenity of the individual property concerned. Current provisions require the planting of one specimen tree every 7m along a private frontage, along with shrub planting to form a border. Observation suggests that it is the trees that have the major effect in terms of streetscape as they are of a scale that relates to the width of the street and the speed of the traffic. The shrub planting relates to the scale of pedestrian activity, as discussed below. For the reason of the trees having a positive benefit on the streetscape scale, I fully support retention of the current provisions requiring specimen trees within any frontage planting. By virtue of its size, a tree is normally of sufficient scale to make a far greater contribution to streetscape amenity than small edge planting, where their contribution is more towards pedestrian amenity. 20

21 Figure 6. New World planting forms an edge to the streetscape Figure 7. Auto Service Centre planting has cumulative benefit with adjacent New World planting 21

22 4.3 STREETSCAPE PEDESTRIAN As discussed above, border planting with shrubs is typically of a scale that relates to pedestrian amenity. The size of plants, the width of the border, the variety of species, colours and textures that can be achieved with shrubs all contribute to the amenity that is perceived at the scale of pedestrian activity. The positive effect of border shrub planting as it contributes to streetscape amenity is increased when there is scope for greater lengths of such planting. This can occur when there are extensive lengths of borders, such as occurs at Woolworths and Countdown as noted above, or when there is recurring planting in individual private properties along the street. One of the expected outcomes of the current landscape provisions is that, over time, repetitive private planting will occur as successive developments occur along a street and their cumulative effects become apparent. Some indication of this is already occurring in Bryant Street where the New World planting (Figure 6) and the adjacent Auto Service Centre planting (Figure 7) are growing to form a continuous edge to the streetscape. In this case, both tree and shrub planting are present, with the trees (particularly the New World trees) contributing to the vehicle scale and the shrubs contributing to the pedestrian scale of activities and their combined effect contributing to the streetscape amenity of the area. On site parking is often enclosed by border planting, which provides some screening of parked vehicles and softens the appearance of parking areas. 22

23 Figure 8. Dick Smith centre car park with expansive pavement and no trees within the car park Figure 9. Broadway New World with large trees in the car park 23