Enhancing Communities through Mixed-Use Urban Planning

Written by Ben Ross - Talking Auckland

The Bishop talks housing, and community!

Minister Christopher Bishop in his announcement last Thursday stated:

Mixed-use development refers to enabling different types of activities to happen in proximity to each other. The greatest cities in the world – New York, London, Paris – all have areas that contain a mix of housing, supermarkets, cafes and offices.


In my all things urban and transport folder housing some 4,000 pictures and files, I have dug up some pictures of both mixed use, and single use urban areas.

Now tell me which looks better let alone more efficient in terms of accessing amenities, was it the Mixed Use or drab Single Use?! Just a tad annoyed Bishop didn’t mention Asia where Japan often comes out on top with mixed use!

In the National Policy Statement – Urban Development (NPS-UD) debates back in the day there was a push by submitters (Coalition for More Homes NZ a big proponent) including myself for Mixed Use to be “as of right” in the higher density zones. Whether it be corner sites in Mixed Housing Urban zones, or more prolific in Terraced Housing and Apartment Zones to the point the full blown Mixed Use Zone might be better. The NPS-UD didn’t cater for it then but what the Minister wants now answers that push!

How Mixed Use benefits towns and cities!


Forget the fact that Mixed Use is a main goal of the 15-Minute City. Look at how it would impact you:

  1. Your basic amenities are in walking distance. No longer do you need to drive to Pak n Save or Woolworths getting milk, bread and then coffee and a chain joint but rather a walk down the way to the small general store who is likely to be an independent.
  2. Doing the above is likely to promote more social interaction which drives down loneliness and even crime or fear of crime
  3. Designed right it can cater from singles, to young families, our seniors, and those with mobility impairments
  4. It does make transit more accessible and efficient
  5. If our supermarkets read the tea leaves properly then more metro style supermarkets form and should start seeing a massive curtailing of the current model with their excessive parking (might find those later stores become obsolete very fast).
  6. Better support for hospitality
  7. And you scale accordingly depending on zone and location (so what applies in a Metropolitan Centre will not necessarily apply to Mixed Use/Terraced Housing Apartment Zones, nor Mixed Housing Urban. If anything our Neighbourhood Centre, and Local Centre Zones might be strengthened (something Takaanini Village missed)

And I can go on. But in essence Mixed Use especially as of right can certainly go a long way in better outcomes from traffic, to pollution, to productivity, to social interaction and so on.

Mixed Use can promote stronger social and community cohesion similar to the Light traffic scenerio above. The more social interactions the less chance of crime, fear of crime, and/or loneliness!

In the you should have the right to walk for your basic amenities in an urban environment (note I said urban NOT rural as that is an entirely separate geography) and not be forced to drive for those same basics!

We should be embracing even low density mixed use via Terraced Housing. In this case using Cities Skylines 2 we have three or four storey mixed use with either commercial or office on the bottom floor and residential above it. The four storey building in the middle houses a medical clinic on the ground floor and offices above.
A close up of the same mixed use buildings!
Behind the same buildings pictured above. The beauty of mixed use is you can get rid of prohibitive Setback rules as seen with the roadside pictures because you have allowed for green space out the back. In this case private green space attached to each property and the public green space behind that where applicable. Also need parking? DO NOT WORRY my fellow driver, you can park out the back for your apartment, office or stopping on by to get the bread and milk while coming home from work (thus minimising need for street parking)