Compact city
The Compact City is an an urban planning and urban design concept, which promotes relatively high residential density with mixed land uses. It is based on an efficient public transport system and has an urban layout which - according to its advocates - encourage walking and cycling, low energy consumption and reduced pollution. There are more opportunities for social interaction because of the large resident population which also provides a feeling of safety in numbers and ‘eyes on the street’[1]. It is also arguably a more sustainable urban settlement type than urban sprawl because it is less dependent on the car, requiring less (and cheaper per capita) infrastructure provision (Williams, 2000 cited in Dempsey 2010)[2].
Origins
The term 'Compact City' was first coined in 1973 by George Dantzig and Thomas L. Saaty [3] two mathematicians whose utopian vision was largely driven by a desire to see more efficient use of resources. The concept, as it has influenced urban planning is often attributed to Jane Jacobs and her 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities[1]. The book is a critique of modernist planning policies claimed by Jacobs to be destroying many existing inner-city communities.
Amongst her other criticisms of the conventional planning and transport planning of the time Jacobs' work attacked the tendency, inherited from the Garden City Movement towards reducing the density of dwellings in urban areas. Four conditions were necessary to enable the diversity essential for urban renewal: mixed uses, small walkable blocks, mingling of building ages and types, and “a sufficiently dense concentration of people”. The ‘sufficient’ level of density would vary according to local circumstances but in general, a hundred dwellings per acre (247 per hectare – high by the standards of cities in most developed countries today) could be considered a minimum.
The Compact City and 'Smart Growth'
Although the term was coined by American writers, it has been used more in recent years by European and particularly British planners and academics (see for example Jenks et al 1996)[4] In North America the term smart growth has become more common - see the associated page for discussion of that. The two concepts are very similar although 'smart growth' carries more strongly normative connotations.
Influence on Policy in the UK
The Compact City had a particularly strong influence on planning policy in the UK during the Labour Governments of 1997 - 2010. The first Labour Government in 1998 set up the Urban Taskforce under Lord Richard Rogers, which produced the report Towards an Urban Renaissance. Influenced by this report, the UK Government issued [PPG 3]] Planning Policy Guidance on Housing which introduced a 60% brownfield target, a minimum net residential density guideline of 30 dwellings per hectare, a sequential hierarchy beginning with urban brownfield land, maximum parking guidelines replacing the previous minima and a policy of intensification around public transport nodes. Over the succeeding years, these targets were substantially exceeded, with the brownfield proportion reaching 80% by 2009, and average densities 43 dwellings per hectare [5]
References
- ^ a b The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-60047-7
- ^ Dempsey, Nicola (2010) Revisiting the Compact City? Built Environment 36(1)
- ^ Dantzig, G. B. and Saaty, T. L., 1973, Compact City: Plan for a Liveable Urban Environment, W. H. Freeman, San Francisco.
- ^ Jenks, M., Burton, E. and Williams, K. (Editors), 1996, The Compact City: A Sustainable Urban Form?, Spon Press; ISBN 0419213007.
- ^ Land Use Change Statistics (England) 2009 - provisional estimates (July 2010) Department of Communities and Local Government