UDIA hopeful that the Planning Bill will enable Urban Designers to focus on the job

The Planning Bill passed its second reading on 4 August 2026, with the Environment Select Committee’s recommended changes largely adopted. The UDIA has followed this with interest as many significant changes to streamline the current RMA are proposed, including the exclusion of many key effects that are often raised in the context of urban designers' work.

While this has yet to be passed into law, the current version of Planning Bill proposes excluding consideration of:

• any effect of internal building layouts;

• any external building layout effects on a site unless those effects extend off-site; 

• character, appearance or aesthetic qualities of a use, development or building;

• the type of residents that might occupy a proposed development; and

• landscape effects except where this is an identified outstanding or high natural character landscape present. Noting that all landscape effects remain in scope for transitional district plan consenting.

  
  

Notably, with the exception of building layout, urban design matters remain largely open for consideration.  One of the challenges with urban design has been a misconception that anything related to the built environment is somehow 'urban design', rather than the realms of architecture or landscape architecture to which the exclusions primarily apply.

Clarifying in law that general architectural and landscape preferences are not matters of regulatory control will potentially assist urban designers to have acknowledgment of and focus on their role. It should lead to less unhelpful cross-disciplinary debate in decision making processes, clarifying that urban designers focus on urban design, while our many talented architects and landscape architects can focus on their areas of expertise.

Core to the expertise of urban designers is understanding:

• alternative urban morphologies and the benefits/disbenefits of different structural layouts, including how development interfaces with public spaces;

• the forces of concentration and dispersal, connectivity, and maximising opportunities for both planned and spontaneous exchange opportunities and interactions in the urban environment;

• how to influence actual and perceived safety (and comfort) between activities and public spaces;

• evaluating the effects of shadowing, visual dominance, and overlooking between activities and with open spaces;

• finding spatial solutions that give win-win outcomes to developers, public spaces, and communities; and

• ensuring through these and other core attributes of urban design, responsiveness to the impacts of climate change.

  
  

These key matters of spatial planning and urban configuration remain the subject of appropriate regulatory oversight in the latest version of the Planning Bill.

As we transition to a new system, the UDIA is optimistic that its members will continue to help shape great and successful urban places across the country that can unlock the benefits of density and efficient land use, while ensuring our contribution to future generations and our environment.