Neighborhood Character
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Neighborhood character refers to the 'look and feel of an area', in particular a residential area. It also includes the activities that occur there. In everyday usage, it can often be synonymous with local character, residential character, urban character and
place identity Place identity or place-based identity refers to a cluster of ideas about place and identity in the fields of geography, urban planning, urban design, environmental psychology, ecocriticism and urban sociology/ecological sociology. Place identity ...
, but those terms can have more specific meanings in connection with
urban planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...
and conservation. The neighborhood character ascribed to an area can be both descriptive and prescriptive, and may or may not form an explicit component of
planning Planning is the process of thinking regarding the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning is based on foresight, the fundamental capacity for mental time travel. Some researchers regard the evolution of forethought - the cap ...
policy. However, planning policies inevitably impact upon the way a place is used and how it feels to be there, along with a range of other social, cultural, ecological, physical, and economic factors that shape human settlements. As interest in the concept of
place Place may refer to: Geography * Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population ** Census-designated place, a populated area lacking its own municipal government * "Place", a type of street or road name ** Of ...
has increased since the 1970s,
urban design Urban design is an approach to the design of buildings and the spaces between them that focuses on specific design processes and outcomes based on geographical location. In addition to designing and shaping the physical features of towns, city, ...
ers and planners have accordingly become more focused on issues of character. The way that character is regulated varies from place to place, with some planning systems making more overt references to it than others. Preservation of neighborhood character is often given as a reason for opposition to development of an area.


Australia

Neighbourhood character has become a key term in the planning system of
Victoria, Australia Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; ...
. Since 2001, it has been the mandatory starting point for assessing all permit applications for residential development in established urban areas in that state. In its formal use in the planning system, it refers to the qualities that make one neighbourhood distinct from another, and encompasses a range of physical components of the built environment, architectural style, street width and layout, vegetation, fence height and style, and so on. Every urban place has a neighbourhood character. There has been much dispute in Victoria with regard to the use of this term because of its qualitative aspects, which rely mainly on subjective judgement. The planning system is focused on physical planning and the built environment, but residents groups such as
Save Our Suburbs Save Our State (SOS), formerly known as Save Our Suburbs, was a community group concerned about the impact of contemporary development on established low-density residential suburbs in Australian cities. It was established in Melbourne, Victori ...
have suggested that the term is too vague on the one hand, and not broad enough on the other as it doesn't incorporate an understanding of the social and cultural character of residential neighbourhoods. Neighbourhood character is regulated in Victoria through a variety of planning instruments within
ResCode ResCode is a residential design code introduced by the Bracks ( ALP) government, in Victoria, Australia in 2001. It applies to all land zoned for residential use across Victoria and covers buildings up to and including four storeys in height. (Ta ...
, the statutory code for residential development. The
Neighbourhood Character Overlay A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...
is the most stringent regulatory device and works in a similar way to a
heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset A heritage asset is an item which has value because of its contribution to a nation's society, knowledge and/or culture. Such items are usually physical assets, but some countries also ...
control. Its first implementation was for the
Hedgeley Dene Gardens Hedgeley Dene Gardens is a public open space in the suburb of Malvern East in Melbourne, Australia. It is one of the most popular parks in the Malvern East locality. It is also significant as an example of public open space design that recrea ...
precinct in the
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
suburb of
Malvern East Malvern East is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 13 km south-east of the Melbourne central business district, located within the City of Stonnington local government area. Malvern East recorded a population of 22,296 at the 2021 ...
. Since the mid-1990s, local governments in Victoria have begun to develop policies to regulate neighbourhood character and the majority of the 32 Melbourne local governments now possess some form of locally based neighbourhood character policy.


Canada

Neighbourhood character is a prominent term in the Canadian planning system. For example, since its adoption in 1995, Vancouver's strategic policy 'City Plan' has focused on the creation of a city of distinct neighbourhoods, each with its own identity and neighbourhood character.


UK

Neighbourhood character has become an important issue in planning policy in the UK, as a background study area for informing the Local Development Frameworks of the Core Strategies. This process is ongoing. A detailed and robust study of neighbourhoods is seen as essential to producing future plans for growth. It has been recognised in Brighton & Hove Urban Characterisation Study that people live in neighbourhoods, not character areas.Brighton & Hove Urban Characterisation Study
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References

{{Reflist Urban design Architectural conservation