1. Activity Centre
Performance Toolkit
Toolkit Briefing for
Property Council
Members

2. Pracsys Economics
• Urban and employment economics
• Translating ‘sustainability, livability, prosperity’
objectives into measureable outcomes
• Evidence-based decision making

3. Policy Environment
A tivityC
c entre
Perform eT
anc oolkit
Review of capital city
strategic planning systems
Report to the Council of Australian Governments
23 December 2011

4. Conventional Approach
• Activity = retail driven by population catchment
• Floorspace must be controlled to restrict centre
growth and ‘protect’ prescribed hierarchy
• Black-box analytics
• No allowance for ‘strategic’ activity
• Does not account for unconventional
development

5. Problems
• Old system simple but very basic
• Distorts market forces – reinforces status quo
• Planning aspires to more sophisticated system
• New concepts not well defined or measured
• Planners have not adapted
• Decision makers not equipped to make
decisions
• Fear of ‘looking bad’ creates inertia

6. Alternate Approach
• Specify outcomes rather than inputs
• Measure outcomes
• Make system transparent and common to all
• Use benchmarks
• Work with market
• Assess function of whole network

7. Activity Centre Planning
Principles
Activity allocation – understand the activity
(population and employment) load expected of
each centre in the network

8. Balance against centre capacity

9. Diversity
Mixed Use
 Proportion of jobs in the centre in
categories other than retail
 ABS Census employment data
(working population) using
destination zones
Equitability
 How evenly jobs are distributed to
ensure that all amenities are
represented (and certain land use
categories do not dominate the
mix at the expense of others)
 ABS employment data converted
to Planning Land Use Categories
(PLUC) and Shannon’s Diversity
& Equitability Index applied

10. Intensity
Residential Density
 Dwellings per hectare
 400m and 800m walkable
catchment
 Census collection districts
(CCDs)
Employment Density
 Jobs per hectare
 Destination zones
 Plot ratio (if floor space data
available)

11. Employment
Employment Quantum
 Number of jobs in centre ANZSIC Exports
Consumer Producer
KICS KIPS
Services Services
 Boundary designation
Agriculture, nfd 7% 22% 32% 16% 23%
 Destination zones
Nursery and
Floriculture 15% 47% 15% 18% 6%
Production
Employment Quality Mushroom and
15% 32% 10% 33% 10%
Vegetable Growing
 Percentage of jobs that Fruit and Tree Nut
15% 32% 10% 32% 10%
are KIPS and Export- Growing
Oriented Sheep, Beef Cattle
38% 0% 13% 0% 49%
and Grain Farming
 Uses ANZSIC 3-digit
Other Crop Growing 15% 20% 6% 45% 14%
industries
 Applied employment
quality model

12. Centre Accessibility
Transport Infrastructure Transport Infrastructure
 Presence of bus route, station, train A bus stop for at least one local bus route
etc.
A bus stop for at least two local bus routes
Sub-regional bus station
Distance from CBD
A regional bus interchange
 Kilometres via road
 Also measure distance from other One train station and bus interchange
important economic nodes One train station and regional bus station
 AECOM One regional train station and a regional
bus station
Two regional train stations and a regional
bus station

13. Mobility
ITEM ATTRIBUTE METRIC
Presence of footpath
Continuity of footpath
Walkability Footpaths
Width of footpath
Condition of footpath
Presence of cyclepaths or good cycling
Cycle environment.
Cyclepaths
access
Presence of cycle parking**
Vehicle
Parking Convenient vehicle parking provided
access

14. Urban Quality
ITEM ATTRIBUTE METRIC MEASUREMENT
Presence of places
Count the number of establishments on
Sense of Facilitates social suitable for public
each side of the road segment. Record the
place opportunities meeting, eating/beverage
number.
establishments.*
Are there any water bodies/features visible
Water bodies Present
from the street segment? Yes (1)/no (0).
Are there any parks visible from the street
Parks Number present
segment? Yes (1)/no (0).
Count the number of street trees present
in the street segment and divide by the
Existence segment length (in metres) to give trees/m.
More than 1 tree/8 m (1), 1 tree/8 m – 15 m
Street trees
Attractive (0.5), less than 1 tree/16 m + (0).
features Are most of the trees small – height of a
Size ceiling (0), medium – high as a 2-storey
building (0.5) or large – very high (1).
What material is the pavement made from?
Decorative materials or Plain concrete (0), decorative bricks (0.5),
Pavement
plain concrete** or high quality pavers with decorative
features (1).
Are the any garden beds present? Yes
Garden beds Present*
(1)/no (0).
Car parks Are there any car parks adjacent to the
Unattractive

15. Urban Amenity
ITEM ATTRIBUTE METRIC
Direct or ambient sunlight safely
Solar access
accessible from public realm*
Comfort
Trees or awnings present to shade
Shade
the footpath
Fumes emitted by Calculate number of vehicles per
Air quality
vehicles day on street
Noise emissions from Calculate number of vehicles per
Noise
vehicles day on street
Seating Number provided**
Street furniture
Bins Present**
Number provided
Leisure and social
Parks Playgrounds
opportunities
Sports fields/equipment

16. Safety
ITEM ATTRIBUTE METRIC
Vacant lots
Vacant buildings*
Disorder
Graffiti present*
Perception of
safety Rubbish present*
Passive From dwellings/shops overlooking
surveillance pedestrian/public spaces
Lighting Pedestrian access ways well lit*
Crime events Statistical occurrence
Statistical occurrence of traffic incidents
Ratio of crossovers to street length
Personal safety
Traffic safety Assisted pedestrian crossings on busy roads
Separation of footpaths from road
Traffic calming measures

17. Setting Expectations and
Targets
• National baseline assessment of all centres
• Plan centre development against quantitative
targets
• Centres mature gradually – use benchmarks

18. Planning Assessments
• Local government commercial strategies use
same language and metrics to set expectations
for centre performance
• Conversations with proponents are about eight
outcome areas, not floorspace
• Outcomes evolve through logical discussion –
not prescription

19. New Decision Rules
E–
Expectation
T – Target
I – Impact

20. PCA members should….
• Prepare centre development plans against all
eight outcome areas
• Explain how these outcomes translate to
‘success’ for the centre
• Put pressure on decision makers to use
evidence to support their decisions and be
outcomes focused
• Contact Pracsys for a $5,000 scorecard
(normally $10,000)
• www.pracsys.com.au/toolkit-briefing/