A structure planning approach creates a blueprint for an area of land and involves a complete, broad approach to spatially view a place, its communities, and all its parts at varying scales. It’s also a strategy to enable growth and desirable transformation of a place, while improving the future social, economic, cultural, and environmental wellbeing for communities. The Richmond South Structure Plan will identify infrastructure needs and outlines a strategy to provide for these needs.

The Reimagining Richmond South structure planning process includes seven stages over four main phases:

1. Early engagement and context analysis [Stage 1]
   • Collect, share, and analyse what we know about the Richmond South area
   • Seek further knowledge from local communities
   • Agree with landowners and communities our next steps to work together on what the future communities of Richmond South could look like.
     
2. Confirming our vision and testing ‘early insights’ options [Stages 2 + 3]
   • ‘Early insights options’ development based on what we learn through the first engagement round
   • Public participatory engagement led process to develop vision and aspirations
   • Testing ‘early insights options’ with landowners and our communities.
     
3. Develop preferred options and refine through public engagement [Stages 4 + 5]
   • Preferred options development to achieve the agreed vision and based on what we learn through the ‘early insights’ public engagement round
   • Targeted and community-wide public engagement to seek the views on the 2-3 possible options for Richmond South
   • The learnings from this phase will inform the final structure plan.
     
4. Produce final structure plan and implementation plan [Stages 6 + 7]
   • Produce the final structure plan and present to council’s elected members
   • Produce an implementation strategy plan to deliver on the outcomes identified in the structure plan
   • Inform everyone involved in the structure planning process and the wider public of the Council’s decision.

Once adopted, the structure plan will be included in the Tasman Resource Management Plan through a plan change process. Further consultation will occur through this process as set out in the Resource Management Act 1991.

To enable the creation of ’walkable communities’ – we use planning, design, and mixed-density development typologies to maximise walking and other active transport, and minimise driving, leading to healthier, happier, and more connected lifestyles for the people who live in them.

Transect planning can help us achieve walkable neighbourhoods in the future Richmond South area. The transects approach is a planning strategy that seeks to organize the elements of urbanism – neighbourhoods, sections layout and dimensions, built-form, land-use, movement network including streets and walking/cycling paths, and all of the other physical elements of human activity and spaces – in ways that preserve the integrity and enable transition of different types of urban and rural environments.

The transect planning approach enables a good transition between environments and activity areas.