scope:

Introduction

This Handbook provides best practice guidelines for alternative designs and technologies for subdivision and land development in New Zealand. These guidelines have been based on the design components used in eco-villages and cohousing developments, and have been developed utilizing consultation with Local Authorities throughout New Zealand.

It is intended that this Handbook be used by professionals, Local Authorities, land developers and the public to aid in the creation of environmentally and socially sustainable communities. The guidelines form a complete design package for land development, each being interconnected with the others and having the potential to solve more than one environmental design issue. The Handbook has been structured to enable the use of each guideline individually or collectively as a design solutions in any proposed or existing subdivision.

Sections 1.1 to 1.5 outline the relevant issues the Handbook aims to address and introduce eco-villages and cohousing as guiding concepts evolving in response to the issues facing land development. A discussion of the context through which land development has evolved in New Zealand is provided along with the identification of traditional approaches that have dominated design and land development. This introductory section concludes with a discussion on the Resource Management Act 1991 and how subdivision and land development can embrace sustainability in a more proactive way through the use of this Handbook.