Advocating for Community Vision in Urban Regeneration

A multi-year advocacy programme to amplify Community voice and vision for large-scale urban regeneration in Auckland, taking a multi-pronged approach with public events and targeted engagement to decision makers. 

Following the development of the Uptown Community Vision, there was a need to socialise the vision and create buy-in from urban regeneration stakeholders in the district. 

We coordinated, in partnership with Uptown, several events to highlight the upcoming change in Uptown, including:

• Presentations on the future of urban housing in Aotearoa, including sustainable build-to-rent, collective living models, and urban Māori housing. 
• A panel discussion from some of Auckland’s most forward-thinking built environment minds about how urban regeneration can contribute to placemaking and a sense of identity. 
• Face-to-face presentations to decision makers to socialise the Uptown community vision, which resulted in the place pillars being incorporated into organisations’ regeneration outcomes. 
• A walking tour highlighting historical sites and future potential for regeneration as part of the Urban Walking Festival. 
• A multi-day, multi-event Futures Festival developed in partnership with University of Auckland, AUT, and Unitec to showcase locations across Uptown, and how the precinct may look and feel in the future. 
• Our work together is ongoing, as we work together with the Business Association to articulate a positive, progressive vision for the district and reimagining how we do urban regeneration in Aotearoa - using our own backyard as a case study. 

The Urban Advisory continued our relationship with Uptown to build a series of events and ongoing advocacy to promote and adapt the community vision, to ensure that it was being incorporated into regeneration thinking by decision makers. This included a multi-channel engagement plan, focusing on building public awareness and support, as well as targeted presentations and meetings with key government and community decision makers. Our mission was to promote each of the Place Pillars developed in the vision and how these relate to how people will live-and-do-business in Uptown in the future.

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