Preferences for Urban Form: How Density Perceptions, Lifestyle and Urban Form Affect the Acceptance of Increased Density in Neighbourhood Redevelopment
Creators: name: Meier, Ryan Alexander
Publisher: name: Environmental Design
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Urban and Regional Planning
subject: FOS: Social and economic geography
subject: Urban Planning
subject: Environmental Psychology
subject: Density
subject: Lifestyle
subject: Environmental Aesthetics

description: Around the world the planning profession has acknowledged the impact that urban sprawl is having on the environment, society and municipal finances. Municipalities and the planning profession are working towards a greater vision of densifying existing inner-city neighbourhoods as a means to build better communities, maximize infrastructure, and reduce the overall environmental impact. In redeveloping these neighbourhoods, planners, developers and architects are experiencing opposition from community groups and residents, who are presenting a spectrum of complaints about change. This is resulting in slowed development and increased costs which leads to lowered affordability and increased viability of suburban development. Understanding both the personal and physical characteristics that contribute to resident acceptance of increased density will enable the effective redevelopment of inner city neighbourhoods. Using Calgary, Alberta, Canada as a case, the research study aims to understand which urban forms, all presented at constant densities of 400 people and jobs per net developable hectare are preferred by residents. The study was framed around five research questions, which seek to understand: (1) preferred urban form, (2) how density is perceived, (3) the relationship between preferred urban form and perceived density, (4) the preferred urban form based on lifestyle and (5) the perceived characteristics of preferred and least preferred urban forms and how this relates to the perceptions of the local planning and development industry. The research resolved these questions through the use of an empirical experiment, using statistical analysis of questionnaire responses and documenting participant perceptive reactions to a series of controlled visual stimuli. The visual stimuli used were a series of six, three dimensional digital models of a redeveloped neighbourhood which were constructed and measured to ensure variables were documented and constants were controlled. Participant responses to personal characteristics (i.e. demographic and lifestyle) and participant perceptions and preferences of the neighbourhood representation were collected using a series of two questionnaires. The overall findings showed that perceived density does not correlate with participant’s preferences for neighbourhood urban forms. The findings showed that there was a difference in how participants perceived the spatial and population density of each urban form. The most preferred urban form, and the one preferred by most lifestyle groups, was the nodal or urban village density pattern with 44% of participants stating it was their first or second preference. The least preferred urban form was the modern density pattern. The findings suggest that specific characteristics, such as traffic, lack of sufficient parking, and visual privacy, that have been identified as challenging in the redevelopment of neighbourhoods are not necessarily indicative of neighbourhood preferences. In fact, those characteristics (e.g. on street parking, traffic, visual privacy, etc.) did not have a large impact on whether a particular urban form was preferred. The results indicate that urban form has a significant impact on resident acceptance for higher density urban environments, and further, that perceived density has less of an impact on the degree to which a person prefers a neighbourhood form. The results also demonstrated that urban form does have a significant impact on how participants perceived the density of each neighbourhood form. In all, this suggests that how neighbourhoods are designed and the form that is produced has a significant impact on the acceptability of density and redevelopment in general.