ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the need for an urban design process. It discusses how using the urban design process can inform policy. In addition to the visualized process, a suite of tools and resources were developed during the VivaCity2020 project that may be used to make urban design decisions. The recognized groups, such as residents' organizations, voluntary groups and community groups can lead all stages of plan-making and employ a range of tools, both for gaining knowledge and for exploration, for determining local densities and other related issues. To help decide the priority areas for buildings, infrastructure and facilities as well as local economic and employment priorities, for example, local authorities are encouraged to partner with businesses via Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP). Through the national planning policy framework (NPPF), national-scale policies are applied at the local scale by local authorities via the creation of their own, related policies, partnerships and so forth.
