- Name “the Place”, its ‘address’ and ideally its coordinates;
- Ideally supported with visual documentation
Place Audits are undertaken in order to:
- Identify and profile the Community Ownerships & Interests linked to ‘a place’;
- Develop better understandings of how the place and its attributes are understood and imagined as ‘a place’;
- Discover the needs and aspirations of ‘a place’s’ Community of Ownership & Interest;
- Provide a reference in developing appropriate management strategies in context with the place being understood as ‘a place’;
- Aid in the development of strategies that take account of the layering of Community of Ownership & Interest in respect to ‘the place’.
AUDIT PERIOD:
- Two months – other timeframes may apply to different sites
- Ongoing contributions and feedback welcomed
- Continual Updates online where appropriate
- Members of the Governance Body in consultation with members of the Community of Ownerships & Interest; OR
- Members of the Community of Ownerships & Interest working independently; OR
- An independent consultant working with members of the Community of Ownerships & Interest.
A Community of Ownerships & Interest audit can be an initiative of either of the following working by themselves of cooperatively:
- A Community Group
- A Research Team – academic or other
- Local Government – project team or other
- A Division of Local Government – Parks & Recreation Dept, Planning Dept, a Project Team et al
Ideally the audit should be conducted against a background that acknowledges:
- The multiple ways individuals, and the groups to which they align themselves, imagine and understand ‘a place’;
- The various ways in which this underpins the ways a people ‘construct and imagine’ places and develop a ‘sense of place’:
Similarly it should not attempt to rank the various individual's or group's 'ownerships' nor should it assume that the interests of any individual or group takes precedence over another.
The purpose of the audit is to identify:
- Groups and individuals within the Community of Ownerships & Interest in order to assess their various obligations, duties and/or commitments to a place; and
- Other ‘owners’ equally as much as it may be to do with identifying the rights and privileges various ‘owners’ may have in respect to a place.
SAMPLE: A PARK – NB: This is simply an indicative sample and no claims for its ‘completeness’ are being made.
GROUP 1 Ownership
group
Aboriginal Community represent the place’s Indigenous
Ownership
Significance The site represents ‘colonised’ land and the different ways in
which ‘land’ and ‘place’ can be understood
Context
As ‘colonised’ land and a place where indigenous people may
be XXX there is a strong motivate to acknowledge the site’s
history
GROUP 2 Ownership
group
Residents in the place’s immediate neighbourhood
Significance The place offers the amenity of an open space that
complements and augments residential garden spaces
Context
The park offers the amenity of open public space that is
relatively large in an urban context. The space is readily
accessible and it provides scope for various passive and low
key active uses. Furthermore, as an open public space the
parklands add value to properties within its precinct by virtue of
its proximity and the range of amenities it offers
GROUP 3 Ownership group Residents who use the park’s gardens as a short-cut
Significance The Park is located on the edge of, within walking distance of district X. Also, they’re adjacent to Facility Y, one of the community’s largest employers
Context Because the park is perceived as public space and because it offers shorter alternative routes to location near an around it, routes through it have become known as short-cuts” for walkers who otherwise would be confined to street footpaths. The park offers not only a shorter route in an area where there are many walkers accessing the city and/or the facility Y but also kind of ‘right of way’ and one that is somewhat more pleasant that alternative routes.
GROUP 4 Ownership
group
Urban Residents
Significance The park offers the amenity of an open space that is a part of the
city’s parkland infrastructure
Context The Park offers the amenity of open public space. The space is
accessible and it provides scope for various passive and
appropriate active uses. Furthermore, as an open public space is
a part of a network of like spaces throughout the city that offer a
range of amenities that contribute towards citizens’ wellbeing.
GROUP 5
Ownership
group
Users of the park and open public spaces
Significance Given that park history, albeit largely unacknowledged, there are
cultural imperatives at work within the community preventing the
land being used for purposes other than parkland.
Context Because Parks history & heritage the pressures to use the land
for other purposes have been moderated and/or able to be
resisted. Importantly, it was necessary to enact special enabling
regulations to allow function A.
Arguably, had this piece of land not had the history or heritage
that it does it is unlikely that it would remained an open public
space accessible to the public. Given that there is relatively high
need for land to further develop Facility Y, and provide parking in
the area, large sections of the land may well have been taken
over for other purposes in recent history. Indeed this perceived
demand for ‘space’ underpins an ongoing continuousness
attached to the park among those with competing interests in the
place and the space for ‘development’ it seems the park may be redeveloped at some future date
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