Development Response Toolkit
This toolkit is a collection of the tools, tips and templates we've found useful in the implementation of customised development response approaches for each of our projects.

The Development Response toolkit
It's important to tailor your development response approach to the specific context of your project and to treat every project and neighbourhood with a fresh perspective, while building on the experiences from previous projects in a spirit of continuous improvement.
These resources are being updated and extended as knowledge and best practice is captured and refined over time.
Understanding impacts
Knowing a community and how they will be impacted is crucial to designing sympathetic construction methods and effective mitigations.
Project leads are responsible for ensuring impacts are understood, clearly communicated and updated regularly.
Contractors will study and build upon impact assessments to help develop their Construction Disruption Mitigation Management Plans.
Developing a Community Impact Assessment
- Guideline for assessing community impacts
Practical prompts for assessing community impacts
Completed Community Impact Assessments
- Midtown Programme Community Impact Assessment - Te Ha Noa.
A comprehensive assessment of the community impacts of multiple projects in midtown. - Tyler Street Community Impact Assessment
A profile and report on the Waitematā Station plaza and Tyler Street upgrade project
Programme coordination
Careful planning ensures construction is staged, scheduled, and integrated with minimal disruption. A good understanding of community impacts feeds into program coordination.
Leads should be aware of other works, private and public, that may interact with their project.
- Contractor Requirements for Disruption Mitigation
This document details roles and responsibilities for construction management and outlines considerations for the disruption mitigation plan
Site experience and street health
Contractors must focus on keeping construction areas safe, clean, and accessible, addressing issues like vandalism, graffiti, wayfinding, and compliance.
Standards and guidelines give contractors clarity when establishing and altering their work site and give them the tools to monitor areas themselves.
Regular checks by Council and external specialists help maintain a the best experience possible.
- Best Practice Guidelines for Universal Access
How to ensure everyone has equal opportunity and ability to navigate around sites. - CPTED guidelines for Development Response
A guide with examples about how to prevent crime around sites through good design.
Wayfinding and signage
- Wayfinding guidelines - Quick start
A succinct guide to wayfinding and signage design. - Wayfinding guidelines - In depth
- Maynard Wayfinding - Design templates and assets (*.zip)
Design elements, fonts, files and resources for creating wayfinding signage.
Effective city operations
From traffic management to waste handling, we ensure the city keeps running smoothly around construction sites. Understanding impacts is crucial to effective city operations.
Successful contractors will be able to show how their construction program allows city operations to continue, minimising impacts on businesses, residents and users.
Construction Disruption Mitigation Management Plan
Developed at the procurement stage a CDMMP guides project operations.
Communications and engagement
Clear communication and active engagement keep people informed, involved, and confident in the project’s goals. It must be consistent and tailored to the audience.
Communication and engagement can be in various forms and throughout a project, and undertaken by communication and engagement specialists, development response advisors, contractor stakeholder managers, project leads and more.
- Midtown Programme Communications and Engagement approach.
- Midtown neighbourhood webpage - impacted audience communications.
- Sign up to receive the City Centre progress newsletter.
Support for business
Businesses deemed disrupted by construction are eligible for support, financial and otherwise from Auckland Council. We also create linkages with other organisations to build resilience and help them grow.
Community and placemaking
Place Activation is a valuable way of offsetting development impacts, and building relatiopnships with the community by improving citizens' experience of place and their enjoyment and interaction in the public realm.
Opportunites may arise at any stage of a project. It can include include digital media, art, performance, events, installations, workshops, pop-up dining and markets and can be light touch.
Specialist advisors can provide guidance on how to suport communities with placemanking activities.
- City Centre Place Activation and Placemaking - Annual report 2023/2024.
This captures full range of activation and placemaking activities in the city centre.
Development Response in practice
Development response is tailored to the unique characteristics of each project. Here you will find examples of plans, reviews and studies that capture how developemnt response was applied to meet the needs of specific places and communities.
Te Ha Noa - Development Response action plan [to come]
THN - Development Response review and evaluation.
Tyler Street Community Impact Assessment
Mid-town Community Profile & Impact Assessment
Mid-town Business Support Programme
Mid-town Community Engagement Approach
Development Response Contractor Requirements
Crime Prevention for Development Response
Community Impact Assessment Guide
City Centre Place Activation and Placemaking Annual Report
Embedding Development Response into projects
Need advice, help or troubleshooting?
Have some ideas, lessons learned or success stories?
Get in touch: citycentre@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz.
Delivering Development Response
This online toolkit is a collection of tools, tips and templates to support you to identify what approaches might be relevant to your project and the context in which it's being delivered.