Quality public spaces: developing placemaking indicators and benchmarks

Project summary

The project has produced practical resources on placemaking that can assist councils in strategically managing public spaces to achieve better placemaking outcomes. It has accomplished this by:

1. Providing insights into the current placemaking practice of local governments and highlighting key issues for successful placemaking based on interviews with 19 councils.
2. Develop a placemaking guide for councils.
3. Creating a Placemaking index with key indicators and metrics to track issues that are important to placemaking operations.
4. Establishing placemaking operational benchmarks to support strategic and operational placemaking planning.

Project outcomes and outputs

This project has developed resources to assist councils in improving strategic and operational placemaking planning and delivery. These resources, listed below, enable evidence-based decision-making for better placemaking outcomes.

• The Placemaking Index comprises 8 key indicators and 42 associated metrics that are important to local governments’ placemaking and place management.
• Placemaking guide
  • This guide is developed based on the findings of this project and a review of the relevant literature. It covers steps and considerations for the effective management of placemaking within the context of local government.
  • The guide is designed to support and guide local governments at any stage of placemaking. For councils at an early stage of placemaking, this guide aims to establish an effective system and process for placemaking. For councils excelling in their placemaking efforts, this guide can serve as a checklist to confirm and identify ways to improve their practice.

Stakeholder Engagement

The 19 councils that participated in this project, including 6 SA metropolitan councils and 5 SA regional councils, have each received an individualised benchmarking report and the full report.

To maximise the benefits of this research the project outcomes will also be shared at key industry conferences, such as the Mainsteets SA conference. This will assist us to disseminate the findings to other SA councils and broader community groups.