The beach precinct: Professional perspectives of their role and function

As Carr et al (1992, pp. 92) observe ‘places that do not meet people’s needs or serve any important functions for people will be underused and unsuccessful’. This observation conversely implies that places can be judged by the intensity and diversity of observed activities, provision of facilities, access to amenities and the extent to which these traits met people's needs can be used as a measure of the ‘success’of the place. With a view to informing this observation by empirical enquiry, this paper reports on a Delphi inquiry of the opinions of professionals involved in the property field.The inquiry respondents were asked their opinions, views and understanding of the preferable urban design attributes, characteristics and values of urban beach precincts and their governance, design and development. The beach precinct was recognised by all Delphi group members as a special case of development from other urban locations that needed different rules for governing development and planning processes. There were many comments that criticized previous development models, in particular the location of the line of building permission along the foreshore.The dominant concerns for most respondents were the spatial relationships of access to the beach, access pathways, recreational and principal built forms. The group was also concerned with the arrangement of the amenities and facilities in the beach precinct and the design of the transit corridors and pathways through the built and recreational forms to the beach.These preferences for particular spatial relationships would appear to be the defining design values in beach precinct solutions for design and planning professionals and have implications for land use management and design.