The Compact City: Planning for Closeness, Community, and a Car-Free Future

We talk often about density, housing, and transport as separate issues. But real transformation, the kind that reshapes how we live, connect, and move, comes when we plan for proximity.

The compact city is not a new idea. In many ways, it is a return to how cities once were. Before sprawl, before big-box retail parks, before multi-lane arterials severed communities in the name of efficiency, we lived locally. We shopped locally. We knew our neighbours, and our butcher, and our fishmonger.

Today, with the scale and complexity of modern cities, we are not likely to return to the high street of old. But we can, and must, reimagine our cities with a renewed focus on proximity and community. Compact cities are an essential ingredient in building urban resilience, sustainability, and belonging.

And they are entirely within reach. But only if we plan for them.

What is a Compact City?

At its core, the compact city is a place where most of what you need, and a good portion of what you want, is within a short walking or cycling distance. Often described as the “15-minute city,” this is not just about geography, but about accessibility.

A compact city isn’t just physically dense; it is functionally dense. That means mixed-use neighbourhoods. Local schools and health clinics. Cafés, co-working hubs, workshops, and cultural spaces. It means carefully considered zoning that allows different parts of daily life to live close together, not pushed out to the fringes.

Compact cities foster a sense of vibrancy and efficiency. They also happen to be lower-carbon, more economically resilient, safer, and healthier. But none of this happens by accident.

Retrofitting Our Existing Cities

It is one thing to plan a new compact city from scratch. But what about sprawling, car-dependent cities like Auckland?

The answer is not to start again, it is to knit new patterns into the fabric of what already exists.

That starts with zoning reform, allowing for medium-density housing and local businesses to coexist within existing suburbs. It continues with investments in public transport, not just as a box to tick, but as a genuine alternative to car travel.

We cannot simply remove cars from city streets and hope for the best. And yet that is too often the sequence. In Auckland, recent decisions to remove street parking from the city centre were made in the name of pedestrian amenity, which in theory, is the right move. But in practice, no viable alternatives were in place. It is not yet cheaper or faster to take public transport into the CBD, so people default to their cars. And then resent that the car parks are gone.

What’s missing is the strategy. The bold, overarching vision.

Remove car parks? Yes, but only after you make it easy not to need them.

The Transport Piece

The compact city cannot function without well-planned, integrated transport. But this is not just about trains and buses.

It is about walkability. Safe, tree-lined footpaths. Shady streets that encourage people to stroll rather than drive.

It is about cycling infrastructure that does not feel like an afterthought. It is about micro-mobility, e-bikes, shared scooters, and affordable ways to get from A to B without starting an engine.

And yes, it is about trains and buses. But more importantly, it is about frequency and reliability. Not “every 30 minutes if you’re lucky”, but every 8 minutes, every 5 minutes. Transit that feels like an extension of your body, not a waiting game.

When public transport becomes faster, cheaper, and more convenient than driving, the change takes care of itself.

More Than Just Convenience

It is easy to frame compact cities as a practical solution, and they are. But they are also something more: a reweaving of human connection into urban life.

When we shop more frequently, on foot, we get to know our grocer. When we pick up bread from the bakery rather than the supermarket aisle, we slow down. We exchange a smile, a recipe, a fragment of shared experience.

These things matter.

Urban life does not have to be anonymous. Compactness creates friction, the good kind. The accidental bumping-into. The chat in the queue. The shared bench in the sun.

It is in these moments that cities become soulful.

Crafting Urban Grit (and Buzz)

Compact cities also have the unique ability to hold grit and grace in the same breath. They are textured, layered, lived-in. They are not always pristine, but they are alive.

Urban grit comes from density, not just of people, but of purpose. Of smells, sounds, music, motion. A tight radius where food trucks meet barbershops meet community libraries and tiny parks.

And this buzz does not come from planning alone. It comes from vision, from a willingness to make bold moves, and to accept some messiness as part of the vibrancy.

We need governing bodies, both local and central, to lead with courage. To stop planning against the car, and start planning for the human.

A Return, Not a Reinvention

We often talk about these ideas as futuristic. But they are not. They are familiar. In many ways, we have been to this place before.

Before the rise of the shopping mall, before motorway systems carved up cities, we knew what it was like to live locally.

And while we may not go back to a world of separate butchers, bakers, and fishmongers, we can still know our local barista. We can support our neighbourhood fruit shop. We can rediscover the joy of walking down the road to grab a few things, not because we forgot something, but because we chose to.

The compact city does not ask us to sacrifice. It invites us to adapt. To live with intention. To root ourselves again in place, community, and connection.

It Starts With Vision

Ultimately, the compact city is a design problem, but also a governance one. Without a strong vision, planning becomes reactionary. Streets are changed without support. Parking is removed without alternatives. Density is added without amenity.

We need to flip the script.

A compact, soulful city starts with a clear vision. One rooted in transport, community, proximity, and equity.

Then, through policy, design, and investment, we make it real.

It is not rocket science. In fact, it is mostly common sense.

We just have to choose to go there, again.