The National (local UAE newspaper) reported that the Urban Planning Council surveyed 10,882 households in Abu Dhabi and found that communities lacked community facilities and services such as parks, playgrounds, shopping and restaurants (See graph above). What this shows is an pro-active government surveying the population and determining what the residents need.
People who live in cities across the world have similar wants and needs – a place to work, live and relax(play). Often the work and live part is taken care of very well by planners but often the places to relax such as parks, restaurants, shopping malls, sports grounds are planned and implemented later in the stage of developments. The regional planning masterplan may be formulated but often the implementation is left to developers which leave these elements of cities and new areas to the last possible stage of a development as the have large costs but a lower return on investment in comparison to housing. Retail developments do provide a moderate return on investment but they require far more planning, marketing and implementation time compared to residential or commercial office space.
The other element is creating ACCESSIBLE services, often developments (especially villa style) are planned for cars and residents to drive – this is to be expected in a region that has a climate where the daytime temperature consistently heads into the mid-30’s degrees celsius. However, better design and collaboration with other developers can
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