of suburbanisation
Increase in untility and competiveness of building
stock
Inward urban development: qualitative criteria
Inward urban development: aims and qualitative criteria
In order to reduce the demand for sites in the open land and to improve the functioning and competitiveness of stock the following qualitative criteria should be considered:
• The criterion of integration of open spaces and residential development describes the complex interaction between the effective protection of open spaces in the open land, the continuing development of open spaces in areas which have already been developed, and steps to steer residential development in the existing stock.
• The criterion of suitable building density is an expression of the fact that there is no cut and dried formula for expressing the density in built-up areas. The suitable building density of a location must, rather, be defined in relation to the situation of the whole town seen from ur-ban planning, ecological, social, and economic points of view.
• The criterion of high quality working and living environment means paying attention to users’
interests, involving, in addition to the regulation of building densities, qualities of design and ambience.
• The advantages arising from the proximity of a variety of choice and opportunity results from the criterion of mixed use. Mixed use facilitates the realisation of the short route town and reduces transport requirements.
• The criterion of integration of residential and transport development has the aim of coordi-nating the designation of residential areas with transport developments. It means that trans-port requirements can be reduced or relocated, improving the quality of life and ambient quality.
These criteria are a starting point for working up an integrated communal action plan on a framework of specific local conditions. Such a plan will show both selective im-provements brought about using the standard set of planning tools as well as the stra-tegic linking of different planning approaches.
2 Local authorities’ approaches to planning
The existing set of planning instruments available to local authorities and the present general conditions of planning law and financial policy allow local authorities to take a variety of approaches towards stock oriented development. It is not so much a funda-mental reform of planning law that is needed; rather, local authorities should make consistent, quality oriented, use of the existing tools.
The key problems of inward urban development planning are closely related to the in-creased complexity of stock-oriented planning processes, caused by insufficient knowl-edge of the potentials of areas within the built-up area. The degree to which the nu-merous participants – in particular owners and prospective owners, tenants and other users, as well as representatives of interest groups – are affected places heavy de-mands on the planners’ steering of the process.
These problems can be solved by extending the existing range of tools with density models, site potential models, the use of strategically oriented nature and environ-mental protection tools, taking steps to reduce acoustic pollution and cooperation.
Transport
Local authorities' planning tools and methods
XXXVI Executive Summary
Urban planning
Urban planning has to do with the different use requirements made by different sectors in an area of a local authority, and their coordination. Of particular importance is the combination of site potential models and density models with the zoning plan. Site po-tential models allow estimates of the level of use for the designated popo-tential site areas to be estimated from ecological and area/functional points of view (p. 46). The density models allow the formulation of suitable concrete target densities for specific potential site areas (p. 36). The priorities for the realisation of utilisation potentials can be de-fined in the zoning plan.
The city of Munich uses a site potential model to arrive at the suitability of stock for increases in density. In this process attention is paid to a number of criteria: the present building density, the degree of accessibility by public transport, depth of groundwater, urban climate and air quality functions, the value of the biological stock, the open spaces, the protection of listed buildings and groups of buildings (p. 50).
Munich’s density model couples the orientation of density toward the stops of the public transport system with building density target values for specific types of settlement structure. The model specifies floor space index of between 0.9 and 3.0 for the catch-ment areas around public transport stops, depending on the type of developcatch-ment (p.
44).
Nature protection and environmental protection planning tools
Nature protection and environmental protection tools serve to ensure that inward urban development measures take account of ecologically related and open space planning.
They identify the limits demanded by nature protection on further density increases in a built-up area and show possibilities for stabilising or improving environmental quality of the in stock as well as in hitherto undeveloped open spaces. In order to evaluate the ambient quality and quality of life in connection with inward urban development, analy-sis on the baanaly-sis of green space availability can be useful. The objective of green space availability analysis is the estimation of the degree to which the population is served with open spaces in the urban area.
The city of Berlin has produced an “Environmental Atlas” (“Umweltatlas”) which con-tains an accessibility-based green space availability analysis, and looks at the supply of various city quarters with open spaces in relation to specified catchment areas and their populations. When this is brought into relation with guideline value for the supply of open spaces, judgements as to whether city quarters are overloaded or undersup-plied with open spaces can be made (p. 98). This can allow building activity to be steered toward areas with sufficient open spaces, while in undersupplied areas it is the winning back of open spaces which has priority. The city of Heidelberg is carrying out a target group specific green space availability analysis in the form of a recreation ground analysis (p. 103).
Noise abatement planning
Local authority movement and migration surveys show that in high density built-up ar-eas noise is a cause of flight from the city. The aim of noise abatement planning is the reduction of the noise load in areas liable to be detrimentally affected by noise pollu-tion. It can lead to an improvement in the environmental and ambient quality of badly
affected inner city areas, and so indirectly contribute to the reduction of further land use expansion in the open land. Noise abatement planning is thus closely related to urban development planning, landscape planning and transport services development. Noise abatement plans specify short, medium, and long term measures which, in addition to acoustic rehabilitation (e.g. the reduction of noise levels, active and passive noise con-trol), also involve steps toward the reduction of private motor car traffic, the improve-ment of local public transport and the support of urban sub-centres.
The mobilisation of areas
Inward urban development measures are directed at areas which are already devel-oped. This means that special demands are placed on an inward urban development site mobilisation strategy which can be based on fundamental local authority siting pol-icy decisions. A prerequisite for any mobilisation of inner area potentials is, first of all, an exact knowledge of an area’s potentials.
The city of Bamberg’s building gap register includes a plan of every building gap, a photo showing a general view of the gap, data on its state of development, building potential, planning and regulatory measures (p. 124). The site market tool has the aim of bringing owners, potential site vendors, into contact with potential users who want to build. The city of Rothenberg on the Neckar achieved a considerable reduction in the demand for space with its “Building Site Report and Market” (Baulandbericht und Bau-platzbörse). It was based on detailed building gap research which was combined with an activating polling of the owners (p.127).
The strategic linking of planning levels
The complexity of local authority guided inward urban development requires the com-bined application of different planning tools and methods according to an integrated strategy. As part of the formation of specific local aims it is important to work up the priority of inward urban development over peripheral development paying attention to the framework of specific local conditions. Strategic planning enables a further degree of detailed planning to be reached through the formulation of quantitative and qualita-tive targets which can serve as the basis for monitoring the local authority’s success.
The realisation of inward urban development projects is a source of experience and can provide impulses for strategic planning. The hurdles faced by and the limitations on qualitative inward urban development become clearer; for example such problems as those concerning the acceptance of increases in density.
Detailed case studies in Dresden, Münster, Leipzig and Monheim on the Rhine show (p. 137) that promising strategies involve the conscious combination of instruments from the model, strategic planning, and project levels. They connect the different levels with one another using proactive and reactive procedures.
XXXVIII Executive Summary
Model Strategic Planning
The two-tier model for local authorities' strategies
Projects Resources
Impulses Hurdles
Limits
Priorities Criteria
Aims
In its Integrated Urban Development Concept (Integrietes Stadtentwicklungskonzept (INSEK)) the city of Dresden formulated specific locality aims which included integrated development of open spaces and settlement areas and the specification of various fields of action in the city and countryside, which were then used as qualitative targets for the realisation of projects (retainment and patience areas, resuscitation areas, new zoning and infill areas and so on, see p. 154).
The city of Leipzig, in its urban development plan “Homes and Urban Renewal” (Woh-nungsbau und Stadterneuerung) has arrived at priorities for the development of par-ticular urban areas on the basis of wide-ranging analyses of the specific development conditions in different areas in order to concentrate the limited resources available (p.189).
The City of Münster has used the experience it gained from difficulties which arose in the course of the Von-Witzleben-Strasse project to increase density in the formulation of its strategic study “New Homes in the Stock” (Neues Wohnen im Bestand) (p. 168).
This study, which estimates the development potentials in the stock on the basis of typical urban structures, is coupled with the environmental plan, the open spaces plan, and the area functional development concept, and with stated aims for housing, em-ployment, centres and services and transport (p.178).
Competitive strategies for the building stock are aimed at particular target groups and are intended to bring together the various starting points for urban planning, country-side protection, environmental protection, transport planning, noise abatement and mobilisation. Competitive strategies increase the appeal of the stock to particular target groups. Such strategies include both the enhancement of the stock with new qualities (for example, housing for senior citizens, separate housing for young families), and its targeted marketing by selling locations for living, as has successfully been done in Münster (p. 174). Competitive strategies for the building stock are already, given the
existing constraints applying to the regions and financial policy, making important con-tributions to the planning and realisation of the qualitative inward urban development.
They are important for local authorities in western and eastern Germany, whether they are expanding or contracting.
3 Reform of the general conditions of fiscal policy
Local authority action strategies are essential, but not the only, preconditions for the qualitative development of inner areas. The benefit of a local authority’s action strategy for such development usually becomes evident, because of its complexity, not in the short term, but over a longer period of time. This makes it difficult to propagate their adoption. It is therefore of particular importance that the process be supported and sus-tained by general conditions aimed at bringing about the desired results.
Especially important for changing the paradigm in dealing with spaces which must be achieved are the generic conditions, which in most cases have been externally set. It is under these conditions that the local authority has not only to plan, but also carry through its actions. Here the interdependence between the planning field and other political fields is very obvious.
Here, finance political general conditions set primarily by the federal and land govern-ments are of decisive importance. The general conditions of fiscal policy offer partici-pant local authorities economic incentives to opt for or reject measures which conserve space, to decide in favour of or against inward urban developments or peripheral de-velopments (see figure).