Strategic spatial planning is extremely important for cities and regions, but certainly not always effective. This is one of the findings that Jan Vogelij reveals in his comparative European research. His conclusion: the time-honoured Dutch polder model isn’t all that bad. Doctoral dissertation defence: Jan Vogelij
An effective spatial planning strategy is vital to cities and regions looking to put themselves on the map. After all, this strategy partly determines their competitiveness and innovative capacity. But in practice, devising successful structural visions often proves to be no easy task, as a large number of concerns always come into play. What’s needed is a creative quest to find a joint picture of the future, argues Jan Vogelij, who gained a lot of European experience during his time as director of urban planning agency Zandvoort. “In my experience, the more transparent the decision-making process is, the greater the chance of success.”
Vogelij (1947) decided to devote his doctoral research to the subject, selecting five strategic development visions in four European countries, these being: The Netherlands (Drechtsteden), Italy (Bologna and Val Gardena), Scotland (Glasgow/Clyde Valley) and Belgium (Meetjesland). He closely examined the available reports and evaluated the decision-making process regarding the vision in each process. Vogelij also organised interviews with six to eight people directly involved with each project. The primary question was: what determines whether a decision-making process results in an effective vision?
His research confirms that a hierarchical management culture and emphasis on legal aspects are at odds with a transparent design process. For example, things went wrong in Bologna when the city council excluded accessibility and public transport from the discussions. As a result, this structural concern was not addressed in the ‘Piano Strutturale Comunale’. A design created by a professor from Milan (Gabellini), received a warm welcome from the public and was quickly approved by the city council, but the regional planning system demanded simultaneous approval of the vision and the zoning plan regulations. The matter was subsequently tied up in legal red tape and any enthusiasm consequently subsided quickly. Typical, argues Vogelij. “If the search for better options is blocked early in the process, you miss the open attitude that can lead to new perspectives. When this happens there’s little chance of success, as you’re never going to get all parties on board. Shared ownership and co-creation of the vision are essential conditions of social support.”
The Meetjesland project – in a region between Ghent and Bruges – failed for other reasons. The enthusiasm with which community groups went to work was lost due to the lack of municipality involvement.
The subtitle of Vogelij’s dissertation ‘Effective Strategy Making’ reflects a rule of thumb for effective vision creation: “Co-designing Scenarios as a Tool for Strategic Planning”.
It’s clear that an urban planning expert can play an important role as a spatial designer during strategic planning processes. Such an expert that is able to bring the concerns of all involved parties to the table can create synergy. “That’s solving problems using dialogue – or ‘polderen’ as we call it here. Something that’s an inextricable part of our Dutch planning tradition”, says Vogelij. “If you let everyone involved have a feeling of co-authorship, you end up with a long-term vision that’s owned by the community. And if you can manage that, it often turns out to be easy to work together to steer clear of legal obstacles. Rules are there to help, they’re not there as objectives in their own right.”