This case study portrait is part of a series of 20 case studies on urban green infrastructure planning and governance in European cities, undertaken in the course of the GREEN SURGE project. GREEN SURGE is a trans-national research project funded through the Eu-ropean Union’s 7th Framework Programme. GREEN SURGE is an acronym for “Green In-frastructure and Urban Biodiversity for Sustainable Urban Development and the Green Economy”. The project is identifying, developing and testing ways of connecting green spaces, biodiversity, people and the green economy, in order to meet the major urban challenges related to, e.g., climate change adaptation, demographic changes, human health and well-being.
Denver — Infill and Redevelopment
In Colorado, local governments are authorized by state statutes to adopt comprehensive plans outlining goals, strategies, and policies related to local land use, among other topics. Although comprehensive plans are policy documents and are not regulatory, they do provide appointed and elected officials with a basis for decision-making. Most comprehensive plans include a future land use map coupled with a narrative section describing potential growth scenarios and desirable uses in the community throughout the life of the plan. Local comprehensive plans frequently address infill and redevelopment as a major topic and identify areas where infill is most desirable. These plans are not always aligned with local market conditions or supply and demand, or local zoning regulations, leading to difficult decisions by elected officials. Because rezoning for higher development intensities typically associated with infill and redevelopment can be challenging, clearly identifying the community’s desired direction in the comprehensive plan is an essential precursor.
Netherlands — Summary National Policy Strategy for Infrastructure and Spatial Planning
Making the Netherlands competitive, accessible, liveable and safe. This is what central government wants to achieve, taking a robust approach designed to achieve an outstanding international business climate, allow scope for tailored regional solutions, put users first, clearly prioritise investment and link spatial developments and infrastructure. It will work towards this goal alongside other authorities, taking a European and global view, on the basis of a philosophy based on trust, clearly defined responsibilities, simple rules and selective government involvement, to create scope for tailored solutions and freedom of choice for individuals and companies.
This new approach will require an update of spatial planning and mobility policy. The various policy documents on these two areas have become dated as new political priorities have emerged and circumstances have changed, nationally and internationally, in the face of the economic crisis, climate change and growing differences between regions which are due partly to growth, stagnation and contraction all occurring simultaneously.
Rural Response to Urban-Biased Land Use Policy — New Bottom-up Planning Strategies in Norway
Many rural councils are in favour of dispersed low density housing as it takes advantage of a country location. They are likely however to increasingly come into conflict with the planning system and with governmental planning policies which favour a planned and dense development. We discuss the degree to which six rural councils on the urban edge have developed dispersed housing as a strategy and how this is addressed in their planning. Five of them have strategies for dispersed housing and used local planning as a means of realizing this goal. Nevertheless, only two had proactive plans to address this strategy. Despite governmental policy to ban dispersed housing, such areas are identified in negotiations between local and regional authorities who then subvert institutional barriers. We conclude that while central planning policy does not seem to constrain dispersed housing, local planning does. Local authorities do however set limits on dispersed housing through sector interests.
Spatial Planning in Denmark
Denmark will not become beautiful and well-planned spontaneously. Visions are required about what type of country, landscapes and municipalities are desirable. This requires strategies and planning to create and maintain high-quality surroundings – in nature, in the environment, in landscapes and in cities and towns.
Spatial planning creates the surroundings in which people will be living their lives. Political decision-making processes with public participation and balancing of various interests are therefore an important and exciting part of democracy.
Building and Urban Development in Norway
This publication has been prepared in connection with the 48th IFHP World Congress in Oslo 2004. Its purpose is to provide a general impression of the planning and building situation in Norway, and describe some of the important challenges facing us in the first years of the 21st century. In it, we present descriptions and analysis of issues confronting local and central authorities, property developers and the building industry, as well as the planning community and the public in general.
Spacial Planning in Denmark
Spatial planning aims to create and maintain the qualities of urban areas and the countryside. The challenges of spatial planning change as society develops.
From the early 1950s to the mid-1970s, Denmark’s population grew, the standard of living increased and the population migrated from rural to urban areas. Large new suburban estates were created outside the historical town centres. The industrialization of construction and increasing affluence enabled unprecedented growth in the size of dwellings and in business construction. These new suburbs, which were planned to have spatially differentiated residential estates, business districts, urban centres and service functions, now encompass more than half the developed urban land in Denmark.
Denmark – A Green Room in the European House
This chapter discusses Danish planning up to the change of government, 20th November 2001. The new government changed in many ways the political attitude. This is also true for the field of spatial planning as illustrated in a newspaper article by Michael Rothenborg (2002), titled “Murder in the Ministry”. In this article he suspects the new government to abolish the achievements in the fields of environmental protection and planning which the former Minister of the Environment had fought for. So, the near future will tell to what degree Danish planning and planning policy will change.