Spatial planning HC
HC1 introduction & positioning spatial planning: a definition and first
exploration of the discipline (part 1)
“Spatial planning encompasses the search process for spatial design in a
changed society and making choices about how and where functions can
be used (long-term focus) plus the reflection on this” a future-oriented
discipline: looking long-term far ahead and articulating a desirable future
Spatial planning: a mirror of societal developments (Kreukels, 1986)
Motto spatial planning: placing current actions in the light of future
objectives.
A spatial planner is creative in two ways: to design and to steer the future. Making scenario’s helps us
make decisions now for the future. 4 spatial scenarios and 5 themes by PBL:
Projective scenario: reasoning from current state
Prospective scenario: knowing where you want to go in the future and looking at how to get there
Two perspectives on spatial planning (ruimtelijke ordening)
- As an academic discipline: spatial planning (planologie)
- As a field of practice: spatial development (ruimtelijke planning)
The future is to some extent already ‘bounded’: the past and the present elements elements of the
future. We are always ‘in transition’ and need to anticipate these changes.
International terms of spatial planning: urban and regional planning
Conclusion – planning is:
- Adapting to a changing society
- Long-term future-oriented
- Creative (planner as mediator)
- Process-oriented (e.g. the role of the citizen)
- Action-oriented (implementation, change)
- Contextual (context-sensitive)
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,HC2 positioning spatial planning: a definition and first exploration of the
discipline (part 2)
Relevant planning concepts
- Planning is always a public activity, but this is increasingly up for discussion (because of
increasing number of other actors)
- Planning is always future-oriented, but is increasingly being equated with urban
management
- Planning is always about space, but is increasingly bound-up with socio-political processes
Future orientation: flexibility vs. legal certainty
- Dilemma: “a problem offering two possibilities, neither of which is unambiguously acceptable
or preferable”
- Planning needs flexibility because the future is to a large part uncertain
- Planning needs legal certainty because spatial interventions often have long-term effects
- Strategic ambiguity: sometimes actors benefit from vagueness and procrastinating choices
Space: comprehensive vs. sectoral planning
- Sectoral efficiency: every sector (transport, economics, housing, nature etc.) oversees its own
‘domain’
- Integration often increases the problem-solving capacity of spatial planning (multi-functional
land use, ‘unsought’ solutions to complex spatial problems)
- Integration can also be seen as a form of strategic ambiguity
A public activity: the trias politica
- Trias politica: planning as a part of the executive part of the state
- Implement planning law: controlled by/in court
- Role of planning law and property rights
- Planning as public activity: “the systematic preparation of policy-making and executive
actions that are aimed at consciously intervening in spatial order and at organizing these
interventions”
The Planning Triangle
- Object land-use (‘what’)
- Process governance (‘who’)
- Context administrative and institutional (‘how’)
- What, who, how and different conditions make every situation unique
Object orientation: planning instruments to achieve planning goals (governing) planners make us
of planning instruments:
- Sticks: expropriation law (onteigening)
- Carrots: municipal land policy (actief grondbeleid)
- Sermons (visions/visies): the most commonly used instruments; a combination of solid
argumentation and inspiration (omgevingsvisie)
Changes in the object of planning: increasing normativity
- Multi-functional land use leads to many interests
- Sustainable urban development
- Climate-adaptive and resilient cities
- Path dependence and changing norms
- New planning concepts (smart, healthy, green, etc.)
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, Process orientation: actors and institutions
- The planning process: systematic (but flexible)
- Every planning process is unique: actors may differ and little formalization (open, informal
processes, but many institutions)
- Link with context (administrative and institutional)
Changes in the process of planning: increasing complexity
- Government: less money, more levels
- Private initiatives vs. legitimacy of plans
- Civil participation and self-organization
- Challenges beyond scale and sector
- ‘Governance’ as a response to complexity
Context orientation: policy and law
- Spatial planning processes are always embedded in ‘regular’ policy processes
- Importance of the formal process through planning law
- Institutions: both formal and informal rules of the game
Changes in the context of planning: increasing uncertainty
- Complex institutional structures (EU)
- Formal: laws and regulations (Planning Act in NL)
- Societal dynamics (smartphone, 5G)
- Trends (climate change, artificial intelligence)
- Change events (pandemics, innovations)
History of Dutch spatial planning
Bottom line Dutch spatial planning
- Strong role of national government
- Influence of spatial planning concepts and doctrines
- Aimed at increasing spatial quality
- Pendulum movements over time when it comes to dominant thoughts on planning
- Move beyond blueprint planning and the ‘makeable society’
- Move beyond entrepreneurial and participatory planning
- Bottom-up planning still exists, but it will not save the world (subjective)
Early planning: problem orientation, modelling and design as solutions
- Garden Cities (Howard)
- Design orientation at local level (AUP, 1938)
- Model orientation (Christaller), local and regional level
Post-war planning: rebuilding, spatial concepts and makeability (1945-1965)
- Object-orientation
o Scaling up
o Population growth (housing need)
o Infrastructure development
o Urbanization spatial layout of NL is expanding
- Process-orientation
o Blueprint planning
o Professionalization of planning
o Top-down system
- Context-orientation
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