7.2 Integrate participation into planning

7.21. In the diagnosis process
As the current planning system is conceived with a process that runs from diagnosis to the approval of the plan, it would make sense to monitor the various steps in the system with indicators. However, the current planning system has clearly been overtaken by current events. A system based on municipal plans, limited to the ambit of the administrative borders of local entities, cannot respond to problems that in most cases go beyond that ambit. At the other extreme we find spatial planning as the benchmark. The leap from spatial planning to the current urban plans appears to be far too large, making it essential to consider an alternative system to the current one to respond to the requirements of the 21st century. Also, change situations are so important that nor can plans considered as still images at predetermined moments in time respond flexibly enough. Planning will have to be considered that is based on processes with ongoing monitoring of the city and territory, with the option of more rational decision-making with continuous ad-hoc modifications of planning that is fixed in time, inflexible and awkward to change.

7.22. In strategic decision-making
Strategic decision-making should be done before turning to more physical considerations of uses and functions in space. It would seem to be essential to begin with a strategic city plan that arises out of a long-term agreement between the leading actors building it and the public. In this context strategic decision-making should be not merely a simple choice of alternatives proposed by technical experts, as currently happens, but a genuine political agreement.

7.23. In drafting the plan
With regard to the drafting of the plan if any references are available for the current situation. However, until not long ago they were not even considered to be important unless they were related to its approval.

7.24. In approving the plan
In approval of the plan there is a long tradition of what is called public participation, which normally consists of an often cryptic presentation by the technicians who drafted it, featuring the opportunity to examine the plans. Although this situation has changed in part, in most public information on urban plans the gulf between technicians, politicians and the public is still too deep. It is hardly surprising that many references can be found to the need for public information in regional legislation, because the term has been directly inherited from the national Land Act 1956.

7.25. In the process of monitoring and supervising the plan
This criterion includes the very few, generic provisions skating that participation should occur in the preparation, approval and monitoring of planning, as the case may be. From this point of view, it has been necessary to analyse it jointly with those described above.

7.26. Integrate Agenda 21 programmes into planning
The matter of Agenda 21 programmes has been dealt with above. Their integration in planning is still a relatively recent development and a clear precedent for what we will probably see in the future: the integration of urban planning into a strategic city plan, combining a political agreement with economics and physical planning.

Discussion