Experts’ comments on introduction of participatory tools in urban planning in Serbia

Abstract

New participation methods have been tested under the GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH) Project ‘’Strengthening of local land management in Serbia’’ within seven pilot projects in local communities during the year 2011/12. The main goal of the project was to introduce new market-oriented planning instruments. This paper presents initial results based on experiences from the project implementation and interviews with local planners engaged. Pilot projects are comprised of different scenarios of urban development planning. These were used to test involvement of stakeholders and citizen engagement in planning process of the new residential area, residential commercial zone, brownfield site development, new tourist area and urban renewal, inner city development and preparation of strategic environmental impact assessments (SEIA). They are concerned with both formal and informal planning procedures. One part of the project is focused on evaluation of expected results and positioning of early participation of citizens, public enterprises and institutions, investors and future users within the existing planning process. The expected result of the project is to propose the involvement of early participation and change of the legal framework. The examples from practice and statements of the participants (urban, spatial and environmental planners), suggest that the formal planning framework does not represent an obstacle for introduction of participation. Citizen participation and stakeholder involvement were applied to achieve more significant effects of urban planning and more certain implementation of plans, as well as to provide social legitimacy and better coordination of decisions.