Settlement development: Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts with model approach

The revised Spatial Planning Act stipulates that municipalities must exhaust reserves in already built-up areas before designating new building zones. This is intended to curb further urban sprawl. For the municipalities, however, this entails complex challenges for which they are often insufficiently prepared, according to a media release from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Private and institutional owners have their own ideas about what should happen on their properties and in their neighborhoods. Planning over the heads of those affected means that objections and disagreements are inevitable when construction actually takes place.

The Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, in collaboration with the Office of Spatial and Economic Affairs of the Canton of Lucerne and the Office of Spatial Planning of the Canton of Basel-Landschaft, has therefore developed a procedural model for neighborhood development within the existing settlement area. The project was supported by the Federal Office for Spatial Development ARE and the Federal Office for Agriculture BLW within the framework of the federal program "Model Project for Sustainable Spatial Development 2014-18".

Multi-stage procedure

A multi-stage, locally specific procedure is intended to ensure that the expectations and concerns of the various parties are heard and incorporated into the planning process. The process has already been tested in eight communities. In seven communities, the process has been completed; in all of them, the projects have taken a step toward realization.

According to the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, the new procedure is particularly suitable for neighborhoods in which numerous owners - institutional and private - with different interests are involved and therefore the potential for conflict is higher than elsewhere. In the municipalities of Schüpfheim, Ufhusen, Entlebuch, Emmen and Ballwil, the issue was the town center or parts of it; in Sempach and Oberwil, it was a residential neighborhood. "The initial question for the project team in all cases was: How can we help communities that want to further develop the center or a neighborhood, but can't come up with a feasible solution on their own?" says Ulrike Sturm, project manager from the Department of Technology & Architecture at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

First and foremost, he says, a common misunderstanding needs to be cleared up: "Planning is often misunderstood in this context," Sturm says. "It's not about someone having to build. It's about creating the opportunity for someone who wants to build to do so, and to do so in consultation with the community and in agreement with the
other residents. This is only possible if it is possible to agree on an overall picture for the development of the area."

"Support group" has central position

Central to the model approach developed is an accompanying group composed for this purpose, consisting of representatives of the municipality - politics and administration -, planning experts and neutral process support; during the model project, this was the interdisciplinary team of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. The accompanying group is to ensure that all participants work together in workshops and that local knowledge and expertise are contributed in equal measure. In this process, the concerns and suggestions of those who are less accustomed to making themselves heard in a larger group, for example private owners versus institutional ones, should also be heard. The municipality and the monitoring group determine the procedure according to the specific situation. At the beginning, there could be telephone interviews with the property owners, but it could also start with an information event on the project or an ideas workshop with the planning commission, according to those responsible for the project.

It is not only the owners who have to be won over to this complex, multi-stage process, but also the planning and architectural offices involved, which are taking on a role they are not used to: Unlike usual, they are not only negotiating with their client, but have to develop proposals for those directly affected. Sturm, herself an architect, therefore sees the task of the advisory group as guiding the process in such a way that in the end not too many compromises impair the quality of a design.

Information on the overall project and the procedure in the individual communities: https://rawi.lu.ch/themen/siedlungsentwicklung/Netzwerk_Innenentwicklung