AVS. Arkitektúr verktækni skipulag - 01.09.2003, Page 56

Salvör Jónsdóttir, Planner, head of the Planning and Building Department.Reykjavík
Planning and the
Role of
Consultants
Public awareness about environ-
mental issues, including planning,
has increased significantiy over
the past decade. Therefore, it is
worthwhile looking at the real
meaning of the planning process
and its results.
The planning process is a demo-
cratic tool for the governing
authorities, and citizens, to shape
the futures of their local environ-
ment. To take on this task, local
governments hire consultants to
assist them in the process, to
define common goals and objec-
tives and from there, make sug-
gestions for future development.
This harmonizes with the com-
mon trend in planning practices,
known as Smart Growth and/or
New Urbanism. These policies
have of course been criticised,
but many cities on both sides of
the Atlantic have adopted the
methodology. Simplified New
Urbanism can be presented as
an increased emphasis put on:
Living conditions and social
%ohesion of the inhabitants. Part
of this trend is an emphasis on
dense development and sharing
of open space.
Reduced emphasis on private
•cars and traffic solutions. As an
example, garages are placed at
the back of building plots and
parking by roads instead of large
parking areas and public transit is
put in priority.
Mixed development. The post
•var planning methods are aban-
doned, where big lot-homoge-
nous suburbs were
dominant and social
groups did not mix.
This approach
demands multi-disci-
plinary cooperation. It
has therefore been
pointed out that the
current trends in
planning could
encourage the rede-
velopment of cities
since it promotes
solutions of both social and
planning problems.
Essential to this approach is
effective public participation. To
facilitate this, the public must be
aware of the causes of the prob-
lems (reduced environmental
quality), ready to tackle them and
understand the methods that
are likely to lead to improvement.
Education and information of the
public is therefore necessary
here, as in other improvement
tasks.
The authorities set out their goals
in a master plan for the munici-
pality, yet it is then in the hands
of planning consultants, public
servants and developers to finally
carry out the plan. It is therefore
essential that these groups
understand how decisions about
land use influences the quality
of life in a given local municipality
and know how to use the neces-
sary means to reach the desired
goals.
The role of planning consultants
Land Use Planning is a relatively
young field in lceland. Its devel-
opment has been comparable to
the trend in other western coun-
tries, from being in the hands of
technicians to become the coop-
eration of many disciplines.
One of the aspects often criti-
cised when discussing planning
is the lack of comprehensive
view. The importance of compre-
hensive view in planning cannot
be overestimated - a good plan
cannot be made within a narrow
confine, neither with regard to
space nor approach. The two
planning stages which are in the
hands of the local authorities
here in lceland, master plan and
local plan, require different skills
from the planning consultants,
but never the less, the goals that
are laid down in the master plan
are also valid in a local plan. This
way it is made sure that a plan-
ning consultant keeps faithful to
the over-arching goals. However,
during the local planning process
it is often tempting to emphasise
urban design over urban plan-
ning. The importance of good
design in planning is obvious and
has a long tradition in lceland but
in order to reach planning goals it
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Photos: Hreinn Magnússon