AVS. Arkitektúr verktækni skipulag - 01.12.2004, Page 24

Ibúðarsvæði á Norðlingaholti. / The Norðlingaholt housing area.
only apply to Reykjavík but also
other local authorities in the Capital
Area and this is also reflected in
the Regional Plan for the Capital
Area. Increased densities are a key
issue in increasing the quality of
life - which both present and future
generations enjoy. These qualities
are a result of reduced traffic and
air pollution, shorter travel distances
and more mature social life.
In a recent study of the services
of Reykjavík it was interesting to
see that the inhabitants consider
the greatest faults of the city to be
heavy traffic, bad road network, inef-
ficient public transport and low den-
sity of the city. A closer look shows
that all these issues revolve around
planning. Nonetheless the concept
of more dense development has a
negative association which maybe is
understandable as greater densities
can imply great change to the envi-
ronment where people have lived for
decades.
But take a closer look at what is
being done with planning. Planning
is in essence a framework for the
quality of life. The implements avail-
able to local authorities to create
this framework are on one hand a
development plan and on the other
a detail plan. In the development
plan the broad policies and goals
of the local authority are dealt with
but in the detail plan shows in more
detail intended buildings in the envi-
ronment and other issues like the
form of buildings, noise control and
the demand for parking. In this con-
nection it is worth mentioning that
in a detailed plan the density can be
decided and how certain areas are
to be used, for example, how much
space is used for transportation.
A comparison between districts is
interesting bearing densities in mind.
The average area used for transpor-
tation per dwelling in the Vesturbær
district is less than 100 m2 while it
is on average more than 200 m2
per dwelling in Grafarvogur. The dif-
ference is obvious just by looking at
these districts but nonetheless it is
the city or the ratepayers who take
part in subsidising the cost which
is part of low densities by financing
the transit system and services. In
the increasing of densities of already
built areas or in dense new districts
the cost is borne by the developers
or the future owners of dwellings
because in these areas car parking
below ground is a usual require-
ment. These demands for parking
increase the building cost of
housing. Dense development, which
benefits all in the long run, is in
this way partially paid for by those
who want to live in and build dense
development. These important
issues have had too little promi-
nence in the discussion about more
dense development and the same
applies to the negative economic
effect of low densities.
When the framework for the near
environment of people is being
constructed in detail planning it is
important to be aware of the proc-
ess that takes place. A democratic
process is constantly being devel-
oped where the opinion of people
living there is being sought in the
early phases to ensure that the
plan will be accepted by most peo-
ple. This is an accepted process
in democratic countries. Planning
proposals are advertised to seek
the opinion of people because pro-
posals are not finalised when they
are advertised. This process can
lead to changes of the first ideas of
developers - such as placing more
emphasis on environmental issues
and parking - but these demo-
cratic processes both lengthen the
planning process and can lead to
increased cost.
This autumn the KB Bank held a
conference about the future of the
property market and following that
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