Land use plan for Komenda municipality

Region

Gorenjska

Term 2001-01-01 - 2002-01-01

Short description: An alternative land use planning procedure was conducted with two ways of involving inhabitants (opinion survey and workshops), which resulted in an alternative, generally acceptable location for the production zone.

Ansprechperson Mr Janez Marusic
Department for landscape architecture, University of Ljubljana

Participants: Local authorities (Major, Department for spatial planning), Komenda inhabitants, Biotechnical Faculty (Department for landscape architecture).

Objectives: Development of local agriculture development strategy Development and verification of advanced participation process and tools

Activities: Public opinion survey, workshops with interactive land use computer modeling, development of alternative land use plan proposal

Process: Department for landscape architecture of Biotechnical faculty ways invited by local authorities from Komenda to develop an agricultural plan for the Municipality. However the ambitions were higher, although from a academic perspective. In the first step an opinion survey was conducted, which included all the main aspects of Komenda future and its spatial development and protection. The statistically representative sample was included in the poll. Based on the survey results, several alternative models for development were prepared, which were then tested and adjusted in a sequence of interactive workshops with inhabitants. These workshops were open to everybody, and were supported by hands on GIS computer modeling.

Results: The process provided the required strategy of agriculture development and also found an alternative site to a highly controversial proposal, made by “official” group who were preparing the new land use plan. The proposed site was much more acceptable to all stakeholders, however later also became problematic because the program has been changed (expanded 10 times, from local to regional scale, with changed types of allowed technologies).

Source of information

Publication: Prostorski razvoj Komende: stališča prebivalcev občine Komenda do prostoskega razvoja občine, rezultati ankete, Oddelek za krajinsko arhitekturo, Biotehniška fakulteta, 2001

Comments

Impact on nature and environment: Not significant. The agriculture strategy considers a significant share of the ecological and integrated production, which should reduce the burden of chemicals for the aquifer area.

Economic value added: The agreed site for industrial zone allowed the municipality to proceed with the preparation of documents and negotiations with private partners. Lack of spatial documents is considered on of the most significant barriers for economic development and competitiveness in Slovenia.

Socio-cultural value added: The involvement of the representative sample of the inhabitants allowed to identify attitudes and values existing in society and to adequately respond to these with development proposals. The survey itself informed and activated inhabitants for further participation. The workshops allowed people to interact and deliberate about the possible futures. Use of IT helped bridge the communication gap and made the debate more fruitful and content oriented.

Innovative content: Combination of public opinion survey with workshops, use of public opinion survey results as a base to develop alternative proposals (combination of lay and expert knowledge), use of computer modeling in interactive way in the workshops.

Good governance: The approach helped the people to actively and competently contribute their opinion in decision about land use. Opinion survey contributed passive, but widespread participation, while workshops enabled in-depth, active participation for smaller group of participants.

PR impact: Most important was the survey, which, since it reached a lot of people, had also a significant PR effect. Effort was made by Municipality authorities to promote the workshops in the local media. There was not much echo outside the local community.

Transferability: Same approach can be applied in any process of changing spatial documents or developing strategies for local (or regional) development.