"Third development axis"

Best Practice

Topics

• New forms of decision-making
• Governance capacity, Mobility, Policies and instruments

Short description

In the process of a pilot regional spatial development plan preparation for the Koroška region, an idea for a transregional development axis has been conceived, based on spatial development scenarios comprising the settlement system, transportation system and landscape. The idea has then been taken up by regional and other stakeholders and eventually included into the national strategic and programming documents.

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Project executive

Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia

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Participants

Regional Development Agency for Koroška as the body co-ordinating regional spatial development plan preparation activities at the regional level; Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning of the Republic of Slovenia as the body in charge of the formal procedure of the plan preparation and adoption; municipalities, representatives of the economic sector, regional sectoral institutions and other regional stakeholders; representatives of the national level sectoral interests, such as transport, culture, nature conservation, forestry; expert group preparing the regional spatial plan.

Objectives

The pilot project is oriented into preparation of a regional spatial plan, which is a document containing spatial development orientations for the settlement system, infrastructural networks, landscape and the environment. These orientations represent a partnership agreement between the state and the municipalities of the region. The idea for the "third development axis" has been launched in the course of the regional spatial plan preparation, but has then been further developed outside it.

Activities

The formal procedure of regional spatial development plan preparation entails public hearings at different stages, formation and meetings of the Programme Board and working groups. Devising of the document itself has relied, beside on the expert work, on meetings with stakeholders at local, regional and national level, presentations, workshops and media work.

Process

Elaboration of the document has several phases: state of the art analysis, preparing a vision and scenarios, drafting a regional spatial development plan proposal. This process has been informed by the results of the public hearing concerning the programme for preparation of the plan, as well as by meetings of the expert team with stakeholders at local, regional and national level. Three workshops have been carried out: (1) the first one aimed at informing the regional public about the programme and the process of regional spatial plan preparation, (2) the second during preparation of the vision and of the scenarios, (3) the third one during preparation of the draft spatial plan proposal. In the latter two workshops methods of work in groups and facilitation have been applied. Both were aimed at checking the results of expert work with stakeholders from the local, regional and national levels, at confronting the interests of various groups, as well as at getting feedback and additional inputs for drafting the plan.

Results

Presently, there exists a draft proposal of the Regional Spatial Development Plan for the Koroška region. Its most innovative part is the proposal of a new development axis, which is based on one of the scenarios comprising the settlement system, infrastructure networks and cultural landscape, namely the balanced development scenario. The "backbone" of the development axis would be an intermodal transportation infrastructure corridor, which would serve development of the settlement system and regional economy, with emphasis on public passenger transport and goods being transported by up-to-date railway infrastructure. Meanwhile, this idea has been taken beyond the regional frame and has become one of priority national projects. The "third development axis" comprises five Slovenian statistical regions, characterised by low accessibility, and creates at the same time a link between Austria and Croatia. Regional stakeholders backed the expert initiative and took steps for its detailing and implementation.

Evaluation

No data available

Difficulties

Eventhough they were included into all phases of the regional spatial plan preparation - with a representative in the Programme Board and through participation in the workshops - there was reluctancy on the part of the Ministry of Transportation to accept the proposed new transportation corridor and include it into the sectoral strategic and programming documents. The explanation was that local / regional stakeholders were not entitled to formulate proposals for transportation infrastructure of national significance. At the same time, there is no transparent procedure in place which would enable local or regional stakeholders to submit such proposals.

Budget

No data available (Euro)

Financial backer

Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, Municipalities in the Koroška region

Source of information

other contact

Ms Karmen Sonjak
Regional Development Agency for the Koroška region
Koroška cesta 47, 2370 Dravograd, Slovenia

Competition

Participant at the 2005 Future in the Alps competition

Homepage

http://rzpr-koroska.urbinstitut.si/ http://www.rra-koroska.si/

Publication

Not available

Comments

Impact on nature and environment

During drafting of the regional spatial plan an effort has been made to harmonize the different aspects - the settlement system, infrastructural networks, nature and landscape and the environment. Furthermore, representatives of the environment protection and nature conservation sectors participated in meetings and workshops. Beside that elaboration of an environmental impact assessment is envisaged in the process of regional spatial plan preparation.

Economic value added

No data available

Socio-cultural value added

In the process of regional spatial plan preparation a positive attitude and an atmosphere of trust has been created between the project group and the regional stakeholders. Also on the basis of intermediary project results, the actors in the region actively tried to transport their interests and defend them on the national level.

Innovative content

Additional participatory activities have been planned and implemented in the framework of a formal planning procedure, aimed at verification of all important phases of regional spatial plan preparation with stakeholders from the local, regional and national level. In the Slovenian context, joint treatment of the different transportation infrastructure subsystems in a single corridor may also be viewed as innovative. Transportation infrastructure is, furthermore, treated as an element of fostering sustainable regional development in the frame of a development axis. The pilot project served as a testbed with a view to meeting and mutual adjustment of local, regional and national level interests, stakeholders and procedures, and has provided a way of surmounting the problem of lacking procedures for inclusion of regional level issues into national (sectoral) documents.

Good governance

Results of each phase of regional spatial plan preparation were made available to the public via the website of the project. Materials have been prepared and sent to workshop participants in advance of the events. After the workshops the results were summarized and submitted to participants. An effort has been made to include into participatory activities all the relevant stakeholders from the local, regional and national level. At various stages, the Programme Board has reviewed the document and gave its consent. There was also constant media coverage of the regional spatial plan preparation (newspaper articles, reports on the regional and national TV).

PR impact

Information about the project have been, as already mentioned, made available to the stakeholders and wider audience by means of various media: websites, press articles, regional and national TV, presentations.

Multiplier effect / networking

During elaboration of the regional spatial plan and especially in connection with the proposed development axis, several groups of stakeholders have become involved, such as regional development agencies, representatives of municipalities, members of the parliament from the region(s), state ministries and agencies.

Transferability

Most of the methods used in the process of regional spatial plan preparation may be useful also in other cases, such as creation of a partnership, stakeholder participation methods, techniques of work in group and facilitation. More widely, the experience of mobilization of regional stakeholders with a view to promoting the regional interests at the national level may be instructive also for other contexts.