Land Use Planning
Land use planning can be a powerful tool to achieve changes with the mutual effort of several municipalities, for example concerning marketing of employment areas, advancement of the tourist industry, nature preservation, transportation and education. The key for all land use planning projects is mutual interest, otherwise it’s dysfunctional and hard to handle. The experience of VSO Consulting is that it’s important to look into a few fundamental questions before a decision is made to begin working on the land use plan.
Why?
What do we want to achieve? What changes do we want to see? Why do we want these changes come to life, i.e. what do we expect from the plan?
How?
How is land use planning helpful to achieve goals and encourage change? Is land use planning the right tool? Emphasis on analytic work, shaping of the rules and strategy for the area. Important to secure a wide-spread participation of interested parties.
Emphasis?
What are the mutual interests? Are we in offense or defense? Emphasis on growth? Emphasis on the area uniqueness with regards to work or tourism? Emphasis on improved infrastructure like transportation or health issues?
Enforcing?
How to pursue the strategy and project plan? Wow about the ownership? Patience and progress analysis. Remember what the purpose of the work is. Enforcement is the hardest part of the job.
Profit?
Clear strategy and prioritizing of the actions that lead to changes. Municipalities are headed in the same direction, promotes increased collaboration and strengthens trust.