Community based participatory planning as renovation policy

City of Tehran is enduring from huge dilapidated countries which involve both societal every bit good as physical diminution. This job has been reflected in urban development policies that have been established by authorities governments every bit good as the metropolis counsellors and private stakeholders. To face with this job, Tehran municipality has established a chief redevelopment organisation. During the last decennaries assorted policies has been adapted and implemented by this organisation. The paper would reexamine and analyse these policies and the result of their executions.

The policies vary from strictly physical redevelopment of the dilapidated countries which does non requires the engagement of the local occupant in the planning and design procedure and have relied wholly on cardinal determination devising and support. On the manus, participatory planning procedure was promoted and new attacks have been adopted to profit from the bing societal capital and to construct upon the strengths of the occupants and their societal webs to suggest programs and to implement them.

Khazaneh is located in southern Tehran, and is the focal point of an existent redevelopment undertaking reported in this paper. Here a participatory planning attack is adapted and new local councils are established to seek occupants ‘ penetrations into the local program and to inform them of the thoughts of contrivers. This has provided a bipartisan planning system, which is embracing both the ends of the cardinal planning system every bit good as the purposes of the local community.

Keywords-Tehran, Dilapidated vicinities, Renovation, Participation.

Introduction

Cities are unrecorded entities that are dynamic and active and are invariably restituting themselves cell by cell. Cities grow bit by bit, during which vicinities are shaped. As dynamic entities, their physical quality and societal position alteration over clip. This dynamic being normally self-repairs itself in both physical and societal sense.

However sometimes this natural procedure of determining and reshaping is interrupted or malfunctioned. At such times/places, the natural growing procedures are non equal to keep the quality of life and environment. This malfunction may be due to absolute poorness as in slum status, or due to comparative poorness and inequality which itself causes a barbarous circle. In this state of affairs normally deprived countries take form and as a consequence, dilapidated vicinities go a world of metropoliss. To interrupt this barbarous circle it is required to step in and mend the malfunction of these metropoliss, to be able to make the ego fix and eliminate the bedraggled vicinities.

Normally any intercessions to cover with rundown countries of metropoliss in order to heighten quality of life are conducted from top-down, as it is normally conducted by governments with small engagement of occupants. Any intercession without citizen engagement has societal, economical, cultural and political effects that should be considered. One the most of import negative responses is opposition of citizen to any betterment of the vicinity as they do non swear governments.

Techniques of redevelopments

• In order to restitute dilapidated vicinities assorted methods can be adopted. Habibi and Maghsoudi ( 2005 ) acknowledge four types of intercessions in the deprived vicinities.
• Preservation and healthful method: that enhances environmental qualities
• Preservation and adorning method: that enhance and continue the picturesque and architectural quality of the metropolis, such as continuing ocular corridors and old edifices and making a feasible construction for the vicinities
• Rebuilding of metropoliss: as it happens after any catastrophes. Man made or natural catastrophes. This method of redevelopment is aimed to retrace national pride.
• Renovation of bedraggled vicinities can done with any of this methods

Dilapidated vicinity in metropolis of Tehran

Tehran, the capital and largest metropolis of Iran is located in southern inclines of Alborz Mountains and is stretched over 40 kilometers to the south towards desert. Teheran is merely 200 old ages old, and merely during the past half century had a rapid population growing and physical enlargement. The metropolis had a really fast growing during both the 2nd Pahlavi rein and particularly the past one-fourth century after the Islamic Revolution. Rundown vicinities are the sad world of metropolis of Tehran.

Dilapidated or rundown vicinities are the most of import job of metropolis of Tehran, as:

The country of the bedraggled vicinity in Tehran is 3268 hectare which is 15 % of the metropolis country

About of half of the lodging units of the metropolis are located in this vicinities

Approximately 40 % of Tehran ‘s population is populating in these vicinities. They are among the poorest people of the metropolis.

Physical, functional, substructure, transit services, environmental factors, societal and economical status are really hapless in these countries.

Unhealthy life conditions and risky locations

Most of these countries are located in the southern portion of the metropolis

In add-on to the above standards of acknowledging dilapidated vicinities harmonizing to different definitions the common standards for acknowledgment of these types of vicinities are:

• Lack of societal, economic every bit good as physical quality
• Lack of proper entree, substructure and services in the vicinities
• Vulnerability of constructions to natural catastrophes due to old and unstable constructions
• Inability to restitute edifices due to poorness and deficiency of capital for investing
• Out migration of occupants and societal instability due to replacement of new occupants with weaker economical base
• Legal jobs due to inheritance Torahs and endowment ordinances
• Some of the jobs that rose in Tehran due to the dilapidated countries are:
• Economic and societal inequality as a consequence of polarisation in the metropolis ( Abbaszadegan, Rezazadeh 2006 ) .
• Domination of physical orientated urban planning that does non concern with societal and economical conditions
• Lack of handiness due to narrow and unequal roads which causes hapless permeableness of vicinities
• Low value of belongingss in the disadvantaged countries of the metropolis, therefore the redevelopment of the private land and belongingss is non economically plausible
• Lack of adequate and appropriate services
• Low building quality which causes edifices to rundown quickly

Precedence to renovation of Tehran

However urban redevelopment was an issue in Tehran, after entry and blessing of Tehran ‘s maestro program in 1969, the issue gained a new impulse. This program proposed 2000 hectares of the lowest quality residential vicinities to be renovated within a 25 old ages period, in which 600,000 people would be replaced from their topographic points of abode. Tehran ‘s Renovation Corporation was established in 1972 and in 1977, the South Tehran Renovation and Reconstruction Corporation was established where extended dilapidated countries of the metropolis were located. In 1995 a new mission statement for the redevelopment corporation was developed harmonizing on which this corporation could advance development in these countries through funding. This funding is through Bankss and other fiscal institutes and could besides be through portions every bit good as credits.

Since 2004 authorization programs for bedraggled countries were proposed ; this was conducted in three stages. After execution of each stage the programs were evaluated and the range of the work was revised. This alterations and alterations were chiefly off from the up-bottom type attack towards a stronger citizen participatory attack. Renovation Corporation of Tehran assigned the undermentioned ends for redevelopment of bedraggled vicinities:

• Safety: increasing safety of edifice in facing Earth temblors.
• Equity: to do equal chance for development of the metropolis and non to hold polarized metropolis by regenerating dilapidated vicinities and eradicate poorness, heightening quality of life in the disadvantaged countries and doing equal chances for all citizens of the metropolis.
• Revival: heightening sense of citizenship and sense of belonging to districts and giving significance to topographic points through utilizing individuality component and maximising engagement of occupants in redevelopment procedure in the disadvantaged countries
• Capacity edifice: utilizing chances that have been offered for the redevelopment of bedraggled vicinities in order to increase the capacity of the metropolis in conformity with its national, regional and international functions.

The contemporary renovation process

The Reconstruction of Tehran shows a transition from the autocratic Reconstruction towards participatory Reconstruction. One of the major Reconstruction undertakings of Tehran is related to Navaab vicinity. This old and dilapidated vicinity was located in southern parts of Tehran, which is now dissected with a north-south main road into two parts. The Reconstruction of the next vicinity has been conducted without seeking any engagement from the people.

These intercessions were chiefly technocratic, autocratic and top-bottom. The occupants of these three vicinities were chiefly hapless and vulnerable and in all instances they were displaced. Merely in the last two instances, the Moft Abad and Khoob Bakht neighborhoods the supplanting was into the nearest possible topographic point to their old vicinity.

Jabbari and Hasanzadeh ( 2008 ) have shown that these vicinities which are revitalized through a top-down and autocratic attack have confronted many jobs.

Engagement in urban renovation

Contrasting to the autocratic attack is the participatory attack which is a bottom-up attack and seeks citizen engagement. Participatory planning is an urban planning paradigm which emphasizes affecting the full community in the strategic and direction procedures of urban planning or community-level planning procedures. In urban redevelopment procedure, engagement is a new attack which could be applied in both planning and design procedure.

Cowan ( 2005 ) believes that engagement is a procedure in which involved the populace with the alterations in the metropolis, therefore its application would supply a key to development in all facets of urban life. Harmonizing to Oxford dictionary engagement is people ‘s mental and emotional engagement in societal activities and encourages them to assist each other in order to accomplish group ends. Here the three chief issues of importance in engagement are involvement, helping and undertaking duty.

Sherry Arnstein ( 1971 ) introduced this construct as a contrasting and alternate to autocratic attack of planning. Smith ( 1973 ) argued that citizen engagement is an indispensable component in doing the planning procedure a acquisition system. This leads to a strengthening of the definition and function of communities in the urban system, and to an unexpected demand of contrivers who would follow a participatory planning procedure.

Shirvani ( 1985 ) identifies two types of attacks in the overall strategy ; these are facilitator attack and political militant attack. Harmonizing to Shirvani ( 1985 ) , facilitator attack uses participatory methods for both job definition and coevals of design solution.

Sanoff ( 2000 ) defines facilitation as ‘a agencies of conveying people together to find what they wish to make and assisting them find ways to work together in make up one’s minding how to make it ‘ .

Sherry Arnstein ( 1971 ) equates citizen engagement with citizen authorization which explains it through the participatory ladder. It starts from the lowest degrees of engagement which are use and therapy to middle scope of engagement which includes ratting, confer withing and conciliation, and eventually at the highest degree of engagement are partnership, deputing power and eventually citizen control.

As is seen in lower degrees of the engagement ladder, the act is merely formal and there are non any true power handed into the citizens. However at the in-between scope there are non much to lose, so informing and confer withing are practiced. However the highest degrees involve passing in power to citizens.

In Tehran, there was an enthusiasm toward application of participatory planning in redevelopment procedure. However, this attack has non been really successful at first, since in this procedure supplying fiscal resources and societal support were hard. During the first two old ages of its beginning merely 400 residential units were renovated and occupants were non take parting in the procedure as was expected, which disappointed Members of Tehran City Council.

However, for a successful participatory planning attack, the procedure must be turned into a procedure of increasing enthusiasm and passion for redevelopment. This includes:

• Increasing degree of services
• Enhancing the quality of life
• Bettering the societal position
• Promoting sense of topographic point fond regard

Following this alteration of attitude and attack, go forthing the autocratic Reconstruction and using participatory attack, the Renovation Corporation of Tehran, had to alter the range of the work in three stages.

Local redevelopment office

In 2008 Renovation Corporation of Tehran decided to establish local redevelopment offices in bedraggled vicinities. The chief committee of these offices was to ease the occupants ‘ engagement in the redevelopment procedure. The Scopess of work of these offices are:

• Facilitation: to acknowledge stakeholders and doing regular meeting with occupants
• Publicizing and publicity: to heighten economic and societal position
• Commiting: to advance forming societal every bit good as economical groups that advocate redevelopment and rehabilitation of the deprived vicinities.

Members of these offices are from local territory boroughs, local counsellors, local clergy, members of local stakeholders such as adult females ‘s leaders, local retail representatives.

One of these offices has been established in Khazaneh vicinity that is one of the bedraggled vicinities in southern Tehran. Writer of this article was involved in activities of this office during 2008-2010. One of the challenges that this office was faced with was happening common land to discourse jobs, as different stakeholders preferred to raise their ain issues. Therefore it was critical to hold their assurance that all the issues will be dealt with harmonizing to the precedences of the vicinity as it was put frontward by the local council.

Decision

The redevelopment experience in metropolis of Tehran shows that in any urban intercession in order to restitute the bedraggled vicinities, it is critical to hold clear schemes that maximize citizen engagement and continue the spirit of topographic point. Sing the above scheme the undermentioned recommendations are advised:

• In the planning scheme human cost and benefit should be considered as the chief indexs of redevelopment policy
• Residents should actively take part in be aftering their hereafter, as they should be good informed and portion of planning procedure
• Residents ‘ function in all the programs should be crystalline
• The governments and local counsellors should move transparent so that occupant can swear their activities and programs
• All kinds of engagement techniques and proper methods of communicating should be employed in order to understand the local jobs and issue and reassigning thoughts and programs in order to acquire equal responses
• Any kind of gentrification is non recommended
• If replacing of occupants is necessary, it should be clearly explained, as of how it affects different groups and stakeholders.
• Different planning and design options should be presented in order to supply assorted picks for occupants
• Assorted local capacity and invention should be recognized
• Non-governmental organisations should be mobilized for the redevelopment of deprived countries and they should take part in different phases of planning and design procedure
• Encouraging policies should be considered in order to carry occupants to restitute their summation houses and edifices