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A
new Plan for Bologna
Author: City of Bologna.
Territory and Planning Division
Publication date:
November 2007
Abstract
Twenty years after the last general
urban plan, Bologna has commenced the programme for the approval
of a new instrument governing the territorial area. This period
has been marked by important changes in the city and territorial
area and by a new urban planning law that has radically changed
the relevant institutional framework. The proposal for the
new urban plan is an important event in the history of the
city and of urban planning in Bologna.
The new instruments governing the transformation of the city
territory, which substitutes the old General Development Plan
(Law 20/2000) consists of the Structural Plan (PSC),
the Operational Plan (POC) and the Urban Building
Regulations (RUE). The three instruments are in the process
of being developed in an integrated form. In relation to the
PSC it was launched a more general discussion as to the lines
of territorial protection and development, which will then
be developed and set out in detail in the other two instruments.
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In seven cities,
the PSC strategy |
“Bologna metropolitan city” and “Bologna city of cities” are
two images which briefly set out the approach that resulted in
the Outline Survey and the enquiry process that was concluded
with the Preliminary Document.
These two images have drawn attention to the multiple nature of
urban forms that are the distinguishing features of Bologna and
its territory today, expressing the desire to make best use of
them.
In the work of developing the Structural Plan these images, which
were still vague, have been translated and linked to specific
parts of the territory in which projects, policies and actions
are concentrated – areas upon whose transformation the redevelopment
of the city and the surrounding metropolitan area depends.
The 7 Cities are territorial figures that seek to identify differences
that are already present and to highlight the strategies that
guide various different actions which are described in terms of
space, time and the people involved. They represent the general
project which links and animates the individual policies of the
PSC, reinterpreting also past ideas and proposals, bridging administrative
divisions beyond municipal level and those of the neighbourhoods
of Bologna.
The 7 Cities, of the Railway, the By-pass road, the Hills, the
River Reno, the River Savena, the Western Via Emilia, and the
Eastern Via Emilia, each inextricably linked with the other, but
each distinguishable through their history, characteristics and
future strategies, identify as many series of spaces, developed
and open, where various populations and social practices prevail,
where the way of living changes. In these differences the richness
of the city of today can be recognised and in their development
is measured the utility of a structural plan which does not involve
the territory in a uniform manner, but concentrates and diversifies
interventions.
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Situations
for local guidelines |
The identification of 37 Situations, 22 of which are densely
populated, identified with the names known to the inhabitants
in order to aid recognition of the places concerned, has the purpose
of building up a suitable agenda of actions for the Operational
Plans, the Implementation Plans and the Urban Building Regulations,
in part entrusted to the initiative of the Districts.
In this case the PSC has looked for a way of translating into
urban planning language the indications that have emerged during
the detailed programme of analysis, consultation and discussion
that has led the experts, citizens and district institutions to
bring their experience together in order to decide upon the importance
of the problems and reach possible solutions in the “micro-cities”.
Knowing that the quality of the relationships between space and
society are not divisible and that a series of sector interventions,
which are individually virtuous, do not guarantee tout-court the
excellence of the overall outcome, and knowing also that the development
of integrated urban policies is essential, the PSC is seeking
to play its part by providing for the different implementing instruments
a sort of pro memoria with reasoned priorities.
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Systems and Contexts
for extending quality |
If the 7 Cities enable us to interpret the choices operated by
the Structural Plan on certain parts of the territory that are
judged to be strategic, it is in the Systems and in the Contexts,
on the other hand, that we find the ways in which the PSC seeks
to guide the interventions and the policies that involve the entire
territory, pursuing the objective of spreading quality, bearing
in mind the different conditions at the outset.
The planning of the three Systems - mobility, the public
city, environment- is aimed at guaranteeing facilities and services
that are regarded as essential for habitability. In the PSC it
has been sought to highlight the objectives followed for each
system and to set out the criteria for the choices made, examining
also guidelines and planning choices beyond local level.
The Contexts – belonging to the Territory to be Developed,
the Developed Territory, the Rural Territory - translate the project
for the Development Plan into the form set out in Regional Law
20/2000 in order to dictate the regulations, defining for each
part of the territory the urban and functional characteristics,
the social, functional, environmental and morphological objectives
and the relative service requirements.
Interpreting the logic of the legislation, which configures the
context as a minimum unit for the regulation of the structural
plan, the Bologna PSC proposes a level of disaggregation that
is sensitive to the characteristics of the territory and makes
it possible to give completeness to the redevelopment operations.
This means contexts that are sufficiently broad, portions of territory
recognisable for their urban characteristics, state of conservation,
level of facilities, functional mix.
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Bologna's
community participation |
Bologna City Council has set up various activities to encourage
participation and involvement in the planning and transformation
processes in the city. A traditional and codified programme is
that of information and consultation in the city districts, with
decentralised institutional units.
These have been supported at the same time by activities of an
institutional nature, pursuant to Law no. 20/2000 (the Emilia
Romagna Regional urban planning law), which involves consultation
with economic associations and coplanning with institutional bodies.
On the other hand, programmes of an experimental and optional
nature have included the "Bologna: A Changing City" Forum and
the "neighbourhood workshops" set up to look at several important
areas of transformation.
The Administration decided to launch a programme involving public
participation at the time when the strategic guidelines of the
Structural Plan were being drawn up, in order to obtain the views
of the various community groups in the city upon various subjects:
the transport system, the environment, the urban system.
The "neighbourhood workshops", on the other hand, were local actions
where those involved in transformations (citizens, associations,
administrations, experts) can bring together various points of
views on the city and different areas of expertise (technical
or otherwise), searching to reach quality solutions which are
shared as widely as possible.
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For further information:
City of Bologna
Piano strutturale comunale, 2007
http://www.comune.bologna.it/psc/
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