City region of ,

Urban-rural linkages fostering sustainable development in Europe - Mini case study

Synthesis The city and neighbouring municipalities of Leipzig approach the challenges of changing conditions in the region - sprawl tendencies from the shrinking city to the urban fringe and changing land uses in the peri-urban area - through a mix of spatial planning and informal/ governance strategies.

The case Leipzig is the administrative and functional centre of the city region and the Leipzig- agglomeration, an area across the German Federal State borders of and Saxony-Anhalt. Leipzig city region has about 2 million inhabitants (administrative area of about 4386 km²), the city today around 510,000 inhabitants (298 km²) with increasing tendency since 2 years. But in the 1990ies, Leipzig was faced with one of the highest population losses amongst eastern German cities (>15%). Leipzig is surrounded by two rings of settlements, each constituted by five small towns. The inner ring forms Leipzig’s suburbia, whereas the outer one has a rather rural character.

The city experienced an enormous residential sprawl between 1990 and 1997, which was made possible because of deficient regional planning which allowed real estate companies and investment funds to provide a growing supply of housing on the urban fringe (single family housing and apartment blocks), making suburbia a place where people could afford to instantly improve their standard of living. And further changes are affecting the region: most of the vast open cast mines south and north of Leipzig which have been opened in 1921 and expanded during GDR times are not operated any more. Instead they are flooded and will form an extensive lakeland around Leipzig: 190 km² of new water surface area will substantially change the landscape from mining to a water region, providing tasks and opportunities to form a landscape to the needs of the people in Leipzig and surrounding municipalities.

The cooperation Important milestones in the strengthening of spatial planning were the Saxon Spatial Development Plan (since 1994) and the Regional Plan for Western Saxony (since 1998), constituting the wider framework for the development in the region, for municipal plans as well as informal strategies and forms of intermunicipal cooperation. The municipal area reform of 1999/2000 added to this restructuring. Assembled in the Regional Planning Association of Western Saxony, the city of Leipzig and 5 neighbouring counties are obliged by Saxon Planning Law to negotiate the various interests and agree on joint development perspectives, with the main aims of sustainable spatial development and a balance of competing land-uses.

Perceiving the negative impacts of urban sprawl after the , planning officials in the city of Leipzig and regional authorities soon turned to primarily reserving the urban fringe for recreation, leisure, tourism, agriculture and big strategic developments instead of further enlarging residential and commercial areas around the core cities. Since the mid- 1990s the inner-city environment greatly improved as a whole and the supply of refurbished inner-city dwellings increased, supported by funds and tax benefits. The overall strategy against suburbanisation was to enhance the quality of life in the city in order to retain or attract residents to the city, while at the same time containing and developing existing land uses in the peri-urban area, and making suburban living as sustainable as possible. Respective efforts to contain and develop existing landuses and to protect nature areas in the LEADER and IRD (Integrated Rural Development) areas around Leipzig were thus complemented by activities to strengthen the urban centres. With different partners in the region and beyond (e.g. involvement of the Federal State level) Leipzig conducted a series of projects to refurbish housing in the city centre, revitalise brownfields, provide new forms of housing (“city villas”) attractive and affordable for families, support economic development (through training and funds for respective infrastructure) to create new jobs, provide green space and recreational areas, and expand environmentally-friendly transport systems.

Additionally, in order to successfully tackle some of the complex tasks in the region, a number of regional development strategies have been implemented in so called “activity regions” in the peri- urban area of Leipzig-Halle. For example, regional development concepts such as “Schkeuditzer Kreuz” were elaborated, based on bottom-up decision-making processes, and synchronised with integrated rural development concepts in adjoining areas. In 1996, the city of Leipzig together with 13 surrounding municipalities and the counties “” and “” founded the “Green Ring Leipzig”, a voluntary association with equal votes for all members. Regional developments are jointly coordinated and harmonised, involving the many relevant stakeholders - organisations and associations, citizens and companies. Despite varying interests, the work is built on an overarching common goal: to highlight the attractiveness of the region around Leipzig for the inhabitants and tourists and to rehabilitate and preserve the cultural landscape and biodiversity so the citizens can experience them. Fields of work thus are intercommunal management of compensation areas and vacant land, landscape conservation, recreation and tourism, watercourses and environmental technologies. Decisions are taken by consensus by the semi- annual City-Region-Conference which brings together all actors for reporting, outlook, planning and approval of measures by the mayors of the cities and towns. In such a way, single measures can be bundled to joint actions and new projects developed, possible only through the collaboration of local governments. Under the Saxon Federal State Support guideline for regional development the region received funding for such Green Ring projects and projects in the adjacent "activity regions”. These newly built linkages in the region show in the latest „New Leipzig Lakeland“ initiative to connect the regional watercourses and create a lakeland of about 190 km² directly around Leipzig, providing new opportunities for biodiversity, recreation and transport. In 2010 the first boat will ship from the city centre through the floodplain forest to the lakeland in the south of Leipzig.

Results After 2-3 “planless” years due to the circumstances of the German reunion, the planning for sustainable development in the Leipzig city region was strengthened through a mix of formal and informal strategies together with different forms of intermunicipal co-operation and projects. The quality of life in the city centre was successfully improved and land consumption in the peri-urban ring was reduced by increasingly strict and effective planning regulations: commercial development is now concentrated along a 10 km-line between Leipzig airport and the BMW facilities, bringing focussed impetus to the towns and villages in this peri-urban area. The current phase of reurbanisation in the core city and rising numbers of residents suggest that the efforts for improved housing and living qualities have succeeded in making the centre attractive even to families. Furthermore, the ratio between open space and sealed land in the city of Leipzig has well improved - although the open land is heterogeneously spread over the city area some of the more peripheral districts such as the prefabricated estates of Leipzig-Grünau hold >45m² of urban green per resident. An important asset is the wide green belt of the Leipzig floodplain forest, which crosses the whole city.

But the overall conditions in the region have improved as well. Through the regional plan, the functions of surrounding cities and municipalities have been defined and supported in their development. Yet, due to high competition between municipalities on income taxes from new residents and companies, cooperation in the Leipzig city region is most successful in the joint landscape and recreational planning rather than in spatial planning. Further possibilities are currently explored in the PLUREL scientific project. However, activities like the „Green Ring“ intercommunal pool of compensation areas show that the readiness for collaboration is strong, when the needs to jointly solve the challenges from demographic change and migration trends are recognised. In general, cooperation between different actors in the region tends to work best when small municipalities have equal roles to the city of Leipzig, such as in the Green Ring association.

Case Study elaborated by ICLEI Europe / Northumbria University, 2008