A c t i o n p l a n

C o n t e n t s

1. COMMON CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES ...... 3

1.1 LIVEABLE TOWN CENTER ...... 4 1.2 SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT ...... 5 1.3 THE ROLE OF NATURE AND CULTURAL HERITAGE IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT ...... 6 1.4 TOGETHERNESS ...... 7 1.5 SHARED GOALS AND MEASURES ...... 8 1.6 THE IDEA- SMALL TOWNLAB ...... 9 1.7 THE METHOD - SMALL TOWNLAB ...... 11 1.8 DESCRIPTION OF SMALL TOWNLAB ...... 13 2. INDICATORS AND METHODS TO MEASURE URBAN QUALITIES AND SUSTAINABILIY ...... 14 3. NEW INDICATORS AND METHODS TO MEASURE URBAN QUALITIES AND SUSTAINABILITY...... 15 4. SINGLE PROJECT - SMALL TOWNLAB...... 16 5. PROJECTS IN SMALL TOWNLAB ...... 17

5.1 SMALL TOWNLAB ...... 19 5.2 SMALL TOWNLAB ...... 21 5.3 SMALL TOWNLAB ...... 23 5.4 PORI SMALL TOWNLAB ...... 25 5.5 MOSFELLSBÆR SMALL TOWNLAB...... 27 5.6 FLJÓTSDALSHÉRAÐ SMALL TOWNLAB ...... 29 6. TIMETABLE WITH MILESTONES ...... 31 7. SMALL TOWNLAB - OVERALL BUDGET ...... 32

Attractive Nordic Towns Group 4 – Action plan – Application May 16th2018 2

1. Common challenges and opportunities

Group 4 consists of six towns, Fljótsdalshérað, Mosfellsbær, Pori, Steinkjer, Verdal and Levanger. The size of the towns varies from 3 500 inhabitants in Fljotdalsherad to 85 000 in Pori. Group 4 can see many common challenges and opportunities for the six towns and has chosen three topics to describe them. All the common challenges are important for creating an attractive and sustainable small town in both the short and long-term. It is about creating good and safe living conditions for the citizens today, as well as taking care of our common resources for future generations.

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1.1 Liveable town center

The six towns are struggling to maintain life in their town centers. Shops and businesses close down or move out of the town center. This means that the shops are emptied and the facilities are closed. Fewer inhabitants visit the town and a negative spiral occurs, which makes it difficult for the remaining shops and businesses to survive. When the town center is emptied for activity and people, it influences the experience of the town’s atmosphere and attractiveness.

Important questions to turn challenges to opportunites:

• How can we achieve a revitalization by bringing people back into the town center?

• How can we inspire new thinking and experimentation with activities, services and features for new forms of town use, meeting places, visits and experiences?

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1.2 Sustainable transport

The towns are experiencing major challenges in relation to private car use. The urbanization around the town center is scattered and long distances lead to high private car use. The number of inhabitants is too low to develop a good public tranport. Travel survey in one town shows that about half of the residents who live closer than four km to the town center use the car. In the towns large areas are allocated to parking spaces, both in terms of street parking and parking lots.

Important questions to turn challenges to opportunites:

• How can we create town centers more for people and less for cars?

• How can we make it desirable for people to walk, cycle or use public transport?

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1.3 The role of nature and cultural heritage in urban development

Today's urban development is influenced by different driving forces and the requirement for greater densification is a national target. It is not uncommon for a conflict of interest to arise between those who wish to promote development projects through new constructions and those who wish to preserve most of their original structures. Important questions to turn challenges to opportunites:

• How can we preserve natural and cultural heritage as a resource in urban development?

• How can we “preserve through use"?

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1.4 Togetherness

Cooperation with citizens

We believe increased participation and cooperation between authorities and citizens is important to ensure sustainable urban development. When citizens feel ownership of the processes done and decisions made, this helps to ensure good quality in the implementation. In all the three common challenges, we would therefore like to focus on how to involve and engage our citizens.

The cooperation process between the municipality's residents, politicians and administration helps to build mutual trust and contributes to increased satisfaction and a happier population.

This development requires collaboration skills with the ability to mobilize and communicate widely.

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1.5 Shared goals and measures

Overall goal: Increased participation and cooperation with citizens for an attractive and sustainable urban development. Developing the Small TownLAB as an appropriate method and meeting places for small and medium-sized municipalities in municipal planning and development work. Developing Small TownLAB give and share LIBRARY for collecting experience, knowledge, ideas and questions and to ensure lasting cooperation to achieve sustainability goals.

Subgoals:

o Find good methods and tools to be used in Small TownLAB by 2020

o Implement the methods and tools in the municipality after 2020

o Conduct project/experiments in each town to deal with the common challenges: o Liveable town center o Sustainable transport o Nature and cultural heritage in urban planning.

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1.6 The idea- Small TownLAB

All six towns want to establish their own Small TownLAB adapted to the town’s needs and capabilities. A Small TownLAB can be:

o a permanent place - a meeting place in one or more locations in the town o a mobile "place" that moves around and meets people wherever they are o a digital platform. The Small TownLAB can occur as a popup activity in various planning processes and debates, or be a permanent place with information and knowledge exchange between citizens and the municipality’s politicians and administration. Through Small TownLAB, we want to:

o Create an arena for testing and experimenting with various actions o Create an arena for participation and cooperation based on the quadruple helix model: Municipality, businesses, academia and the society.

The illustration on next page shows the idea of what a Small TownLAB can be.

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Attractive Nordic Towns Group 4 – Action plan – Application May 16th2018 10

1.7 The method - Small TownLAB

The process of Small TownLAB activities consists of experimental design in ten steps:

1. Establish contact with participants 2. Do a situation analysis (mapping) 3. Address key questions 4. Gather all possible solutions to the questions 5. Prioritize suggested solutions according to feasibility and potential benefits 6. Prototype and test the most preferred solutions 7. Select measurement data collection 8. Analysis 9. Evaluation 10. Based on the analysis and evaluation, the solution is implemented, or go on conducting further tests

The illustration on next page shows the process in the Small TownLAB method.

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Attractive Nordic Towns Group 4 – Action plan – Application May 16th2018 12

1.8 Description of Small TownLAB

Knowledge development through experimental design is an important principal. And of course, open and outward communication throughout the process, is a prerequisite for maintaining an equal partnership between all parties involved. The six towns have several key questions that could be addressed through the Small TownLAB structure. Example: Which solutions will reduce car use in the town center? Particular priority should be payed to facilitating:

o Walking and cycling to and from local schools o Bicycle tourism and rides in the terrain surrounding the town center Solutions may include:

o Changing car traffic pattern, including strategic parking in walking distance to town trade and services o Establish new bicycle trails and amenities associated with them, such as parking, signs and so forth o Better bus services Through an experimental approach we gain:

o A wider variety of solutions o Better quality of the chosen solutions o Expertise from inhabitants and business owners on how functional town life is now, and how it could be improved o Less controversy surrounding unpopular decisions (so called “nudging”)

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2. Indicators and methods to measure urban qualities and sustainabiliy

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3. New indicators and methods to measure urban qualities and sustainability.

City driven new innovations

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4. Single project - Small TownLAB.

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5. Projects in Small TownLAB

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Shared goals

The Small TownLAB experiments/projects will help the group reach its goals and will hopefully be an important contribution to a Nordic “Small TownLAB give and share LIBRARY”. The main intention is to create involvement between the inhabitants and the municipality through the meeting places and the method that the Small TownLAB creates.

Nordic strategy

The project can help to develop a joint Small TownLAB give and share LIBRARY for small and medium-sized cities, where questions, ideas, knowledge and experiences can be gathered. We believe that if the library becomes accessible to all, it may have a positive impact on the development of small and medium-sized and sustainable towns.

UN SDG

All the six towns have chosen the same single project: A Small TownLAB, as a method to reach UN's sustainability goals, and especially the following goals:

o Goal nr. 3 Good health and well–being, o Goal nr. 11 Sustainable cities and communities o Goal nr. 16 Peace, justice and strong institutions o Goal nr. 17 Partnerships for the goals Projects

Each town has chosen different projects/experiment in their Small TowLAB, to test different ways to involve citizens and other stakeholders in developing the towns. The projects/experiments are divided into the three main topics: Liveable town centers, Sustainable Transport and The role of nature and cultural heritage in urban development.

All towns in group 4 will share information about progress, actions and outcomes by using a blog or another sharing point as a kind of Small TownLAB give and share LIBRARY.

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5.1 Levanger Small TownLAB

Projects:

o Liveable backyards, public spaces and facilities o “Travel smart” Goals: o Vitalize the town in general and the backyards, empty stores and urban spaces in particular o Find out how the municipality can co-create with citizens and others to develop an attractive and sustainable city o Demonstrate that the cultural-historical backyards and buildings are resources for creating new and sustainable activity o Reduce the amount of traffic in Levanger town center o Stimulate residents to walk, ride and use public transport (bus) o Ensure better public health, cleaner environment and financial gain

Description:

The wooden town Levanger is soon under national protection as a cultural heritage. The conservation of the wooden town Levanger as a heritage and competitive advantage gives Levanger a unique starting point for development, and it is important to show concrete examples of "preservation through use" to mobilize for effort.

Cultural-historical back yards, empty buildings and urban areas are resources for creating new and sustainable activity. Through experiments with different types of pop-up activities in culture and industry, we will develop and visualize long-term, sustainable solutions in cooperation with owners and stakeholders. “Travel smart” is an environmental project, which consists of attitude-building work towards the city's inhabitants and businesses and physical investments to facilitate more walking, cycling and more use of public transport.

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Participants: Municipal planners and persons with special expertise in relevant areas. External actors: owners, voluntary organizations, businesses, business forum, researchers, kindergartens, schools and other stakeholders.

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5.2 Steinkjer Small TownLAB

Project:

o Livable and attractive main street o Sustainable transportation in the town center and around nearby schools.

Goals: o A main street that feels safe for people, who can walk in the sidewalks and ride bike in the street trade in the shops, and people using facilities like coffee shops, diners and parks. o Less car use in the city center and nearby schools. o Make a plan for bicycle roads and solutions that can lead to less car use in the city center and areas around schools.

Description: The aim is to create a main street that feels safer for people, who use the sidewalks and ride their bikes in the town center and to schools. We also want people to use urban spaces, shops and amenities more frequently. Traffic patterns should be less dependent on car use than what is the case today. This development will be more sustainable, with less CO2 emissions and increased public safety.

All users of the main street and school area can be involved in developing happier and healthier townscape and townspeople. Stakeholders (citizens, students, volunteers, business owners, politicians and municipal officials) are encouraged to suggest actions, participate in data collection and so forth. Mobilizing people to participate will be an important part of the project activity.

We plan to conduct a practical test of preferred solutions in collaboration with people living in and using the town, within the framework of the Small TownLAB method. We will ask schoolchildren and students to participate in data collection and analysis.

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Participants: From the municipality: Across sectors and interdisciplinary work/people in the municipality – department of roads, traffic and parks, adviser for cultural heritage, municipal planners, public health coordinator, schools. Mayors and administrative leaders are owners of the projects – the working group are people from different secators. External actors: Private and sivil sektor: Steinkjer næringsforum, Gårdeierforeningen, Visit . School classes, university, elderly people, organizations, researchers: TfoU (Trøndelag forskning og utvikling).

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5.3 Verdal Small TownLAB

Projects:

o Liveable public town square o Life and activities along the riverbank Goals: o An attractive and lively riverbank promenade, connecting the town centre with the nature and the villages in surrounding areas. o A liveable public town square as a meeting place in the town centre for all generations. o A closer cooperation with citizens, businesses and academia in planning and development processes - co- creation. Description:

Verdal would like to vitalize the public town square to make it the preferred meeting place for citizens of all ages. In the process, we would like to experiment with different types of activities and with different physical elements – all in cooperation with citizens and businesses.

There are now plans for building apartment blocks surrounding the public town square, with businesses on the ground floor. The timing is therefor right for the municipality to engage and cooperate with the citizens to remake the public town square a permanent meeting place for all generations.

Verdal would also like to develop the riverbank promenade into an area with life and activity that connects the town centre with the surrounding nature and villages. This is an area with easy access and a great potential for low threshold activity, which is important for the public health. It will also give the surrounding villages an opportunity to choose biking and walking when going into the town centre. By asking the citizens for ideas and experimenting with some of these we believe the results will be of a better quality and thus more sustainable.

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Participants:

Municipal planners, culture department, technical department and persons with special expertise in relevant areas. External actors: Inhabitants, voluntary organizations, businesses, business forum, university, researchers and other stakeholders.

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5.4 Pori Small TownLAB

Project:

o Keskusaukio square as a strategic node in the renewal of the Pori Promenade City concept Goals: o Transforming the Keskusaukio square and the former bus station area to attractive places for sojourn and to new urban passageways for walking and biking. o Exploring the idea of adding a transversal axis to the Pori Promenade at the Keskusaukio square by opening it as the tip of the “Pasaasi” area eastward. o Creating alternatives for new traffic arrangements of the larger area that prioritizes the prerequisites of a comfortable and secure light traffic use and solutions for the parking issue. Description: The Pori Promenade City center development program from 1995 needs an updating and the Keskusaukio square is a key element in this challenging trans-sectoral work. The target area is at the same time a folding point of the Pori Promenade axis and the tip of the wedge-like formed area (Pasaasi) transformed by large-scale urban regeneration measures in the last 10 years.

The aim is to transform the square and its environment more attractive for new urban sojourning and increasing its usability as a passageway for walking and biking. These measures on one hand enforces the identity and legibility of the cityscape of the present Pori Promenade axis on the strip of Travel Center – Keskusaukio square and on the other hand promotes the strategic objective of opening the square toward east in order to connect with the Pasaasi area. Residents of the neighboring areas and young people will be the main stakeholder groups invited to the workshops on the transformation of the square and its environment. Small Town LAB experiments are planned to be organized by using the vacant places of the former bus station. The building itself is built in 1955 and it can be considered as an outstanding example of the post-war built heritage of the town.

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Participants: Relevant units of City organization: Vitality unit/City Planning, Technical services/infra planning; Environmental and authorization services development and planning; Pori National Urban Park. External actors: Residents of the neighboring area and NGOs, Kuninkaanhaka primary school; Constructing companies/real estate developers, Travel Center, Pori Linjat Oy bus company

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5.5 Mosfellsbær Small TownLAB

Project: o Establishing a meeting place in the town center. Goal: o Establish a meeting place where residents can have easy access to the local administration and general information from the town council, as well as using the meeting place as an attraction for the town centre. o Make an easier access for residents of Mosfellsbærto participate in the government, and provide them with information about the municipality, projects and relevant staff. o Increase public participation and democracy. o Use the small townLAB to involve citizens in developing a more attractive and livable town. Description:

The main purpose of this project is to establish a meeting place, close to main service areas in the town center, where residents have good access to the local administration and politicians, and general information from the town council and about the town. This could include easier access to members of the administration and politicians for quicker answers of specific questions.

Citizens and visitors would have better access to general information about the town, the town´s masterplan, municipal service, policies, action plans and general information. The meeting place could also work as an information area for new planning documents, or other documents that need to be introduces to the residents.

The meeting place will also be used to involve residents in decision making on how to make the town center more attractive and livable, using surveys and suggestion boxes, to get their view on certain aspects as the town center.

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Participants:

Employees, managers and elected representatives from the municipality, residents of the town and NGO's interested.

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5.6 Fljótsdalshérað Small TownLAB

Project:

o Establishing a meeting place in the town center.

Goals: o Include the citizens, the people who live in and use the town, in development and decision making. o Establish a meeting place where residents can have easy access to the local administration and general information from the town council, as well as using the meeting place as an attraction for the town centre. o Make an easier access for residents of Fljótsdalshérað to participate in the government, and provide them with information about the municipality, projects and relevant staff.

Description:

To increase the citizen's participation in municipality's decisions and ownership of projects Fljótdalshérað will establish a suitable meeting place (a Small TownLAB) for citizens of all ages. The Small TownLAB will be used to gather ideas from the citizens about relevant issues as how to make the town center and surrounding area more exciting, attractive and liveable and regarding new plans and projects. The Small TownLAB will also be used to introduce the municipality's existing plans and projects.

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Participants:

Employees, managers and elected representatives from the municipality, residents of the town and NGO's interested.

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6. Timetable with milestones

Group 4 have choosen to summerize the Small TownLAB processes in a common timetable. This to ensure conti continous cooperation throughout the project period.

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7. Small TownLAB - Overall budget

Financial and human resourses

Since the involved towns in group 4 have decided to collaborate to develop Small TownLAB adapted to the individual town we have decided to share the grants equally between the participating towns. All municipallities will use more ressorurses (in terms of time and money) on this project than the budget shows. But to simplify the common budget we choose to base the budget on a 50/50 share between project funding and own effort.

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