How the City Plan Is Drawn up and How You Can Participate?
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HELSINKI CITY PLAN Statement of Community Participation and Involvement in the City Plan process How the City Plan is drawn up and how you can participate? Helsinki City Planning department, Strategic Urban Planning Division reports 2012:1 City of Helsinki City Planning Department HELSINKI CITY PLAN Statement of Community Participation and Involvement in the City Plan process 13 November 2012 How the City Plan is drawn up and how you can participate? © Helsinki City Planning Department 2012 Graphic design: Tsto Lay-out: Juhapekka Väre Photos: Teina Ryynänen Printed by Kirjapaino Uusimaa 2012 ISSN 1458-9664 Helsinki City Plan — Report 2012:1 3 Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................5 1. Why does Helsinki need a new City plan? Helsinki is growing, new housing is needed ............................................................6 The city structure needs to be more spatially balanced ............................................6 Businesses need diversity of premises ....................................................................7 Functional international transport connections must be ensured ...............................7 2. Master plan structure Vision, the City plan map and the implementation plan ............................................8 3. Important considerations and plans that affect the City plan Helsinki City plan as a part of the action plan ..........................................................9 Land Use and Building Act .....................................................................................9 National land use guidelines ..................................................................................9 Regional land use plan ........................................................................................ 10 Local ’master’ plans ............................................................................................ 11 Local detailed plans .......................................................................................... 11 Other initial information ...................................................................................... 11 4. What kinds of issues are studied and established in City planning? Selvitystyön perusteet ......................................................................................... 12 Studies and reports connected to the master plan ................................................. 12 5. How is the City plan’s impacts evaluated? The City plan and its area of impact ..................................................................... 14 Impact Assessment ............................................................................................ 14 Subject areas for evaluating the effects of the City plan ......................................... 14 6. How does planning proceed? The schedule for the City planning process ........................................................... 16 7. How can I participate? Participation ....................................................................................................... 17 Where can I get information? .............................................................................. 17 Who can participate? .......................................................................................... 18 Who draws up the City plan? ............................................................................... 18 Contact information .................................................................................... 19 Helsinki City Plan — Report 2012:1 5 Introduction Helsinki City Planning Department will soon begin drawing up a new City plan. A City plan is a long-term land use plan that guides the development of a city’s spatial structure. A new Helsinki City plan has been drawn up approximately once every ten years. The current City plan, previously referred to as the Master Plan 2002, was granted legal force in 2006. The new plan is being prepared in such a way that the Helsinki City Council can make a decision on it no later than 2016. In Helsinki, the City plan has often included content that significantly changed the city structure. The current type of planning started with the master plan of 1960. The challenge lay in finding large new housing areas because Helsinki was suffering a severe housing shortage. The plan designated new housing areas outside the city centre. This was how the neighbourhoods of Pihlajanmäki, Konala, Myllypuro and Kontula began. The master plan of 1972 specified three regional centres: Pasila, Malmi and Itäkeskus. In 1976, the master plan was divided into two segments, the ’downtown’ plan and a separate plan for the suburbs. The downtown plan for the city centre aimed to retain residential housing in the city centre. At the time, it was profitable to turn flats into offices, and these ‘hidden offices’ were a threat to the city’s vitality. The plan of 1992 was significant for the development of Helsinki because it designated a location for the cargo harbour in Vuosaari. Areas that were released from the ports in 2002, such as Jätkäsaari and Kalasatama, were planned for residential use. The City plan influences what Helsinki will look like decades from now. The new plan that is currently under preparation will contain the land use vision until 2050. Large changes to the city structure are implemented slowly. The Vuosaari Harbour, for example, was included in official plans as early as the 1980s, but it was not taken into use until 30 years later in 2008. Similarly, the completion of the metro took approximately three decades from when the plan preparations began. Completing the construction of a neighbourhood for 10,000 residents takes approximately twenty years. The City plan has a great impact on the lives of Helsinki residents. It affects how easy it is to reach the workplace, services, home and leisure, and whether there will be affordable housing in Helsinki for people in different phases of life. The plan guides local detailed planning. Nearly all of Helsinki has already been drawn by a whole series of local detailed plans, so current local detailed plans will be altered based on the new plan. Although Helsinki will change and become more compact, effort will be taken to preserve its special characteristics and wonderful locations. The City plan is the City of Helsinki’s statement on several issues that affect the entire Helsinki region. These issues include traffic solutions and the siting of residential housing or businesses and infrastructure. Some of these effects are nationwide. The drawing up of a land use plan for the Helsinki region is taking place concurrently with the production of the City plan. This is another reason why Helsinki needs to outline the land use and transport needs inside its borders while taking the entire region’s development into consideration. The new plan will enable the future development of the current core city to take account of the city- region, regardless of municipal borders, and the planning process will integrate with regional planning. Planning is conducted in close co-operation with other municipalities in the Helsinki Metropolitan Region. Residents, neighbouring cities, regional operators and everyone else who is interested is welcome to participate in the City planning process. The community participation statement forms part of the City plan and describes how people can participate and influence what the plan consists of and what kind of city Helsinki will be in the future. Helsinki City Plan — Report 2012:1 6 1. Why does Helsinki need a new City plan? Helsinki is growing, new housing is needed The population of Helsinki exceeded 600,000 people in 2012. According to the population forecast that was created by City of Helsinki Urban Facts in 2012 and extends until 2050, the population will continue to grow in the future as well. According to the fastest growth option, the population will grow by 265,000 people by the year 2050. Growth of this scale would require the construction of over 190,000 new housing units in the next 40 years. The way the city is growing is one of the main reasons why Helsinki needs a new City plan. Helsinki must be able to offer its growing population affordable housing. The current plan does not contain enough areas for local detailed planning to meet future needs. Construction of areas that have been released from the harbours in Jätkäsaari and Kalasatama has already begun. In addition, there will be more construction in Kruunuvuorenranta, Hernesaari, Kuninkaantammi and Pasila in the next few years and eventually in Östersundom as well. It has been estimated that approximately 70,000 housing units – homes for 120,000 residents – can be constructed in these large project areas. The amount of realised housing production primarily depends on the size of the building site reserves that are suitable for construction. It has been estimated that by the year 2050 there should be an additional 9 million square metres planned for Helsinki, assuming that the demand for housing stays fairly stable. This is not possible without a new plan. The city structure needs to be more spatially balanced Controlling climate change is one of the great challenges of land use planning. The City of Helsinki has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions significantly. By 2020, there must be a reduction of 20 per cent from the emission level of 1990, and the goal is to have an entirely emission-free community by 2050.