Enabling Inward Development in the Planning System and Practice of the Seychelles An Examination of Processes and Instruments from Switzerland Steven Hawkes Leading Supervisor: Dr. sc. ETH Markus Nollert Co-supervisors: Dr. sc. ETH Pius Krütli, Manuela Ronchetti Master Thesis Course Spatial Development and Infrastructure Systems August 2019 Source of title image: Seychelles Planning Authority (2019a) Dept. of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering Institute for Spatial and Landscape Development Institut für Raum- und Landschaftsentwick-lung Abstract Efforts to implement the policies of the Seychelles Strategic Land Use and Development Plan and Victoria Masterplan introduced in 2016 are currently coinciding with the long-standing endeavour of the Seychelles Planning Authority to revise existing planning legislation and bring Land Use Plans as well as Development Plans into a binding form. This thesis picks up the goals pertaining to sustainable development and the efficient use of land in the Strategic Land Use and Development Plan and Victoria Masterplan and puts them in perspective to inward development, the paramount principle of Swiss planning. From this starting point it outlines the planning frameworks of Switzerland and the Seychelles with their constituent parts and practices. For the Seychelles, a particular emphasis was laid on the current transitions in the planning system and practice as well as the current trends and circumstances of settlement development itself. This included a calculation of the settlement reserves of the Seychelles. Based on these elements, the thesis analysed if the framework is suitable for achieving the goals from the mentioned plans and for achieving inward development more generally. From this, the main challenges identified to sustainable settlement development in the Seychelles were a lack of instruments to contain settlement development within certain boundaries and the ability to bring inward development projects to implementation. Subsequently, it was explored if a meaningful contribution to addressing these challenges could be made by adapting some of the instruments and practices used in Swiss planning for ensuring inward development to the Seychelles. From the two challenges, two principal solutions were derived. On the one hand, the compiling of approaches to concentrate the settlement growth within certain boundaries by increasing materialisation within these boundaries and enabling the restriction of development outside them. On the other hand, the formulation of an integrated framework designed to bring about the implementation of inward development projects. This framework consists of two models: a strategic one on the district level and a more applied one on the plot level. The latter was subsequently tested with the help of three test study sites. The results from the analyses as well as the adaption of the Swiss instruments to the context of the Seychelles could be summarised in three main findings. Firstly, that the planning instruments of the Seychelles are on a steady path to forming a coherent framework if attention is given to the implications of formalising them. Secondly, that adaptions to planning practice are necessary if settlement development is to be sustainable, in particular ensuring that settlement development is largely contained within certain boundaries. Finally, in order to ensure the implementation of inward development projects the availability of formal instruments for securing results was revealed to be of great value while availability of informal procedures is also advantageous. The thesis also produced insights for Swiss planning practice, in particular the importance of the Swiss maxim of the division of the building zones from the non-building zones and the advantages of organising land use planning on a more regional level. i Table of Contents 1 Introduction................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Background .................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2. Research Question ......................................................................................................................... 2 1.3. Thesis Structure and Methodology ............................................................................................... 2 1.4. Introducing Inward Development ................................................................................................. 3 1.4.1. The Strategy of Inward Development ............................................................................. 3 1.4.2. Rationale of Inward Development .................................................................................. 5 1.4.3. Implementing Inward Development: The Informal Toolset ........................................... 6 1.4.4. Difficult Application of Instruments in Practice ............................................................ 10 2 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 11 2.1. Planning System and Practice of Switzerland .............................................................................. 11 2.1.1. Swiss State Organisation and Planning System Principles ............................................ 11 2.1.2. Planning on the Federal Level ....................................................................................... 12 2.1.3. Planning on the Cantonal Level ..................................................................................... 12 2.1.4. Planning on the Municipal Level ................................................................................... 14 2.1.5. Planning on Other Levels ............................................................................................... 15 2.1.6. Materialisation Instruments: Reasoning and Repertoire .............................................. 16 2.2. Introducing the Seychelles........................................................................................................... 17 2.2.1. Geography and Demographics ...................................................................................... 18 2.2.2. State Organisation ......................................................................................................... 22 2.2.3. Settlement Characteristics ............................................................................................ 23 2.2.4. Role of Government in the Housing and Land Market ................................................. 27 2.3. Planning System and Practice of the Seychelles ......................................................................... 28 2.3.1. Planning Legislation ....................................................................................................... 28 2.3.2. Seychelles Planning Authority ....................................................................................... 29 2.3.3. Strategic Land Use and Development Plan and Victoria Masterplan ........................... 30 2.3.4. Land Use Planning ......................................................................................................... 32 2.3.5. Development Plans........................................................................................................ 34 2.3.6. Materialisation Instruments .......................................................................................... 35 2.4. Intermediary Summary ................................................................................................................ 36 3 Quantification of Reserves ......................................................................................................... 39 3.1. Evaluating the Reserve Calculation of the Land Use Assessment ............................................... 39 3.2. LUP Version Comparison for Anse Royale ................................................................................... 40 3.3. Land Use and Reserve Comparison Schaffhausen....................................................................... 42 3.4. Implications of Reserve Quantification ....................................................................................... 45 4 Situation Assessment ................................................................................................................. 47 4.1. Reserves, Materialisation and the Settlement Edge ................................................................... 47 4.2. Formality: Land Use Plans and Development Plans .................................................................... 48 4.3. Addressing and Implementing Inward Development Projects.................................................... 49 4.4. Concentration of Effort ................................................................................................................ 49 4.5. Motivation for Transferal of Instruments and Processes ............................................................ 50 ii 5 Design and Testing of Approaches .............................................................................................. 51 5.1. Efficacy of Settlement Area Boundaries ...................................................................................... 51 5.1.1. Materialisation Within the Core Settlement Area ........................................................ 51 5.1.2. Reduction