Abstract
The present paper aims to open the discussion on the adoption of a simplified, flexible, and harmonized strategic framework for city development in Romania. Besides a development strategy associated with general urban planning, multiple strategies are elaborated in accordance with the requirements of the financing authorities and the specific spatial planning legislation. These strategies were developed at different times by different institutions and aim to substantiate the directions and priorities of development and attract funding for various programs. In this study, we performed a thorough analysis in eight municipalities and concluded that such strategies cannot be effective, as they are not always coordinated and often lack consistency and complementarity with other strategic and operational plans and programs at the local level. Based on an international literature review including the recommendations of the Harmonization for Sustainable Energy, Climate Action Plans, and Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans developed by the EU financed project “Sustainable Integrated Multi-sector Planning” (SIMPLA), we propose a unification of the various strategies in a single harmonized, flexible strategic structure for the city. This harmonized structure includes specific components related to resilience in case of disasters and financing sources for all proposed projects.
Highlights
Before 1989, Romania had very well-developed planning systems [1,2] like the other countries in Central and Eastern Europe
InInthe attempt to ameliorate the redundancy and overlap between variousvarious urban plans plans and strategies mentioned above, this study aims to perform an evaluation and strategies mentioned above, this study aims to perform an evaluation of strategicof strategic framework selected municipalities, andthe based on of theinternational review of international framework in selected in municipalities, and based on review literature literature on the topic, explore the potential for harmonization of strategies at the local on the topic, explore the potential for harmonization of strategies at the local level into a level into a single, unified structure, and flexible structure,with correlated withand the county regional single, unified and flexible correlated the county regionaland priorities priorities in the relevant plans and strategies
The analysis performed on the eight cities revealed that sectoral strategies at the local level (SUMP, SECAP, utility services strategies, etc.) have a good degree of correlation
Summary
Before 1989, Romania had very well-developed planning systems [1,2] like the other countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The communist society at that time was far from being a regulatory model, mainly because strategic planning was built more for propaganda and less for performance or managerial development This whole experience created a natural reluctance to the concept of planning in the years following 1989 [3]. Following the fall of the centralized planning system, Romania had to learn how to plan its cities according to market rules. This process has encountered many difficulties, interruptions, and restarts, with the entire national legislative base re-developed over the last 30 years, starting from the Constitution to primary and secondary legislation.
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