HQE2R Planification Urbaine

http://hqe2r.cstb.
fr
DELIVERABLE 12
Sustainable renovation of buildings

for sustainable neighbourhoods
Contract n° EVK4–CT–2000–00025
Urban planning and

sustainable development
May 2003
Catherine CHARLOT-VALDIEU, CSTB

Philippe OUTREQUIN, La Calade
HQE2R is a project co-financed by the European Commission within the

programme Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development (‘City of
tomorrow’), which aim is to elaborate methods and tools destined to local
communities and their partners to help them in their urban renewal projects.
HQE²R
Sustainable renovation of buildings
for sustainable neighbourhoods
Contract n° EVK4 – CT – 2000 – 00025
Urban planning
and sustainable development
May 2003
Catherine CHARLOT–VALDIEU CSTB

E-mail: catherine.charlot-valdieu@cstb.fr
Philippe OUTREQUIN La Calade

E-mail: la.calade@free.fr
Under major contribution for the national parts by:

Ove MORCK– CENERGIA (Denmark)
Andreas BLUM, Holger MARTIN, Munia TARABICHI – IOER (Germany)
Céline MULLIER – La Calade (France)
Antonella GROSSI, Matteo GUALANDI, Sandra MATTAROZZI – ICIE (Italy)
Daniela GABUTTI – QUASCO-COPRAT (Italy)
Jan ZIECK – Ambit (Netherlands)
Oriol CUSIDO - CAATB (Spain)
Noemí GRANADO - ITeC (Spain)
Celia ROBBINS – UWE (United-Kingdom)
HQE2R is a project co-financed by the European Commission within the programme Energy, Environment and
Sustainable Development (‘City of tomorrow’), which aim is to elaborate methods and tools destined to local
communities and their partners to help them in their urban renewal projects.
Urban planning and Sustainable Development (Deliverable 12) HQE2R
Abstract
Sustainable development has recently been the subject of laws and regulations. Over the last
decade or so, and in all parts of Europe, a series of measures have been introduced which have aimed
to steer and define urban planning. Covering issues such as the need for a logical structure to projects,
for urban policy standardisation, for transversality, for the implementation of integrated approaches
and for a dialogue with inhabitants, this effort to guide regulations towards sustainable development
has been acclaimed on all sides.
What has been the scope of these measures?

The aim of the present study is to answer this question by illustrating how urban and territorial
(national and regional) planning can promote or hinder the sustainable development (SD) of
regions, towns and neighbourhoods.
The study makes the main following points:

In the first instance, it defines the legislative and statutory context of the legislation governing
town planning in each European country included in the project.
It then proceeds to describe the one or two main acts concerned and focus on the objectives,
the development and the assessment of these acts.
The experience of Local Agenda 21 and other types of best practice are also presented.
In respect of 21 SD targets, a synthesis is made of the laws and regulations of each country:
this leads to a number of recommendations.
An overall synthesis is presented which answers the question: how can urban planning
encourage Sustainable Development in cities and their neighbourhoods?
3
CSTB, La Calade, Cenergia, Ambit, IOER, Quasco, ICIE, ITeC, CAATB, UWE
CONTENTS
Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 3
Memorandum: the HQE2R approach and the findings of the project.............................. 8
I - DENMARK ......................................................................................................................... 11
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 11
1 - Laws and programmes ....................................................................................................... 11
I.1 - The Plan Law.............................................................................................................................................11
I.2 - The Law of Environment Protection .........................................................................................................12
1.3 - The Urban Renewal Scheme (Byfornyelse)..............................................................................................12
1.4 - Law on Improvement of the Neighbourhood (Kvartersløft).....................................................................13
1.5 - Energy labelling........................................................................................................................................13
1.6 - Instruction on Least Cost Analysis ...........................................................................................................14
1.7 - The Danish building regulation ................................................................................................................15
2 - Local experience from local Agenda 21 and holistic renewal projects and best practice15
2.1 - Agenda 21 strategy paper .........................................................................................................................15
2.2 - Holistic urban renewal projects ................................................................................................................15
3 – Synthesis, recommendations ............................................................................................. 16
3.1 - Barriers .....................................................................................................................................................16
3.2 - Synthesis with respect to the 21 SD targets ..............................................................................................17
3.3 – Recommendations ....................................................................................................................................17
Internet sources ....................................................................................................................... 18
II - FRANCE ........................................................................................................................... 19
1 - The legislative and statutory context ................................................................................. 19
1.1 - Town Guidance Act (LOV) ......................................................................................................................19
1.2 - Voynet Act................................................................................................................................................19
1.3 - Chevènement Act......................................................................................................................................21
1.4 - Act governing Urban Solidarity and Renewal (SRU)...............................................................................21
1.5 - Other specific acts.....................................................................................................................................22
2 - The major act: the SRU Act............................................................................................... 23
2.1 - Objectives of the SRU Act........................................................................................................................23
2.2 - Development of the SRU Act ...................................................................................................................24
2.3 - Assessment of the situation.......................................................................................................................28
3 – Summary, recommendations............................................................................................. 29
References................................................................................................................................ 31
4
III - GERMANY ...................................................................................................................... 32

1 - Regulations and Programmes ........................................................................................... 32
1.1 - Regional and Urban Regulations ..............................................................................................................32
1.2 - Building Regulations ................................................................................................................................33
1.3 - Programmes ..............................................................................................................................................34
2 - The spatial planning system, building regulations and sustainable urban development
– critical review........................................................................................................................ 37
2.1 - General Conditions ...................................................................................................................................37
2.2 - Primary Targets of Spatial Planning in Germany .....................................................................................37
2.3 - “Environmental Impact Analysis” ............................................................................................................38
2.4 - Weighing, Compensation and Substitution...............................................................................................38
2.5 - Urban Redevelopment Measure................................................................................................................38
2.6 - Participation..............................................................................................................................................39
2.7 - Building Regulations ................................................................................................................................39
2.8 - Energy Saving Decree ..............................................................................................................................39
2.9 - Act on the Protection of Monuments ........................................................................................................39
2.10 - Adverse Basic Conditions.......................................................................................................................40
3 – Synthesis ............................................................................................................................ 40
4 - Recommendations .............................................................................................................. 41
References................................................................................................................................ 43
IV - ITALY............................................................................................................................... 44
1 - Description of the main laws or of the legal situation in Italy......................................... 45
1.1 - Law 1150/42 (Town Planning Law) .........................................................................................................45
1.2 - Ministry Decree D.M. 1444/1968 (Town Planning Standards) ................................................................45
1.3 - Decree Law 490/99 (Unified Text on Cultural and Environmental Assets) .............................................46
1.4 – Environmental Impact Assessment (E.I.A.) .............................................................................................47
2 – Sector Plan......................................................................................................................... 49
2.1 - Urban Traffic Plan (P.U.T.) ......................................................................................................................49
2.2 - Plan for acoustic rehabilitation (P.R.A.) ...................................................................................................50
2.3 - Municipal Energy Plan (P.E.C.) ...............................................................................................................51
2.4 - General Urban Plan of Underground Services (P.U.G.S.S.).....................................................................53
3 – Complex programmes........................................................................................................ 55
3.1 - Integrated Programmes (P.I.)....................................................................................................................55
3.2 - Integrated Programmes (P.I.I.)..................................................................................................................56
3.3 - Urban Rehabilitation Programmes (P.R.U.) .............................................................................................56
3.4 - Urban Rehabilitation Programmes (P.RI.U.) ............................................................................................57
3.5 - Neighbourhood Contracts .........................................................................................................................58
3.6 - Programmes of Urban Rehabilitation and Sustainable Territorial Development (P.R.U.S.S.T.)..............59
5
3.7 - Area Contracts and Territorial Pacts.........................................................................................................60

3.8 - Urban Transformation Companies (S.T.U.)..............................................................................................61
4 - Best practice and local experience in Italy ....................................................................... 62
4.1 - The Voluntary Requisites of the Standard Building Regulations in Emilia Romagna Region .................62
4.2 - “Savonarola Quarter” Neighbourhood Contract (Padua)..........................................................................64
5 - Barriers and constraints in Italy ....................................................................................... 67
6 – Recommendations ............................................................................................................. 71
7 – Synthesis ............................................................................................................................ 71
References................................................................................................................................ 73
V - NETHERLANDS .............................................................................................................. 74
1 - Legislation notes on municipal rehabilitation .................................................................. 74
2 - Local experiences ............................................................................................................... 75
2.1 - General......................................................................................................................................................75
2.2 - Agenda 21 initiatives ................................................................................................................................76
3 - Synthesis, recommendations.............................................................................................. 76
References................................................................................................................................ 79
VI - SPAIN............................................................................................................................... 81
1 - Urbanism in Spain: Principles and structure of the legal system.................................... 81
1.1 - The principles of the legal system ............................................................................................................81
1.2 - The structure of the legal system ..............................................................................................................81
2 - Urbanism in Catalonia: The new law 2/2002 of urbanism .............................................. 83
2.1 - Principles ..................................................................................................................................................83
2.2 - Competences (territorial planning politics and housing politics)..............................................................83
2.3 - Classification of land ................................................................................................................................83
2.4 - Planning system ........................................................................................................................................84
2.5 - Environmental aspects ..............................................................................................................................86
3 - Environmental planning and natural resources............................................................... 86
3.1 - Introduction and basic principles ..............................................................................................................86
3.2 - Natural spaces planning ............................................................................................................................86
3.3 - Sectorial legislation ..................................................................................................................................87
3.4 - Classified activities ...................................................................................................................................87
3.5 - Atmospheric contamination ......................................................................................................................87
3.6 - Waste ........................................................................................................................................................87
4 – Synthesis with respect to 21 SD targets ............................................................................ 88
5 - Synthesis ............................................................................................................................. 91
6 - References .......................................................................................................................... 92
6.1. The green belt project and land planning ...................................................................................................92
6.2. Partial Plan for the area of Pla de Ponent (Gavà).......................................................................................93
6
7- Recommendations ............................................................................................................... 94
VII – UNITED-KINGDOM .................................................................................................... 96

1 - National legislation, guidance and responsibilities .......................................................... 96
1.1 - The Development of Planning ..................................................................................................................96
1.2 - Planning Legislation and Guidance ..........................................................................................................96
1.3 - Responsibilities.........................................................................................................................................98
1.4 - Recent Developments and Looking Ahead...............................................................................................98
2 - Comments on Planning Practice in Respect of the HQE2R Targets for Neighbourhood
Sustainability ........................................................................................................................... 99
VIII – DO URBAN PLANNING LAWS SUPPORT SD? ................................................... 100

1 - National urban law .......................................................................................................... 100
2 - Urban Planning Laws at an infra-city level.................................................................... 102
3 - Urban Planning Laws for super-local areas................................................................... 103
4 - Instrumental laws............................................................................................................. 103
5 - Programmes aiming for sustainability ............................................................................ 104
6 - Strong points of the Urban Planning regulations .......................................................... 105
7 - Problems to solve.............................................................................................................. 105
APPENDIX: THE HQE²R PROJECT PARTNERS ........................................................... 108
7
Memorandum: the HQE2R approach

and the findings of the project
“Je refuse l’idée qu’il y a d’un côté la lumière et de l’autre les ténèbres, l’homme et la femme, moi et
l’autre, le bien et le mal. Je cherche un lieu où ces contradictions puissent être résolues. C’est une
quête sans illusion »1 - Murale, Mahmoud Darwich, édition Actes Sud
The objectives of the HQE²R project

“Sustainable Renovation of Buildings for Sustainable Neighbourhoods” or HQE²R is a project partly
funded by the European Commission under the Fifth Framework R&D Programme. The project
started in September 2001 and will continue until the end of March 2004.
Co-ordinated by the CSTB (Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment), France, it combines
research and demonstration aspects with the co-operation of 10 European research partners and
demonstration partners (local authorities or social buildingowners) working upon 14 neighbourhoods2.
The objective of the project is to develop a new methodology or approach together with the
necessary methods and tools to promote sustainable development and the quality of life at the
urban neighbourhood level. HQE²R aims at providing decision aid tools for municipalities and
their local partners, focussing on neighbourhood inhabitants’ and users’ concerns. With its integrated
approach, it aims at providing a framework, which can be generally applied to European cities. The
project uses case studies as neighbourhood models for which the tools are elaborated and in which the
approach or the different tools can be tested.
The elements taken into account in the development of this approach towards sustainable development
and its tools are:
• Improvements in the quality of the buildings and non built elements, which are closely linked
with needs expressed by the actors concerned (users), especially as regard improvements in
comfort and reductions in the costs-in-use and maintenance of residential and non-residential
buildings (energy savings, reduced water consumption, optimisation of the use of raw materials).
• Improvements in the quality of life through urban development, which respects the
environment: reduced urban sprawl, more effective use of public spaces, and the creation of cycle-
ways, pedestrian areas and green spaces. Developing coherence and synergy between the
neighbourhood levels and the conurbation. Encouraging work in partnership and building the
capacity of the local community to achieve meaningful participation.
• Controlling costs and applying management methods, which allow all categories of actors to
share expenses.
• Controlling urban sprawl and commuting by managing the economy and environmental impact
of space use and also by managing mobility and the use of public transport at the scales of the
neighbourhood, the town and the conurbation.
The aim of HQE2R project is thus to allow local authorities to implement regeneration action
plans in their neighbourhoods and renovation of their buildings towards sustainable
development. It is a question of providing operational tools for a concrete analysis and evaluation,
which are open to public (and private) debate and to action.
1
I refuse the idea that there is a side for the light and another one for the darkness, the man and the woman, me and the
others, the good and the bad ones. I look for a place where contradictions can be solved. That is a quest without illusion.
2
See the list of the partners in Appendix or at the end
8
1.2 - The HQE2R approach and the expected project results

Today cities are being rebuilt, buildings are being rehabilitated, and neighbourhoods revitalised. To
assure sustainability, this regeneration must go beyond technical solutions, taking social trends,
changes in behaviour, environmental and economic development into account.
To define concrete action plans, sustainable development requires an iterative way of achieving a
decision, because of the necessity of taking the various principles of sustainable development into
account all together at once. As the market law only takes into account economic factors, and
principally only in the short-term, sustainable development requires sustainable development
principles: the integration of the long-term, global impact of decisions on environmental and social
factors, with less hierarchical forms of participation than usual market practices.
The HQE2R methodological framework for sustainable neighbourhood analysis and
development is structured as an ideal regeneration neighbourhood projects into 4 phases: a decision
phase, an analysis phase - identifying priorities, definition, discussion, an assessment of scenarios
phase and finally the setting up of the action plan for the neighbourhood).
The methodological framework is furthermore based on 6 sustainable development principles at the
city scale, and then a system of 21 sustainable development targets under 5 main objectives (see the
list next page) and backed up by a set of 51 key issues with their 61 indicators for the neighbourhood
and its buildings (ISDIS system).
THE HQE²R APPROACH TOW ARDS SUSTAINABLE

NEIGHBOURHOOD DEVELOPMENT
PHASE 1 : DECISION PHASE 2 : ANALYSIS
3. Inventory based on the

1. Identification of 2. Strategic decision 21 targets and the
problems (social, for sustainable integrated SD indicators
environmental, technical) regeneration of the system (ISDIS)
that need actions neighbourhood
4. Shared SD
diagnosis of the
neighbourhood
(potential,
12. Monitoring and
dysfunction,
evaluation of the
Participation of residents and users cohesion)
project : SD
monitoring Partnership (public / private)
indicators
Local Governance 5. Strategic
priorities for the
neighbourhood and
definition of
11. Projects upon objectives for SD
9. Urban planning
the neighbourhood regulations including
with SD SD recommendations
specifications
7. Evaluation of
6. Generation of
10. Projects for the scenarios
scenarios
Sustainable Buildings against SD
8. Action plan for (to identify options
(new & existing) with targets (INDI,
the neighbourhood for SD action)
SD specifications ENVI, ASCOT)
PHASE 4 : ACTION and EVALUATION PHASE 3 : DECIDING UPON THE ACTION PLAN
Source: HQE²R Project (http://hqe2r.cstb.fr) SD: Sustainable Development
9
The HQE2R project results are specific tools for local communities and for their local partners (see
also the diagram below):
- The choice of 6 sustainable development principles at the scale of the city and a definition of
sustainability for the neighbourhood scale.
- The definition of an overall methodological framework with 5 main global sustainable
development (SD) objectives, their 21 targets, 51 key issues or sub targets and then 61
indisputable indicators at the neighbourhood and building scales (the ISDIS system).
- A shared SD diagnosis method for SD (with an integrated analytical grid for the previous
inventory) adapted to the neighbourhood scale.
- Evaluation tools for scenarios or neighbourhood projects as decision aid tools for assessing
different scenarios before the final action plan for the neighbourhood is chosen (3 models with
the support of 3 analytical grids):
3 models:
- INDI (INDicators Impacts) a model of sustainable regeneration impact using

indicators and allowing the development of different environmental and sustainable
development profiles
- ENVI (ENVironmental Impact)
- ASCOT (Assessment of Sustainable Construction & Technology Cost), a model of
global cost of energy efficient technologies from an environmental point of view at the building
scale.
- Recommendations for improving participation in neighbourhood regeneration
projects.
- Recommendations for taking SD into account in urban planning documents (for each
partner country).
- Recommendations for specifying sustainable development in the building process
- Recommendations for specifying sustainable development for non built elements
- Indicators for the different phases of a project state indicators, pressure indicators and then
monitoring indicators.
RESULTS OF THE HQE²R PROJECT:

an approach with methods and tools
for sustainable neighbourhood regeneration
Definition of 6 SD Choice of 5 SD Development of a shared SD

principles at the objectives, 21 SD diagnosis method enabli ng the
city scale targets, 51 SD key identification of territorial SD
issues and indicators (at stakes*
the neighbourhood and
buildings scales): the
ISD ID system
Elaboration of Recommendations to improve

assessment and and to promote inhabitants’ and
monitoring indicators users’ participation :
for projects and
neighbourhoods, - to identify and collect their needs
regarding SD - to improve procedures and
practices
-Recommendations
for briefing Elaboration of decision aid tools
documents taking Recommandations to to evaluate scenarios or potential
into account SD for integrate SD in urban urban planning projects (“design
new and existi ng planning documents contract” for example)
buildings
- Recommendations
for non – built
elements SD Sustainable Development
Source: HQE 2 R project (http:hqe2r.cstb.fr) * See the scheme «The shared SD diagnosis method for setting priorities»
10
I - DENMARK
Introduction
Urban planning is regulated by a complicated set of laws plans and regulations, which in one
dimension has a geographical basis – that is country laws and regional plans in another dimension
deals with sector issues, that is plans for, for example, heating and waste. Cross-cutting this complex is
a National Strategy for Sustainable Development which was issued in 2001.
In the following those schemes or laws, which are relevant for the development of sustainable
neighbourhood programmes in Denmark are described:. The following laws/programmes are covered:
• The Plan law
• The Law of Environment protection
• Law on Urban Renewal Schemes (Byfornyelse)
• Law on Neighbourhood Improvements (Kvartersløft)
• Law on Energy labelling of buildings (Energimærke)
• Law on Least Costs Analysis of Public and supported buildings
• Building regulation
1 - Laws and programmes

I.1 - The Plan Law
The purpose of the Plan Law is to assure that the planning unites the social interests in the use of area
and contributes to protect the nature and the environment of the country, so the social development
can take place on a sustainable base in respect for living conditions for human beings and for the
preservation of animal and plant life.
Special law aims are:

1. From a planning and social economic general view an appropriate development in whole country
and in the individual counties and municipality shall take place.
2. Valuable buildings, urban environments and landscapes shall be created and maintained.
3. The open coasts shall continuously constitute an important nature and landscape resource.
4. The pollution of air, water and earth and noise inconveniences shall be prevented.
5. Participation: The general public shall as much as possible be involved in the planning.
The Plan Law divides the responsibility for the planning in Denmark between the Environment
Ministry, The Greater Copenhagen Development Council, county councils and municipality
committees. The current Plan Law was activated in 1992, but is based on planning experiences and
law from several decades ago.
In the period from 2nd World War till 1980ies the cities and new built area have grown considerably.
In the same period of time the Danish planning tradition has developed strongly as well. Till the
middle of the 70ies the town growth was regulated by town development committee, which in some
special town development planes lay out zones for new town growth. Municipalities developed a
distribution planning for the cities and several places in the country region planes were created
voluntarily.
11
The number of municipalities and counties were reduced significant at the municipal dividing reform
in 1970. An important part of the activities of the public sector are placed under the responsibilities of
the municipal committee and county council. Because of the municipal reform the Parliament could
accept new plan laws in the beginning of 1970ies that established the current plan system. The Plan
Law from 1992 is a compilation and modernisation of the laws from 1970.
The ground rules of sustainable development with outset in preservation and development of the
local environmental qualities has replaced the more growth oriented planning of earlier decades.
I.2 - The Law of Environment Protection

The law (most recently update in 2001) will participate in protection of nature and environment so the
civilisation development can take place on a sustainable base in respect of living conditions for human
beings and for preservation of animal and vegetarian life.
The purpose of the law is:
1. To prevent and oppose the pollution of air, water, earth and subsoil and vibration and noise
disadvantages.
2. To provide hygienic grounded rules that are significant for the environment and for human beings.
3. To restrain use and spill of raw materials and other resources.
4. To promote use of unpolluted technology.
5. To promote reuse and restrain problems in connection with waste removal.
The law includes:

1. All corporations that by sending out solid, liquid or gas materials, by sending out micro organisms
that can damage environment and health, or by producing waste that can lead to pollution of air,
water, earth and subsoil.
2. Vibration and noise.
3. Products or goods that in connection with preparation, use, transportation or removal can lead to
pollution.
4. Means of transport and other mobile plants that can lead to pollution.
5. Draft animals, vermin and other relations that can lead to hygienic difficulties or significant
disadvantages for the surroundings.
The law includes as well corporation that concerns risk taking processes and storing of materials with
dangerous properties so that stoppages or accidents can lead to near danger for pollution as mentioned
above.
1.3 - The Urban Renewal Scheme (Byfornyelse)

The law on urban renewal is latest updated 20. December 2000.
The aims of the scheme are:
1) To create well-functioning neighbourhoods and urban areas and to improve the general
standard of living trough holistic activities aimed at housing, buildings, green areas, social
housing, etc.
2) To create good dwellings and housing areas though renovation and rebuilding of dwellings,
which are severely worn down and to make new housing areas.
3) To prevent further severe worn down of buildings
4) To introduce and improve ecological, resource saving and environmental solutions as well as
good architectural solutions in the urban renewal.
12
5) To involve the tenants and building owners in the planning and implementation of the
renovation.
6) To give the municipalities the possibility to target the actions of urban renewal through the
choice of the most appropriate decision type and type of support.
The municipality shall ensure that the renovation also takes savings of resources into account and that
the renovation strengthens or improves the architectural impression of the area.
The rules for support to urban renewal are used in the way that a part of the funding is for a specific
sub-area and that it is aiming at a solution combined with other measures for improvements.
1.4 - Law on Improvement of the Neighbourhood (Kvartersløft)

This law mainly includes social measures, which will improve the employment situation, the
architectural situation and improve the buildings as well as improve the leisure areas, increase the
number of leisure activities and offers, improve the traffic situation, and the ecological situation of the
neighbourhood.
Neighbourhood Improvement shall turn negative development trends in urban areas to positive trends.
These problems are often related to physical deterioration of buildings, social problems, crime, high
mobility of inhabitants and an unbalanced combination of inhabitants. In some areas the number of
inhabitants from other countries is very large.
The municipalities and the tenants are also paying a part of the costs for the measures to improve the
neighbourhoods.
The tools to be used in neighbourhood improvement can be summarised into these:
- Neighbourhood improvement shall be a holistic measure, i.e. based on a coordinated and integrated
approach. The different measures within all the different sectors shall support each others and the
overall aim of the project. This demands good project coordination across the different departments.
- Neighbourhood improvement involves local resources in the area, both the citizens, local institutions
and organisations, industry and business etc. Special attention is on the dialogue between the citizens
and the experts. New tools are also being tested, e.g. interactive media, internet etc.
The measures for improvement of the neighbourhood areas encourage to make partnerships, i.e. a
cooperation with commitment between the public authorities and institutions as well as between the
public sector and the private sector.
So far 12 Neighbourhood Improvement schemes have been started and they include a broad variety of
problems to be addressed. The focus is especially on the social problems. For all the projects emphasis
is put on local resources, which can be used or further developed.
Most inhabitants in these areas seems to know about the activities and to appreciate these, also many
of the inhabitants are participating in the meetings and in working groups about e.g. sport or traffic.
1.5 - Energy labelling

As a part of the Danish governments Action Plan for Energy Savings, Energy 21, two schemes for
energy labelling of buildings have been implemented. These mean that all buildings in the building
sector, in the public sector and buildings for private trade and services shall have made an energy label
with suggestions for energy savings.
The law on energy labelling was put into operation in 1996.

It covers the following buildings
1. Small buildings:
- Buildings, with a total ground area less than 1500 m2
- Owner occupied flats no matter the size.
13
2. Larger buildings
- Buildings with a total floor area of 1500 m2 or above including buildings both used for
housing and for business.
- Buildings, split into owner occupied flats, where the total area of the building is 1500 m2 or
above.
The aim of the energy labelling scheme is to make a labelling of the building according to
consumption of energy and other resources and to make an energy saving plan.
1.5.1 - Energy labelling for small buildings
When a small building is sold, the owner shall have made an energy labelling for the building. The
energy labelling scheme is valid for 3 years. The energy labelling must be made by an authorised
person.
The authorised energy expert makes the energy labelling after a systematic registration of the building
and energy and water consuming appliances in the building as well as for the heating installations and
the insulation levels of the building.
The energy label is made on a standardised form and contains information about the calculated energy
and water consumption, the total CO2 emissions as well as a comparison with other buildings with the
same age and type of installations. The energy consumption is calculated, not the actual consumption
in order to be independent of different consumer habits.
The energy plan is also made on a standard form and contains an overview of energy saving
possibilities in the building with estimates of the investments and the economic savings as well as the
expected lifetime of the installations.
1.5.2 - Energy labelling for larger buildings
For larger buildings it is mandatory to have the energy labelling made once a year. This consists of an
energy label and an energy plan. This shall be done by an authorised person. The energy labelling for
large buildings consists of a standardised form with information about the energy and water
consumption of the building, the CO2 emissions and a comparison with other similar buildings
The labelling is based on actual consumption, registered by energy and water meters in the building.
The energy plan is also made on a standard form and contains an overview of energy saving measures,
recommendable to the owner. The plan contains suggestions for feasible energy saving possibilities
and it shall furthermore contain an estimate for investments and annual savings for the individual
measures with the estimated lifetime of the measure.
1.6 - Instruction on Least Cost Analysis

This instruction was issued in 1997.
It is a requirement that a least costs analysis is made in connection with the construction of new social
housing.
The aim of this is to alleviate a tool, which will result in more focus on the correlation between the
investments costs and the maintenance costs. Hereby focus is put on the both the actual rent and on
“other costs”, which are a result of the choice of solutions with regards to the construction,
installations and materials.
Before any public funded building project starts, it is the task if the municipal board assures, that the
application contains a least costs analysis and a budget for maintenance and running costs.
14
1.7 - The Danish building regulation

The building regulation contains information about max. use of energy in a building, insulation levels
etc. The last building regulation was updated in 1995 a new regulation is expected in 2005. The
regulation is valid for the construction of new buildings as well as larger renovations of existing
buildings. In the regulation there are max. values for energy consumption, glazing areas, insulation
values etc. For heating, the regulation says that it shall be possible to regulate and monitor the energy
consumption individually.
2 - Local experience from local Agenda 21 and

holistic renewal projects and best practice
2.1 - Agenda 21 strategy paper
With the revision of the Danish Plan Law of June 2000 a new requirement has been imposed on the
municipal administrations: They have to develop an Agenda 21 strategy paper. This means that
Agenda 21 in a way constitutes an overall framework for public planning and that Agenda 21 has to
constitute a visible part of all future plans. The strategy paper has to cover 5 areas:
• reduction of environment pollution
• sustainable urban development and renewal
• biological diversity
• cooperation with the local inhabitants, organisations, private companies about the local Agenda 21
issues plan
• promote the interaction between decisions that affect environmental, traffic, social, educational,
health, cultural and economical issues
The strategy paper is intended to influence all decisions in the municipal organisations. Generally it is
expected that there will not be room for a strategy paper within the municipal plans themselves as it is
too broad for that, but that it will strongly influence these plans in the future. The experience with this
strategy paper and its effect is still limited. Some Danish municipalities have decided that an Agenda
21 assessment has to be part of every decision that is taken in all sectors of the municipality
administration.
2.2 - Holistic urban renewal projects

Urban renewal in Denmark has changed character over the past 25 years – from total slum clearance
projects to conserving rehabilitation, distributed redevelopment to present days’ holistic urban renewal
and neighbourhood upheaval projects. Some aspects of sustainable development have been included in
the newer urban renewal projects, for example: environmental issues, such as: energy conservation,
solar heating, waste water reuse & traffic redirection and social issues: employing a social worker as a
contact person for a neighbourhood, building or renovating a house for local activities in the
neighbourhood, initiatives for participation.
Since the mid-seventies the budget for urban renewal projects by the Danish government has been
increased from 6 mio. Euros a year to 300-250 mio. Euros a year in the nineties. This has been reduced
to app. 200 mio. Euros this year (by the new Danish Government) and the intention is to reduce it
further next year.
These programmes have resulted in a lot of urban renewal projects of different character and in
different surroundings from the inner city of Copenhagen, via harbour projects in smaller cities and to
small rehabilitation projects in country side villages.
After the Rio conference in 1992 ecological issues became a significant priority in the Danish Urban
Renewal scheme and several urban ecological test and demonstration projects were carried out in the
15
nineties. The Government made in 1995 an urban ecological action plan and some of the experiences
from these projects are now implemented as general rules in urban renewal, some of them as
requirements by law, e.g. individual metering and waste sorting.
The many R&D&D projects carried out on urban ecological principles and technologies have been
evaluated and documented in example (or case study) books and best practice guidelines.
3 – Synthesis, recommendations
3.1 - Barriers
The Danish Plan Law determines the framework for the contents of local plans. Thus it is the Plan
Law – and the interpretation of this – that every town planner is obliged to take into consideration
when the content of the local plans is determined.
The Planlaw section 1 is a widely formulated objects provision consisting of three main grounds as
regards the planning: Environmental considerations, practical considerations and aesthetic cultural
considerations. It mentions, for example, that the law is to ensure the development of growth of
society on a sound basis.
Environmental considerations: The object is to limit pollution of air, water and soil and the prevention
of noise nuisance and unhygienic conditions inclusive of measures to meet neighbour grievances as
well as waste of resources.
Practical considerations: Including the protection of technical supply of electricity, water, sewer,
removal of refuse etc., the securing of traffic service and the supply of service from the public and
private sectors.
Aesthetic cultural considerations: Including the respect for fine architecture, consideration for
buildings and city preservation as well as the preservation and protection of rural amenities.
The Plan law determines the regional competence in a catalogue stating in section 15 subsection 2 the
topics up for regulation in a local plan.
Passages from the Administration for Planning’s guidance:

“The provisions of the regional plan have to have title in the section 15-catalogue and further there
have to be reasons for the plans – with reference to regional planning. Examples of this are especially
mentioned in subsection 8. “However, the demand for objective reasons as regards the plan applies to
all the guidelines in regional planning”.
With title in subsection 7 a certain look of a new building can be dictated with architectural, aesthetic
considerations in mind, for example regarding height, shape of roofs, facing forms as well as
displaying of signs. These regulations have to be laid down in the local plan. So, for example, it is not
enough to state in the plan that the design of facades has to be approved by the local council.
Best practices
A systematic gathering of best practice experiences from the many Danish urban renewal projects
have only been carried through for the urban ecology projects. Websites with documentation from
ecological urban renewal building projects have been created (www.byokologi.dk) that present
descriptions of urban ecological principle and technologies and experiences from the various projects.
The experiences and best practice evaluation from the projects in other areas of the sustainable urban
renewable puzzle has yet to be done.
16
3.2 - Synthesis with respect to the 21 SD targets

With the approaches of holistic urban renewal and the Agenda 21 initiatives that have been going on
in the recent years sustainable urban development has been introduced in Denmark. With respect to
the 21 SD targets defined in the HQE²R project most emphasis has been on the environmental issues
1- 4 of “To preserve and enhance heritage and conserve resources”, but also the targets concerning
diversity (13-15), integration (18-19), quality of the local environment (6-12) and reinforcement of
social life (20-21) have been specific aims in some of the projects and programmes undertaken. Least
emphasis has been put on traffic (SD target 17) and job creation (SD target 16), although it is not fair
to say that they have been totally neglected.
3.3 – Recommendations
The city or municipality has different roles to play with respect to a sustainable development at the
neighborhood level. First and foremost it is an authority which develops urban area development plan
and local area development plans. Secondly, it is a builder and landowner and thirdly it has a role as
disseminator which includes the involvement of citizens and stakeholders. In each of these roles the
city/municipality has several possibilities to introduce sustainable objectives and targets.
The city as authority and planner

Overall sustainable objectives can be written into the urban area development plan which will be the
framework for the future local area development plans. At the same time the municipality can
introduce sustainable objectives in the city profile. When developing local area development plans the
municipality can request stronger specifications than is required in national laws and seek necessary
dispensations to be allowed to do so. In developing plans cross sectorial co-operation within the
municipal administration is essential – this not only includes the technical sectors but also the social.
Other possibilities are to develop guidelines, minimum requirements, ideas and visions for sustainable
renovation or new developments. The plans could also request that total economy consideration
(economic life cycle analyses) is used for renovation and new building projects. The municipality can
initiate green accounting and develop actions plans with reference to the green accounts and targets set
accordingly.
The city as builder and landowner

In this situation the city has a strong position to lead the way and can develop a sustainable policy with
respect to all property owned by the city and also request sustainable targets to be fulfilled when
selling land areas to private developers or housing associations (this can be down as specific, legally
binding requirements for each land area that do not have to be written into the local land area
development plans). The policy could include the total economy request, renewable energy utilization,
avoidance of any harmful materials in constructions, aim at lower energy use in buildings than would
be achieved according to standard building regulations. The request for sustainable targets to be met
when
The city as disseminator

The city can develop a policy for public participation in planning development. This will include
strategies for dissemination of not only plans under development, but also background material that
enables citizens and stakeholders a qualified view on the plans and their sustainability. Dissemination
should include the results of the green accounting, general information about relevant sustainable
issues and guidelines to citizens and stakeholders on sustainable behavior. Sustainable issues can be
visualized on public places. The city should also support the formation of citizen and stakeholder
networks to work on sustainable issues.
17
Internet sources
Skov- og Naturstyrelsen, Miljøministeriet:
http://www.sns.dk/byer-byg/planlv40.htm
Landsplanafdelingen, Miljøministeriet:
http://www.mem.dk/lpa/landsplan/praksis/planlovintro.htm
Herning:
http://www.herning.dk/Internet/vavide.nsf/d6a105fb7b155e164125667c003a594f/460096128098f
218412568ea0045b8ae?OpenDocument
Lov om offentlighed i forvaltningen (Offentlighedsloven):

http://www.vissenbjergkommune.dk/postli/offlov.htm
Agenda Center Albertslund 2000:

http://www.agendacenter.dk/beretningaca00.htm
Fremtidsværksted i Stevns Kommune:

http://www.casa-analyse.dk/miljo/omtaler/11-104.htm
Agenda 21-gruppen i Haslev:

http://www.eco-net.dk/Blad/nr34/tema1.html
18
II - FRANCE
1 - The legislative and statutory context

In terms of different statutory provisions, the present-day context is more favourable to the
implementation of sustainable development in town planning approaches. A series of acts thus refer to
the notion of “sustainable development”. These consist of four main acts and a number of specific
acts, as follows:
1.1 - Town Guidance Act (LOV)3
The aim of the Town Guidance Act n° 91 – 662 dated 13 July, 1991 (referred to as LOV) was to
combat spatial and social segregation by promoting the diversity of habitat offer and functional
mix. The emphasis was mainly focussed on social diversity by means of habitat policies and town
planning documents. Players pursued the aim of social mix beyond the LOV provisions by following
the regulations of the Municipal Policy4 and the act relating to the implementation of the housing right.
Social or functional mix originates from public policies but also from a specific economic and social
context created by a number of different players (inhabitants, companies, etc). This context, therefore,
needs to be treated as the development indicator of a neighbourhood and an assessment criterion of the
implementation of a habitat policy.
The provisions of the act concentrate public action on the construction of social housing. The principle
adopted is to mitigate the lack of social housing in certain communes by obliging the latter to build
said accommodation (failure to do so leading to the payment of taxes).
The quantitative aims of constructing social housing have been achieved, however the vital issue
remains that of the allocation and importance of social housing construction in terms of stock.
The major instrument in the LOV is the Local Habitat Plan (PLH). This inter-communal
planning document encourages players, the State and local communities to form a partnership based
on the consideration of problems and issues relating to habitat. In drafting the Local Habitat Plans,
elected representatives became fully aware of the state of the housing stock and the need to renew and
renovate it in order to fulfil an increasingly diversified demand.
1.2 - Voynet Act5

The Voynet Act dated 25 June, 1999 (Act n° 99 – 533) providing Guidance for Territorial Land
Use and Sustainable Development (LOADDT) incorporates the amendment of Act n° 95 – 115
dated 4 February, 1995 on Guidance for Territorial Land Use and Developments. (LOADT).
This act relates to Territorial land use and sustainable development policy. It is not based on statutory
principles. It is fundamentally an act of a voluntary nature and provides financing that originates from
State-Region Plan Contracts (CPER). The foundation of the Voynet Act is a series of strategic choices,
such as the creation of countries, conurbation projects, inter-regional planning (involving the drafting
of nine Collective Services Schemes) and the introduction of a Development Council.
The philosophy of the act is based on the fact that it is the Territorial project, designed by elected
representatives in collaboration with local players, that needs to precede the creation of ad hoc inter-
communal institutions, the initial statutory stage being based on the contract (of a conurbation or
pays).
3
Statutory considerations and sustainable development, Philippe Outrequin and Catherine Charlot-Valdieu;
CIFP Training in Aix-en-Provence – January 2002.
4
Municipal Ministry Programme (France)
5
Proposals for a National Sustainable Development Strategy; contribution from the French Government – March
2002..
19
The new planning tools specified in the Voynet Act are as follows:
“Pays” Contracts
Defined as a community of economic and social interests, whose priority is a project, innovation and
partnership between public and private players, the notion of pays (country area) is neither a new
administrative level nor a new Territorial community. It is more of a relevant region defined by the
communes that sign a contract governing an (economic) development project. There are two
prerequisites for countries wishing to legalise a new State-Region Plan Contract (CPER): they must
already be formed into Public Inter-communal Cooperation Establishments (EPCI) with their own
taxation system or adopt the status of a local or mixed union public interest group. They will also be
required to have drafted a prior development plan.
Conurbation Contracts
Henceforward, as it is only possible to make major land use and town planning choices, the
organisation of public transport, the location of industrial and commercial activities or even a policy
for social mix and the elimination of exclusion factors, on the conurbation level. This is the reason
why the act makes provisions for “conurbation projects”. These involve urban areas that have a
population of at least 50,000 inhabitants and in which one or more centre communes have a population
in excess of 15,000 inhabitants. Those conurbations wishing to benefit from an individual contract
must undertake to form Public Inter-communal Cooperation Establishments (EPCI) with their own
fiscal and business tax system before the end of the contract. This will enable them to benefit from
registration, which entails entitlement to loans within the framework of State-Region Plan
Contracts (CPER).
The Development Council6
The Voynet Act introduced a Development Council. This is an authority for the participation of
local players: companies, government departments, associations, consular authorities … and elected
representatives. Compared to the Regional Social and Economic Council (CES) it works towards the
drafting, implementation, monitoring and assessment of the Territorial project. This organisation,
which is made up from members of the civil society, is consulted by a Pays or a conurbation Contract
on all pays or conurbation projects.
Collective Services Schemes7
Since the introduction of the Voynet Act, inter-regional planning has been made up of nine
Collective Services Schemes (higher education, research, culture, health, information and
communication, multi-modal schemes for collective passenger and goods transport services, collective
schemes for energy, natural and rural areas, sport, collective services scheme for French outermost
regions). These schemes enable the collective definition and precise formulation of major sectorial
policies that contribute to Territorial structuring. The long-term perspective of the Collective
Services Schemes is one of quality and responsibility.
However, it is not easy to implement this inter-regional planning and “a series of deficiencies need to
be rectified, shortcomings corrected and ambiguities clarified”. Furthermore, “the political perspective
needs to be strengthened”8.
To summarise, all of these conurbation and “pays” projects, which express the sustainable Territorial
development policy, are genuine political or strategic development projects in accordance with the
recommendations of the Rio Conference and the Local Agenda 21 Schemes.
6
See Deliverable 13, Participation procedures – Analysis of the situation in France; April 2002.
7
Plenary Meeting of the National Council for Territorial Land Use and Development (CNADT), Opinion on the
projects for Collective Services Schemes; 19 June, 2001.
8
Plenary Meeting of the National Council for Territorial Land Use and Development (CNADT), Opinion on the
projects for Collective Services Schemes; 19 June, 2001 – page three of the report
20
1.3 - Chevènement Act9

The Chevènement Act (act n° 99 – 586) dated 12 July, 1999 relating to the consolidation and
simplification of inter-communal cooperation provides tools for communal organisation that should
promote the implementation of LOADDT.
The two major provisions of this act are as follows:
to encourage communal groupings of a continuous nature without any enclaves, in the form of
a Conurbation Community, Urban Community and Community of Communes (based on the
number of inhabitants),
to promote single fiscal systems in terms of business license tax in order to encourage the
introduction of an area of fiscal and economic solidarity.
Article L.5216-5. -I of the Chevènement Act specifies that the Conurbation Community will exercise
ipso jure the following mandatory powers in the place of the member communes:
- economic development,
- improvement of the community area,
- social balance of the habitat in the community region,
- urban policy in the community.
Unlike the Voynet Act, this act promotes the preliminary formation of inter-communal structures that
will subsequently be able to generate a project (Conurbation or Urban Community Plan).
1.4 - Act governing Urban Solidarity and Renewal (SRU)10

The aim of the act (n° 2000 – 1208) dated 13 December 2000 relating to Urban Solidarity and
Renewal (SRU Act) is to combat urban sprawl and the introduction of the right to housing in order to
enable an improved quality of life.
It provides a strategy of legislative, mandatory, structural11 and financial means that complements the
institutional framework provided by the Voynet and Chevènement Acts.
The SRU Act is based on three foundations: town planning, travel and habitat, for which it provides
profound reforms12, the aims of which can be summarised as follows:
► to consolidate the consistency of urban and Territorial policies:
The implementing decrees for the main measures of the SRU Act relating to the reform of town
planning are, on the one hand, the introduction of Local Town Planning Plans (PLU), which replace
the Land Use Plans (POS) and on the other hand, the replacement of Master Schemes (MD) with
Territorial Consistency Schemes (ScoT).
► to reinforce Municipal Policy,
► to introduce a transport policy to serve sustainable development,
► to guarantee a diversified and quality habitat offer.
9
Wording of the Act n° 99 – 586 dated 12 July relating to the consolidation and simplification of inter-
communal cooperation , referred to as the Chevènement Act (CHAPTER 1: Institutional Provisions).
10
SRU Act n° 2000-1208 dated 13 December, 2000 (Articles 3 and 4).
11
Consolidation of the National Agency for Habitat Planning (ANAH), creation of the Public Organisation for
Inter-communal Cooperation (EPCI)…
12
Municipal debates (Volume 4), Urban Solidarity and Renewal: remarks on the SRU Act; Bordeaux metropolis
Town Planning Agency, Aquitaine– March 2002, pages 141-210.
21
In addition to the more general objective of sustainable development, the SRU Act promotes four
major objectives13:
urban renewal (promotion of urban development, European city model, denser town planning,
fight against urban sprawl and greater social and urban mix),
consistency of policies and compatibility of town planning documents,
solidarity of rural, semi-rural and urban spaces. Solidarity is translated through a concern for
social and urban mixes. This involves an effort for a closer combination of services, the
habitat, activity and modes of transport,
democratisation with increased public enquiry and dialogue.
1.5 - Other specific acts

To these preceding four acts may be added specialised acts which also provide guidelines for town
planning in certain respects. The acts refer clearly to sustainable development.
1.5.1 LOTI Act and Act governing the Air and the Rational Use of Energy14
The organisation of travel forms the main subject of two acts:

The Act on the Guidance of Internal Transport dated 30 December 1982, n° 82 – 1153
(referred to as the LOTI Act) makes provisions for the PDU: Urban Transport Plans.
These documents rely upon voluntary support and are in no way mandatory. The main
purpose of these plans is to define the general principles for organising transport, traffic
and parking in order to enable a more rational use of cars and to guarantee the safe
integration of pedestrians, two-wheeled vehicles and public transport.
Chapter V of the Act governing the Air and the Rational Use of Energy dated 1996
(referred to as the Lepage Act) amends Article 28 of the LOTI Act and stipulates that
PDU are obligatory within the boundaries of urban transport and also in conurbations
with a population in excess of 100,000 inhabitants. The aim of the Air Act is to reduce
car traffic in towns (although it does not define thresholds or obligatory results)
1.5.2 Mountain and Coastal Acts15
Two further specific acts are not applicable in all regions as their main aim is to control urbanisation
and protect natural spaces: the Coastal and Mountain Acts.
Pursuant to the Mountain Act dated 10 January, 1985, urbanisation is to develop as a continuation
of existing market towns and villages, except in the event that protection against natural risks dictates
the demarcation of new hamlets integrated into the environment.
The Coastal Act dated 2 January 1996 prohibits all new construction within a 100-meter strip
from the shore and prohibits the construction of roads within a distance of two kilometres from the
shore.
1.5.3 Agricultural and Forestry Guidance Acts16
The Agricultural Guidance Act (n° 99 – 574) dated 9 July, 1999 and the Forestry Guidance Act (n°
2001 – 602) dated 9 July, 2001 both incorporate a number of sustainable development principles.
Introducing project logic:
13
Municipal debates (Volume 4), Urban Solidarity and Renewal: remarks on the SRU Act; Bordeaux metropolis
town planning agency, Aquitaine – March 2002, pages 33-36.
14
Minutes of the colloquium on sustainable development held in Orléans on 10 and 11 January, 2002.
15
Le Monde / Wednesday, 11 October, 2000 / p.13: Endangered Mountain and Coastal Acts.
16
Nord-Pas-de-Calais Sustainable Development Resource Centre, Source file: Acts – May 2002.
22
The Agricultural Guidance Act recommends a project approach using the intermediary of Territorial
Operating Contracts (CTE). These contracts specify commitments in respect of “operating production
guidelines” (Article L.311-3).
The Forestry Guidance Act has a long-term perspective and should enable forestry management by
creating a favourable context for mobilising agents.
Inviting transversality:
The Agricultural Guidance Act specifies that “agricultural policy takes into consideration the
economic, environmental and social functions of agriculture and takes part in land use planning, with a
view to sustainable development” (Article. 1).
In a similar vein, the Forestry Guidance Act stipulates that “forestry policy takes part in the
preparation and implementation of other related policies, particularly rural development, defence and
promotion of employment, fight against the greenhouse effect, preservation of biological diversity,
land and water protection and the prevention of natural risks” (Article 1).
Improving the management and preservation of resources:
Among its objectives, the Agricultural Guidance Act mentions “the preservation of natural resources
and biodiversity and the upkeep of the countryside”.
Articles 18 to 24 of the Forestry Guidance Act refer to reinforcing the protection of forestry and
natural ecosystems.
Guaranteeing consistency between the management of urban and rural regions:
The issue is to ensure the complementary and continuous nature of areas that are developed (built
upon), undeveloped, agricultural, natural, etc. and to combine the coherent development between these
areas.
Adopting the execution of contractual approaches by associating the different partners in
question.
2 - The major act: the SRU Act

2.1 - Objectives of the SRU Act
“The content of town planning documents should be geared towards preventing economic activity
from consuming natural spaces under conditions that compromise the use of these spaces by future
generations. It is thus possible to understand that a Local Town Planning Plan or a Territorial
Consistency Scheme that is aimed at “full use of motor cars” would not respect the objectives of
sustainable development, given the greenhouse effect that would be generated and it would be legally
null and void”. (Patrick Rambert, Project Reporter to the National Assembly).
The Local Town Planning Plan (PLU) for the commune and the Territorial Consistency Scheme for
and inter-communal area were introduced by the Urban Solidarity and Renewal Act (SRU Act) dated
13 December, 2000 and they replace the Land Use Plan (POS) and the Master Scheme (SD)
respectively.
Article L121-1 of the Town Planning Code stipulates the principles from which town planning
documents may not depart. Said documents should thus be drafted with the aim of ensuring:
“the balance between, on the one hand, urban renewal, controlled urban development,
development of rural space and on the other hand, the preservation of spaces used for
agricultural and forestry activities and the protection of natural spaces and the countryside, in
accordance with the objectives of sustainable development;
the diversity of urban functions and social mix in urban and rural habitats, by planning
sufficient construction and renovation capacities to fulfil present and future needs, without
discrimination, in terms of habitat, economic activities, mainly of a commercial nature,
sporting and cultural activities, activities of general interest, as well as public installations,
giving special consideration to the balance between employment and habitat, as well as means
of transport and water management;
23
an economic and balanced use of spaces, i.e. natural, urban, suburban and rural, control of
transport and automotive traffic needs, preservation of the quality of the air, water, soil and
sub-soil, ecosystems, green spaces, the environment, natural and urban sites and landscapes,
reduction in noise pollution, protection of outstanding urban elements and the architectural
heritage, prevention of foreseeable natural risks, technological risks, pollution and nuisance
factors of all kinds”. 17
2.2 - Development of the SRU Act

2.2.1 The Local Town Planning Plan (PLU)
The town planning approach, in particular that of the Local Town Planning Plan, makes a clean break
with the philosophy of the Land Use Act of 1967. Land Use Acts used to govern land rights according
to a logic of zoning construction rights, Local Town Planning Plans, however, are founded on the
notion of project18.
► General content:
Local Town Planning Plans must observe the fundamental principles laid down in Articles L.110- and
L.121-1 of the Town Planning Code:
“They establish the general rules and rights of use of land enabling the fulfilment of the objectives
specified in Article L. 121-1, which may notably involve the refusal to give building permission,
demarcate urban areas or areas to be urbanised and the natural, agricultural and forestry areas to be
protected, and determine the rules pertaining to the location of buildings on the basis of local
circumstances”.
If applicable, the Local Town Planning Plan should be compatible with the provisions of the
Territorial Consistency Schemes, the sector scheme, the scheme for marine development and the rules
of the Regional Natural Park (PNR). It should also be compatible with the Urban Transport Plan
(PDU) and the Local Habitat Plan (PLH), whereas the Land Use Plan was only obliged to “take them
into consideration”.
Pursuant to Article R 123-1 of the Town Planning Code, the Local Town Planning Plan should include
a presentation report, the commune’s Land Use and Sustainable Development Project (P.A.D.D.), the
regulations, graphic documents and appendices.
Structure of the Local Town Planning Plan
Diagnosis and initial state = Regional project

of the environment P.A.D.D. recommended by
the Voynet Act
Presentation report
Regulations
Graphic
documents and
appendices
Source: La Calade
17
Article L 121-1 of the Town Planning Code, Edition 2001; pages 41-42.
18
Le Moniteur: Town Planners faced with Territorial Consistency Schemes and Local Town Planning Plans, 16 November 2001; p.68.
24
Article L.123 –1 of the Town Planning Code used to set the objectives of the Land Use Plans as it
now sets those of the Local Town Planning Plans.
The new wording of the aforementioned article stipulates that Local Town Planning Plans should:
• “present the diagnosis established in respect of economic and demographic forecasts and
specify the needs identified in terms of economic development, of land use planning, of the
environment, of social balance of the habitat, of transport, of installations and of services”.
• cover the entire region of one or more communes, except for those parts of these regions
that are included in a Protection and Development Plan.
• present the Land Use and Sustainable Development Project selected (PADD).
► The “Land Use and Sustainable Development Project” (Projet d’Aménagement et de

Développement Durable or PADD):
From now onwards, the drafting of Local Town Planning Plans is based on a new transverse and
systematic analysis document: the Land Use and Sustainable Development Project (PADD). This
document complements and amends the presentation report of the former Land Use Plan.
It is a guiding document for the commune, which has to take the 5, 10 and 15-year prospects into
consideration. The Act does not require the operation to be divided into stages or scheduled19.
Since the revising of the SRU Law in January 2003, the PADD is no more opposable. This document
has to be compatible with the PLU regulation, it means that it has to keep its strategic importance all
the more because all the next revisions of the PLU will have to be compatible to the PADD. From a
legislator point of view, the PLU revision should be done every 10 or 15 years, except for some partial
revisions, and during this period of time, the coherence of the PLU evolutions has to be insure by the
PADD.
However, the PADD must define the general orientations of urban planning that concern the
general organisation of the communal territory, in order to promote urban renewal and to preserve
architectural and environmental quality, in respect of the objectives and principles enounced in
articles L.110 and L.121-1 of the Urban Planning Code.
On the other hand, the PADD might precise particular orientations and prescriptions that
specifically concern thematic or sectorial spaces and neighbourhoods or public actions. This part of
PADD is the territorial expression of communal urban public politics. The Urban Planning Code
20
defines precisely the potential content of the PADD .
The Land Use and Sustainable Development Project (PADD) may:
- identify spaces with a centrality function and define measure to preserve the city centres and the
neighbourhood centres as well to develop them or to create new ones,
- locate and characterise the urban blocks, neighbourhoods or districts to be restructured or
renovated, as well as fight against substandard housing,
- characterise public spaces or public equipment to preserve, modify, create,
- provide the conditions for the layout of the city accessibility,
- guarantee the retail stores diversity of neighbourhoods.
- It can also propose actions and measures to guarantee sustainable development of the various
territories making up the commune. These actions and measures must not only create territorial
19
It does not demand budget information either (although a certain consistency has to be guaranteed between the
project and the commune’s present and future means) It is, however, never an isolated player and available
resources depend on the objectives of the different communities and organisations that are able to compete:
conurbation or communal community, State-region Plan contract, the review of which will be operational as of
2003, General Council, Territorial Council, State, European Union.
20
Article L.123-1 (L. n° 2000-1208, 13 déc. 2000) du Code de l’Urbanisme, Edition 2001 ; page 66.
25
dynamics but also improve synergies between the different parts of the territory: maintenance of
roads, public spaces, landscape…
At last, in an operationnal urbanistic context, the PADD might "translate" the urban project in a more
interventionist way, by providing prescriptions preciser than the previous orientations (but still in
respect of article L.123-3 of the Urban Planning Code). These prescriptions will then be imposed on
works to do in the context of the regulation and other graphic documents and appendices.
To sum up, the Land Use and Sustainable Development Project (PADD) remains the most innovative
tool of the Law even if this document is not defined in the content; it could be really an open to
sustainable development.
2.2.2 The Territorial Consistency Scheme (SCoT) 21
The Territorial Consistency Scheme is a strategic town planning document that aims to harmonise
sectorial policies in the fields of town planning, habitat, transport and new installations.
► Defining of boundary :
This document is drafted on the basis of the boundary decreed by the Prefect that corresponds to the
territory of a single and homogeneous continuous area, taking into consideration physical, economic
and social characteristics (life support area, employment area, conurbation, country…):
“It takes notably into account the boundaries of groups of communes, new conurbations, countries and
natural parks, as well as boundaries already defined in urban transport plans, commercial development
schemes, local habitat programmes and inter-communal charters for development and land use”.
“It also takes into consideration urban transport, namely transport between the home and the
workplace and the local shopping area, as well as transport to cultural, sporting, social and leisure
installations”.22
► Aim of the Territorial Consistency Scheme:
The aim of the Territorial Consistency Scheme is mainly to define “objectives relating to the social
balance of the habitat and to the construction of social housing, creating a balance between
urbanisation and the creation of public transport services, to the business and craft facilities, to the
preferred locations for shops, to the protection of the landscape, to the enhancing of the city access
facilities and the prevention of risks. »23
It is also to determine « the natural urban sites to be protected and to be able to define the location or
demarcation. »24
Lastly the SCoT specifies « the conditions enabling the promotion of the priority development of
urbanisation in sectors served by public transport. »25
Article L.121-1 al.7-9 of the Town Planning Code specifies the requirement for compatibility
between the SCoT and the other town planning documents: « The ScoT’s must be compatible with
the charters for the Territorial national parks ». Furthermore, « the local habitat programmes, the urban
transport plans, the business development schemes, the local town planning plans, the protection and
development plans, the communal maps, the property and development operations defined by Council
of State decree must be compatible with the Territorial Consistency Schemes and the sector schemes.
The same applies to the authorisations provided for by articles 29 and 36-1 of Act No 73 – 1193 dated
December 27 1973 on Guidance for Business and Craft. »
21
Article 3 of the SRU Act No 2000-1208 dated December 13 2000 and Integration of sustainable development
in the notifying of a Territorial Consistency Scheme (SCoT), CSTB, La Calade and DDE of the l’Oise
Department – March 2002.
22
Article L.122-3 al.1 of the Town Planning Code, Edition 2001 ; page 52.
23
Article L.122-1 al.3 of the Town Planning Code, Edition 2001 ; pages 51.
24
25
26
► Content of the SCoT :

The SCoT must contain the following documents:
diagnosis with regard to the forecasts,
presentation of the Land Use and Sustainable Development Project (PADD) selected,
the general directions for the organisation of space…in order to implement the project
selected,
an assessment of the foreseeable effects of these directions on the environment.
The decree dated 27 March 200126, in its articles R.122-2 and R.122-3, details the content of the
SCoT:
The presentation report contains (Article R122-2) :
- the diagnosis provided for in article L122-1 ;
- an analysis of the initial state of the environment ;
- the presentation of the Land Use and Sustainable Development Project and the
choices made with regard to the principles set forth in articles L110 and L121-1 ;
- if applicable, the main phases of realisation envisaged ;
- an assessment of the foreseeable effects of these directions of the scheme on the
environment and it stipulates the way in which the scheme takes the concern for its
preservation and enhancement into account (see European Directive dated June 27
2001).
Political expression of the land use project of the communes, the guidance document is a
fundamental part of the SCoT in as far as it stipulates the development elements of the big
land use operations. Furthermore, the guidance document should translate into sectors
and themes the Land Use and Sustainable Development Project (P.A.D.D.), the latter
having to specify the objectives of the political project (Article R122-3).
This guidance document should contain:

The general directions for the organisation of the space and the restructuring of the urbanised
areas,
the natural or urban areas or sites to be protected whose location or demarcation may be defined:
this is the only possibility offered by the Act for producing a precise zoning of the SCoT (mapping
may be done at this level) provided that the protection of these areas is justified ; this zoning is
then mandatory for the PLU (we may consider that the term used in the Act « it may define »
needs to be debated),
the great balances between the urban areas and the areas to be urbanised on the one hand and the
natural, agricultural or forestry areas on the other hand
the major objectives pertaining to :
- the social balance of the habitat and the building of council housing,
- the consistency between the urbanisation and the creation of public transport
services,
- business and craft facilities, the preferred locations for shops and other economic
activities
- the protection of the landscape, the enhancing of town access facilities.
the conditions enabling the promotion of the priority development of urbanisation in sectors
served by public transport.
26
decree n°2001-260 du 27 march 2001 of the SRU Act.
27
2.2.3 Consistency between the town planning documents
One of the new features of the SRU Act is the requirement for consistency between the various
town planning documents, starting with the PLU’s between one another and the SCoT of the
conurbation they relate to.
Except for a few special cases (notably the POS’s reviewed before April 1, 2001), the SRU Act
obliged most communes to come to an agreement by the end of 2001 if they wanted to freely pursue
their town planning policy.
The SRU Act requires the question of the consistency of the various sectorial actions of the local
authorities to be taken into account simultaneously, notably in the fields of town planning, habitat and
transport. The PLU and the SCoT must be consistent and organised among one another so that they
both fit together into the same undertaking – project, of greater control over the consumption of space,
greater solidarity and greater concern given to sustainable development.
The SCoT aims at providing real planning on the scale of the urban areas and taking into account all
the sectorial land use, transport and building policies. The PLU must be its expression at the commune
level, even if the documents are produced in the reverse order.
These two documents must also fit into logic of consistency with the other structuring documents
which are, at the Regional level and at the local level, The Urban Transport Plan (PDU), The Local
Habitat Plan (PLH), and, at level, the future Collective Services Schemes.
2.2.4 Consultation
No major change after the PADD, the introduction of public consultation upstream of the projects
enables the inhabitants to be involved in the PLU and SCoT process well before the public enquiry
stage...
2.3 - Assessment of the situation

« The Solidarity and Urban Renewal Act constitutes a great law which is not free of problems of
construction of meaning and inherent contradictions and some parts of the text require tidying up. A
certain number of measures can be applied directly, which is rather beneficial, but there are
nevertheless around sixty or so articles, including those concerning the ScoT’s and the PLU’s, which
require implementing decrees. »27
2.3.1 The lack of references
The SRU Act generates several implementation problems :

This Act in fact provides for development directions in contradiction with the method of development
produced by the 1980’s and 90’s.
It provides for:
- exercising control over urban development by fighting against urban sprawl by restricting the
consumption of space,…
- promoting social mix by providing for better distribution of the council housing,
- exercising control over travel by reducing the role played by the car,
- doing away with the « NB28 » zones, which are building zones of a too extensive nature.
Thus the local authorities find themselves faced with the problem of allocating these NB zones when
reviewing or producing their PLU.
27
Debates on the city (Volume 4), Urban Solidarity and Renewal : comments on the SRU Act ; Town Planning
Agency of the Bordeaux metropolis Aquitaine – March 2002, page 36.
28
Undeveloped or country area, made up of diffuse habitats.
28
These objectives thus imply a cultural change in the behaviour of the various players of the civil
society, notably behaviour linked to the car and housing.
Furthermore, the new document, the Land Use and Sustainable Development Project (PADD),
which adds to and amends the presentation report of the former POS (and SD), is not clearly defined;
it is not specified how to structure it, how to perform the prior sustainable development diagnosis,
etc…
We are in a learning phase as regards the production of the tools pertaining to the SRU Act and
the PADD is still only at an experimental stage for the moment:
- A more delicate game of players between the Government and the local elected representatives
for the implementation of the PLU (implementation is possible with or without the intervention of
the State departments which are, on the other hand, inescapable through the legality control).
- A minimum amount of consultation is mandatory, but relative freedom is left to the local
authorities as regards to the modalities of its organisation which must however be specified at the
start of the procedures and abided by.
- The public enquiry procedure was recently amended by the Local Democracy Act dated February
27, 2002, with the main objective of improving local democracy. The improving of local
democracy is dealt with both from the standpoint of participatory democracy, which enables the
inhabitants to be better associated with local life (with notably the reform of the public enquiry
and the consultation procedures, which are the subject of TITLE IV of the Act29) and from the
standpoint of representative democracy, so that the local elected representatives can exercise their
mandates under the best conditions.30
2.3.2 The lack of methods and tools
The SRU Act often makes reference to the principles of sustainable development. The major problem
which is posed is however the lack of methods and tools enabling integration of the notion of
sustainable development, notably in the town planning documents, but also in all the territory
projects.
Furthermore, the lack of information and training of the elected representatives regarding the PLU
undertaking and objectives, as for sustainable development, does not facilitate this necessary cultural
change or revolution...
3 – Summary, recommendations
Since 1983, the decentralisation laws have modified the sharing of responsibilities between the State
and the territorial authorities. The authorities have seen themselves allocated control over many fields.
The recent legislation gives a fresh impulse to this process. It is up to the State to define the principles
and guarantee the collective choices, better arbitrate and assess the implementation of the policies
instituted. The role of the State has changed; in a society which is more open to the world and Europe,
it has to face up to the new expectations of its citizens.
Sustainable development appears to be at the heart of the on-going process of reshaping the territories.
This takes place in fact in the remodelled legislative context constituted by the three additional Acts:
• The Voynet Act dated June 25, 1999 (Act No 99 – 533) providing Guidance for Territorial
Land Use and Sustainable development (LOADDT).
29
TITLE IV of the Local Democracy Act is devoted notably to the participation of the general public in the
development of major projects: Le Moniteur n° 5128, Official Texts and professional documents; March 8,
2002 – page 389
30
Le Moniteur, the Local Democracy Act: The local authorities on the road to experimentation ; April 12 2002
– page 88.
29
• The Chevènement Act (Act No 99 – 586) dated July 12 1999 pertaining to the strengthening
and simplification of intercommunal cooperation.
• The Act (No 2000 – 1208) Dated December 13, 2000 pertaining to Urban Solidarity and
Renewal (SRU Act).
In a more precise way, the Territorial Land Use and Sustainable Development Act (LOADDT),
proposes a new organisation for the setting in place of the conditions for sustainable development of
the territories. It its preamble it puts forward two strategic choices concerning « territorial
reshaping » :
- Local development, organised in the context of employment areas, advocating solidarity
between the rural and urban territories,
- The proposal for territorial organisation in conurbations and pays.
All these strategic choices give rise to the formulation of territory projects.
The territorial players are therefore encouraged more and more to organise themselves collectively
around project territories: the « pays » in the rural setting, the « conurbations » in the urban setting
take part in a veritable territorial reshaping on a par with the economic, social and cultural realities
experienced by the population: the France of tomorrow should have 350 to 500 “pays” and 140 to 150
conurbations.
All the legislation which has been introduced since 1999 strengthens the requirement for a
comprehensive project integrated at the territory level and the active participation of the players and
the general public in its formulation, implementation and monitoring.
The territories thus become the basis of the practical integration of the sectorial policies, conditions for
sustainable development: Local Agenda 21, Territorial Consistency Scheme for the issues of town
planning, mutualisation of SME resources, organisation of local productive systems, setting of public
service firms.
The undertaking of formulating a territory project satisfying the principles of sustainable
development is based on a legislative framework, which henceforth has to be applied and set in place,
notably in the fields of town planning through the objectives of the SRU Act and intercommunality
through the Chevènement Act.
Synthesis with respect to the 21 SD targets

With respect to the 21 SD targets defined in the HQE²R project most emphasis has been by the SRU
Law on diversity of population and functions (targets 13 to 15), environmental issues and more
particularly in regards to land management (target 3) and water management (target 2), but also the
targets concerning integration (17 and 19 with the objective of mastering car displacements), quality
of environment, by an improvement of risk management (target 9), a fight against unsanitary housing
(targets 7 and 8) and a reduction of pollutions (targets 10 and 11).
Least emphasis has been put on social life (targets 20 and 21), and job creation (SD target 13),
although it is not fair to say that they have been totally neglected.
30
References
Town Planning Code, commented and annotated by B. Lamorlette and D. Moreno; Edition 2001.
Text of Act No 99 – 586 dated July 12 pertaining to the strengthening and simplification of
intercommunal cooperation, known as the Chevènement Act (TITLE 1 : Institutional Provisions).
Text of Act SRU No 2000-1208 dated December 13, 2000 (Articles 3 and 4).
Decree No 2001-260 dated March 27, 2001 of the SRU Act.
Plenary Meeting of the National Council for Territorial Land Use and Development (CNADT),
Opinion on the projects for Collective Services Schemes –June19, 2001.
City Debates (Volume 4), Urban Solidarity and Renewal: comments on the SRU Act; Town
Planning Agency of the Bordeaux metropolis Aquitaine – March 2002
Proposals for a National Strategy of Sustainable Development; contribution from the French
Government – March 2002.
Integration of sustainable development in the notifying of a Territorial Consistency Scheme
(SCoT), CSTB, La Calade and DDE of the Oise Department – March 2002.
Statutory aspects and sustainable development, Philippe Outrequin et Catherine Charlot-Valdieu;
CIFP Training in Aix-en-Provence – January 2002.
Philippe Outrequin, Communication : « Town Planning and Sustainable Development »,
symposium on sustainable development held on January 10 and 11, 2002 in Orléans ; Association
4D, MATE.
Resource Centre for Sustainable Development of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Region, Resource
Sheet: Acts – May 2002.
Articles :
Le Moniteur: SRU Act New town planning documents: How to find your way through them? –
January 26 2001 ; pages 88-89.
Le Moniteur: The town planners faced with the ScoT’s and the PLU’s, November 16 2001 - p.68.
Le Moniteur, Local Democracy Ac : The local authorities on the road to experimentation – April
12 2002 ; page 88.
Le Monde, The Mountain and Coastal Acts threatened – Wednesday October 11 2000; p.13.
Internet sources
www.urbanistes.com
www.intercommunalités.com
www.legifrance.gouv.fr
31
III - GERMANY
Spatial Planning, building regulations

and sustainable development in Germany
This paper does intend to provide an overall view of the existing German regulations and programmes,
leading in a wider context to a policy of more urban and regional sustainable development. In the first
part regulations and programmes are presented while the second part in short summarizes a critical
review of sustainability options.
1 - Regulations and Programmes

1.1 - Regional and Urban Regulations
The Federal Government, the 16 Federal States, 114 regions and 14,000 municipalities31 are the
responsible bodies for spatial planning in Germany. The detailed specification of basic principles and
ideas, developed in the upper levels of government, follows in the respective lower levels, the federal
states and municipalities. Despite the dependence upon legislation and financial resources, the German
Basic Law provides municipalities with far-reaching independence in urban planning by the
communal self-government guarantee.
Planning activities within Germany are divided into many different kinds of planning instruments. The
formal legal frameworks for regional and urban development are the Federal Regional Planning Act
(Raumordnungsgesetz ROG32) and the Federal Building Code (Baugesetzbuch BauGB33), providing
the overall instruments for the federal states and municipalities, and outlining the general objectives
and guiding principles.
Due to the distribution of legislative powers between the Federal level and state level, further
regulations have to be considered:
- supralocal planning: the laws of spatial planning and regional planning,
- sectoral planning: corresponding sectoral planning acts of the federal level,
- Building Regulations on the federal states level, which set out standards for the structural
conditions of buildings, especially from the safety aspect, and which regulate procedures for
obtaining building permissions,
- construction regulations in other Federal and states laws (e.g. environmental protection acts”34).
The German Federal Regional Planning Act35 from 1997 provides the guideline that „the overall
concept ... is that of sustainable regional development which will bring the social and economic
demands made on an area into line with its ecological functions and result in a stable order which will
be well-balanced on a large scale.“ Further guiding issues are: self-fulfilment within the community,
responsibility to future generations, protection of natural resources, economic development, land use
possibilities shall be kept open in the long term, diversity of individual regions, similar standards of
living, regional and structural imbalances shall be eliminated and cohesion on the European scale.
31
Urban Development and Urban Policy in Germany, Bonn 2000
32
ibidem
33
Baugesetzbuch, Textausgabe mit Einführung, 7. Aufl., München, Berlin 1998
34
Urban Development and Urban Policy in Germany, Bonn 2000
35
Federal Regional Planning Act; Subdivision 1, Section 1 (2); 1997 in: www.bmvbw.de
32
The Federal Building Code36 from 1997 provides the principle that “land-use plans shall safeguard
sustainable urban development and a socially equitable utilisation of land for the general good of the
community, and shall contribute to securing a more humane environment and to protecting and
developing the basic conditions for natural life”. Further attention in the preparation of land-use plans
has to be paid to the issues of: living and working conditions, housing requirements, social and
cultural needs, existing local centres, built heritage, religious organisations, environmental protection
and renewable energies, economy, defence and other planning measures.
Being responsible for the detailed local specification, municipalities and cities can draw up local land-
use plans, accordingly the preparatory land-use plan (entire territory, intended type of land use) and
the legally binding land-use plan (type, extent and areas of development, local traffic infrastructure),
where objectives of sustainability can be implemented. To secure the consideration between nature
conservation and urban development, it is committed that the local government does assess anticipated
interventions in the environment and decides on avoidance, compensation or substitution measures.
Despite the existence of such a brought field of regulations, sustainable development is still not an
issue to be generally considered in Germany. Even the recognition within the legal frameworks in
form of guiding principles or guidelines is no guarantee for the fulfilment of sustainable planning.
This is one reason why there are further economic instruments corresponding with the legal
frameworks mentioned above. They support certain developments only under the objective of
A guiding principle of the Act on the Reform of the Legal Housing Construction Regulations37 is
implemented under Part 1, Subdivision 1, Section 6: “The promotion of social housing construction is
obliged to the sustainability of the housing supply, bringing the economic and social demands into line
with the preservation of the environment”.
The Urban Renewal and Town Development Act, since 1987 part of the Federal Building Code,
regulates the distribution of investment aids. Usually one third of the cost of the programme is covered
by federal funds, another third by the federal state. The federal states form as well the support by own
programmes, regulating the details of issues and selections to be in control of the implementation.
The funds provided by the Urban Renewal and Town Development Act can be used for measures
under the Redevelopment Law, to promote the preservative renewal under consideration of the
inhabitants’ interests and social structures, instead of demolition and new development. Urban deficits
of an area, like a poor building conditions, can be reduced by redevelopment measures. The
municipality has to decide flexibly about redevelopment objectives and the later procedure for each
area, as they differ individually from project to project.
Additional to concrete regulations and programmes the Federal government communicates its policies
of sustainable urban development through the promotion of selected issues, like a brochure,
recommending the implementation of the issues of climate and energy reduction into the process and
selection criteria of architectural and town planning competitions. 38
1.2 - Building Regulations

Although the importance of the sector building and housing for sustainable development is widely
recognised39, we can say in general that there are no formal building regulations comprehensively
reflecting sustainability as a guiding principle.
36
Federal Building Code; Part One, Subdivision One, Section 1 (5); 1997 in: www.bmwbw.de
37
Gesetz zur Reform des Wohnungsbaurechts vom 13. September 2001; Bundesgesetzblatt Jahrgang 2001 Teil I
Nr. 48, Bonn 2001
38
Urban Development and Urban Policy in Germany – An Overview; BBR; Berichte Band 6; Bonn 2000
39
e.g. the final report of the German enquete-commission on “Protection of man and the environment – targets
and framing conditions of a sustainable development”
(Konzept Nachhaltigkeit - vom Leitbild zur Umsetzung. Abschlußbericht der Enquete-Kommission "Schutz des
Menschen und der Umwelt - Ziele und Rahmenbedingungen einer nachhaltig zukunftsverträglichen
Entwicklung" des 13. Deutschen Bundestages; Zur Sache 4/98; Bonn: Dt. Bundestag, 1998, 467 S.)
33
It is rather that general environmental issues are incorporated in regulations such as within the
European Construction Products Directive or the general German federal regulations on remuneration
of architects and engineers (Honorarordnung Architekten und Ingenieure; HOAI).
Furthermore certainly the “Energy Saving Decree” (Energieeinsparverordnung40) that recently
replaced the German decree on Heating-Energy Conservation is an important regulation concerning
environmental issues. This decree also includes requirements for the renovation of existing buildings.
What may also be counted in this field are numerous activities and regulations on the level of federal
states. Noteworthy here are certainly existing public guidelines for subsidised housing development
which partly include issues referring to the principle of sustainable development (e.g. the support-
programme „Resource-saving Building and Housing in Schleswig-Holstein“). Hereby often energy-
conservation measures like “Low Energy Standard for Buildings” 41 or “Initiative Program for
Thermal Refurbishment” 42 are put in practice.
The position of the federal public level is represented by the “Guideline for sustainable building”43
(see the short description within the paper on German tools; Del. 3). But this is not a public regulation
but an internal management tool for federal public (office-) buildings. Nevertheless – by being the
baseline for the setting of public good examples – the guideline is intended to function as a catalyser
for private better practice.
1.3 - Programmes
In Germany the main authority and responsibility for all aspects of urban development is situated at
the federal states level. Although each individual federal state has its own programmes for urban
development the programmes of the different states are similar to each other as far as the main ideas
are concerned. The general types and ideas of these programmes are summarized in section 1.3.1.
At the same time there are further programmes on federal level, occasionally in co-operation with the
federal states, promoting sustainable development within the urban context. The most widely
perceived and discussed examples of programmes are presented in below. They are still in progress,
therefore the presentation is not offering conclusions or analyses but a clue of how German
government is currently promoting its policy of urban sustainability in practice.
1.3.1 Programmes on the State Level
At the level of the different federal states exists a wide set of programmes which promotes a large
variety of aspects concerning the built environment. A lot of these programmes correspond to the ideas
of sustainable development. The number of programmes, their exact contents and their financial basis
are different in each state. All the programmes have in common the support of certain aspects of built
environment by direct public subsidies or by credits with an interest rate lower than at the normal
money market.
The financially most important programmes were until the recent past the promotion of public housing
allowing low income households to afford adequate living space. These kinds of programmes now are
almost abolished, as housing policy is now more seen as a matter to be regulated by the private
market. In some regions is also little or no pressure on the housing market any more as the vacancy
rate has risen in the past years in these regions and the market has shifted to a demand-side driven
situation.
40
Verordnung über energiesparenden Wärmeschutz und energiesparende Anlagentechnik bei Gebäuden, BGBl I
2001, 3085
41
“Niedrigenergie-Haus-Standard” (NEH-Standard)
42
“Impulsprogramm waermetechnische Sanierung“
43
Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Bau- und Wohnungswesen (BMVBW; 2001) Leitfaden Nachhaltiges Bauen
(Guideline Sustainable Building), Berlin (http://www.bbr.bund.de/bauwesen/download/leitfaden_engl.pdf)
34
Examples of programmes which supported groups of people to rehabilitate their buildings themselves
together and according to their own wishes and programmes which supported tenants to rise the
standard of their apartments by doing to refurbishment work themselves – without paying a higher rent
later on – were reduced or cancelled as well. Those programmes improved the social coherence in the
neighbourhood as the groups supported usually where very active in the cultural life of the
neighbourhood. The programme for the tenants improved the relatedness the people to the area they
live in.
Still exist programmes which support private investments in the rehabilitation of historic monuments.
These programmes contributed to a large extend to the preservation of the cultural heritage of the
villages and cities. They support all cost which exceed the usual rehabilitation cost due to the specific
building condition of architectural monuments.
1.3.2 Programmes on Federal Level
Districts with Special Development Needs - The Socially Integrative City

“The Socially Integrative City”44 is a joint programme of the German federal government and the
federal states, launched in 1999. With the focus on neighbourhoods it calls on cities and towns to
develop individual action plans for integrated urban development. The main aim is to motivate
residents, business and others to interact within their environment of the community, to develop
strategies focused on the local needs, to establish problem-orientated networks between different
levels and to experience the project as an open process of learning and development by partnerships
and consensus.
In the year 2000 there have been participating 210 small communities in 137 municipalities.
Counteracting the growing discrepancy amongst German cities the project ought to foster co-
operation between all involved players and to mobilise the inhabitants of small communities.
An essential instrument is the establishment of neighbourhood management to introduce the setting
up of residents' organisations. The staff of the management is e.g. involved in measures to strengthen
the local economy and to support the communal life with projects for disadvantaged and the
distribution of money for initiatives out of the neighbourhood funds.
The transfer and exchange of information and experience between the involved municipalities is a
continuous process, supported by regular meetings and the accompanying database. Yet there has not
been developed an effective tool for the extensive and in particular comparative evaluation of the
programme’s outcome.
Cities of the Future – Strategies and Measures for a Sustainable Development

Since 1997 the research area “Cities of the Future”45 is part of the research programme “Experimental
Housing Construction and Urban Development” (ExWoSt). It is supported by the Federal Ministry of
Transport, Building and housing (BMVBW), looked after by the Federal Office for Building and
Regional Planning (BBR) and has its focal points on
• strategies and measures
• activity areas of urban development
• indicator-based evaluation
• strategies for a sustainable urban development.
44
Source: www.sozialestadt.de/programm/grundlagen/polarisierung_engl.shtml
45
Source: www.bbr.bund.de
35
The aim is to test quantitative and qualitative standards for the evaluation of measures for a
sustainable urban development in their practical application. Four German model cities have been
selected: Münster, Heidelberg (both former “west”), Dessau and Güstrow (both former “east”). They
have engaged themselves in a contractual “quality agreement” to carry out an “evaluation of success
accompanying the planning process” together with the BBR. Furthermore there have been selected
seven German reference cities and five European cities for comparison.
21 selected indicators of success in the form of a checklist serve as a basis for the evaluation of the
achievement of objectives in the four model cities. The indicators were selected out of the following
urban fields of analysis for which several strategies had been set up:
• economical land management
• precautionary environmental protection
• city-compatible mobility management
• socially responsible housing provisions
• economic development policy
For the evaluation of the success of the programme orientation values for the model cities have been
agreed upon as quantitative objectives. Issues fixed are the reduction of the growth of built-up
settlement area, of carbon dioxide emissions, of water consumption by private households and of the
quantity of non-recyclable waste from private households as well as a shift of the modal split towards
walking, cycling and use of local public transport.
The so far adopted indicators are still in a process of negotiation, as the model cities are trying to find
an equal way of using the indicators for cities being essentially different from each other. Until now,
the evaluation of the first phase (1997-2000) has been used to examine the instrument of orientation
values and indicators for its practicability. The second phase will end in 2003, evaluating the progress
in the model cities to result in an indicator-based evaluation showing the long-term effects of the
agreed objectives of sustainable urban development.
Urban Reconstruction East

Based on expectations of rapid economic growth after the reunification of Germany the housing policy
for the eastern part was directed towards an expansion of housing supply. Together with a
considerable movement of population towards the west this has lead to an increasing and today locally
dramatic rate of residential vacancy. East Germany faces a disoccupancy of 1 million flats which is an
average rate of 13% and can reach 30% to 50% in specific cities or neighbourhoods. In consequence
the affected neighbourhoods are in danger of not only physical but also social decay. This in
consequence leads to a devaluation of the building stock and existentially endangers building owners,
thereunder even large housing companies.
Against this background the “Urban Reconstruction East”-programme46 is especially intended towards
the revitalisation of inner-city neighbourhoods with high rates of vacancy within valuable older
apartment building stocks. Although not directly oriented towards sustainable development it
integrates economic (support of local housing economy), social (revitalisation of urban
neighbourhoods) and ecological issues (recovery and reuse of built resources, policy impulse against
suburban sprawl). In its heart the programme offers financial incentive and support. In a first instance
the government hands out subsidies for the elaboration of integrated urban development concepts.
Furthermore the local concepts judged best by a Jury will be awarded with additional money. In detail
the programme aims at refurbishment and maintenance programmes, to encourage private housing
ownership in the inner cities building stock and to initiate urban renewal and upgrading of the local
built environment on the one hand. On the other hand also demolition actions are financially supported
to reduce the backlog of housing supply were appropriate.
46
Source : http://www.stadtumbau-ost.de/ueberblick.htm
36
2 - The spatial planning system, building

regulations and sustainable urban development –
critical review
2.1 - General Conditions
As far as sustainable development is understood as a development process, that strives to balance
economic, ecological and social demands the general conditions for spatial planning in Germany
make possible the consideration of all aspects of sustainable development. It begins with the
constitution comprising as an abstract principle that ownership causes social obligations. A
decentralised decision-making structure, as well fixed in the constitution, facilitates public
participation as local affairs are managed on a local level. Spatial planning is a central element of the
communal self-government. The Building Code, the central legal framework for urban development
on federal level, cites sustainable urban development as a guiding principle (see also 1.1) that is
substantiated by several thematic requirements. It also provides a formal weighing requirement of all
different thematic aspects concerning all planning decisions. This provides the opportunity to take into
consideration the wishes and interests of all parties affected by a certain planning decision. With
respect to environmental concerns beside the issues to be considered within the weighing-requirement
the building code includes especially the demand that land shall be used sparingly and with due
consideration.
Thus the general situation of the German building and planning regulation-system might thus be
summarized as offering a range of obligations, incentives and opportunities for integrating aspects
of sustainable development in planning decisions at different spatial levels and in the construction
of buildings. [see part 1]
2.2 - Primary Targets of Spatial Planning in Germany

At the same time and beside these general options allowing to take into consideration aspects of
sustainable development at a large scale the primary policy targets which rule all regulations of the
system of spatial planning in Germany are to regulate economic growth on the spatial level and to
guide the development of new built use zones in order to compensate direct negative ecological and
social effects of spatial planning. Furthermore the existing strong legal framework represented by the
Building Code ensures largely the avoidance of extremely negative developments concerning the
expansion of the settlement area. Especially the uncontrolled splinter development in rural areas.
Nevertheless, the general target of steering the spatial structure of economic development should be
seen as the most powerful driving force in planning considerations.
As the whole planning system was established in times of stable economic growths the expansion of
building land and infrastructure has been the predominant answer to the questions of spatial
development occurring as a consequence of economic and urban growth. In the way spatial planning is
organised in Germany the planning system still has considerable problems to deal with exhaustible
natural resources especially land. The effective avoidance of negative ecological effects of spatial
planning as postulated by the Building Code as one alternative in the process of weighting would in
the most cases lead to the renunciation of new projects. This internal contradiction between the
different targets is in practice generally solved by accepting undesirable environmental consequences
as at least to a certain extend inevitable in order to achieve the intended economic effects. All the
instruments established since the 80s of the 20th century only gear to slow down the negative effects
by stipulating compensation or substitution measures which themselves are often discussed as being
problematic in their effects. Furthermore due to this general orientation towards expansion the
planning system does not provide any instruments in order to cope with shrinking cities or regions. At
present such trends are taken up only with research and policy-programmes such as the “Urban
Reconstruction East” (“Stadtumbau Ost”)-programme (see 1.3.3). Since private property and the right
of its exploitation is at the very heart of any market economy the position of the private land owners
within these processes is comparable strong. This often prevents the reuse of unused properties for
public purpose. Expropriations – although from principle legally possible – are fairly difficult and the
37
poor financial capacities of the communities usually do not allow them to pay the compensation as
demanded by legal regulations which are often higher than the value according to the actual use of the
properties.
2.3 - “Environmental Impact Analysis”
All laws relevant for large supra-local development projects include an obligatory “environmental
impact analysis”. In the weighing process alternative solutions for the project including the
alternative to renounce the project (discussed as “zero-solution”) and their effects on the environment
have to be considered. An analysis of the benefits and cost of the project has to be done as well. In
practice it can not be expected, that projects are renounced or significantly changed by the results of
environmental impact studies47. It is more that these legal instruments serve to avoid or compensate
the greatest damages and to obey the regulations set by the EU and also in practice occasionally are
used to appease critics.
2.4 - Weighing, Compensation and Substitution

A formal weighing process has to precede all local planning decisions. In this process all possible
effects of the planning decision have to be considered including environmental and social aspects.
Therefore for all local development plans the environmental impacts of the planning have to be
examined. The local development plan has to be worked out according to the principles of
avoidance and compensation of negative environmental impacts. If this is not possible it has to
provide for substitution measures. The measures taken often follow a very technical and linear idea of
planning. This system is based on a planning mentality which focuses on categories of infiltration
coefficients and green volumes. More complex approaches like the integrated analysis of the working
of ecosystems hardly can be found as subject of the measures taken. The measures taken are often
criticised as being rather cosmetic – e.g. trees on a new multi-story car park or benches along the
streets of a new settlement area built on former agricultural land. But even if this system of
compensation and substitution measures is subject to general criticism and the measures taken do not
result in really compensating the negative environmental impacts of planning decisions they partly
contribute to cover general negative effects according to the idea of sustainable development – trees
on the roof of a multi-story car park nevertheless lead to lower local temperatures and make it look
nicer than without any plants around.
2.5 - Urban Redevelopment Measure

In order to cope with derelict urban districts and with development related social problems the “Urban
Renewal and Town Development Act” within the Building Code provides a special instrument called
urban redevelopment area. In officially declared urban redevelopment areas exist special planning
regulations which among other things regulate the real estate market and take care for a participation
of the inhabitants and users of the area in the planning process which exceeds the normal planning
regulations. Usually public spending is concentrated on these areas. Investments in these areas enjoy
tax privileges. This planning instrument is useful and important to support a development process in
derelict areas and to control at least partly this process. But the municipalities have very tight budgets
and urban redevelopment measures are always temporary. Therefore in derelict areas without any
internal economic potentials the instrument of urban redevelopment areas is not able to initiate a
development process nor is it possible to effectively regulate a process of gentrification in areas with
high external economic pressure. The urban redevelopment measures provide special regulation which
allow to slow down the displacement of inhabitants of urban redevelopment areas in the process of
gentrification. They do not include possibilities to stop this process.
47
Here it seems noteworthy, that the German term for « environmental impact analysis » actually should be
better translated by « environmental compatibility assessment » which might critically be read as a general
understanding, that any measure is compatible with the environment while just the extend of compatibility
differs.
38
2.6 - Participation
The participation of the public and thus the socio-cultural column of sustainable development is an
inherent part of the planning process. The public has to be informed of the intention and content of the
planning. Everybody is allowed to express his critics and suggestions. These comments have to be
considered in the formal weighting process. Nevertheless the public participation as demanded by the
Building Code might be criticised as being only a formal participation. The public usually is informed
at a stage of the planning process where the major decisions have already been made.. Critics can only
be successful with their ideas when they manage to articulate their suggestion very early in the
planning process. (further details concerning participation see del 14)
2.7 - Building Regulations

The building regulations are set up on the level of federal states. They all derive from a not binding
common pattern of building regulations on which all federal states agree upon. The building
regulations which are in force are slightly different in each state. They all historically arose from the
purpose to implement security aspects in the construction of buildings especially the protection against
fire. These aspects were in the modern age amended among other topics, e.g. by regulations ensuring
open space between the buildings in order to let enough sunlight reach the buildings. Today the
general thematic framework is given by the European “Construction Products Directive”. Originally
more specific issues like social aspects, i.e. for example to provide common rooms / space for the
users are not part of the building regulations. Nor are specific environmental issues integrated in the
building regulation. Some federal states, for example Berlin or Schleswig-Holstein, allow the
possibility to experiment with some environmental aspects. But this is restricted to voluntary better
practice and usually implemented by setting up requirements that have to be fulfilled when asking for
public building-subsidies.
2.8 - Energy Saving Decree

A very recent example which shows the integration of aspects of environmental sustainability in legal
instruments is the energy saving decree which defines high quality efficiency standards for heating
systems and energetically relevant construction elements as well for new building as for the existing
building stock. Unfortunately the execution of the decree is not ensured. The building inspectorates do
not have the capacities (staff and money) to really ensure the enforcement. It is estimated that –
especially in times of legal deregulation – in the majority of construction works the legal standards are
not fulfilled since the completed buildings in practice often do not fully comply with the approved
planning documents.
2.9 - Act on the Protection of Monuments

In each federal state exists an act on the protection of monuments. In order to preserve the cultural
heritage they impose some restriction to the owners of the architectural monuments. Special expenses
which are due to the character as a monument are tax deductible. Furthermore there exist support
programmes which provide subsidies for the restoration of architectural monuments. This system of
restrictions and financial incentives fails in shrinking regions where it is not possible to find a suitable
use for these buildings. In economically declining regions, especially in east Germany, many
monuments have been abandoned years ago and are now decaying. These regions own a large treasure
of architectural monuments which disappears step by step. On one hand the owners of monuments are
not allowed to change the character of the building nor to demolish it. On the other hand the
municipality has no effective possibility to force the owner to restore the building. If the municipality
uses a refurbishment order in order to force the owner to restore his monument the municipality has to
reimburse to him the expenses which are not justified economically. As no municipality can afford this
the unused buildings decay. This shows again the orientation of the German planning system towards
economic growth. The idea of shrinking cities and regions – downsizing processes – is not (yet)
reflected by the existing planning system.
39
2.10 - Adverse Basic Conditions

Beside the deficiencies in legal instruments for spatial planning there exist a wide range of general
conditions being opposed to the consideration of aspects of sustainability in planning practice.
2.10.1 - Weak Regional Planning
One main insufficiency of the German spatial planning system which hinders sustainable urban
development, is the competition between the communities concerning the establishment of new
companies and inhabitants. In order to attract new companies and inhabitants the municipalities are
tempted to designate new built use zones which offer cheap building land mainly on former
agricultural land. This cheap building land is hoped to increase demand. As most municipalities act
this way and inter-communal co-operation rather is the exception the new building land designated in
fact exceeds the actual demand which guarantees cheap land prices at the edge of the cities. This
expansion of the settlement area with all the negative effects of urban sprawl results from a strong
local planning autonomy combined with weak regional planning instruments.
An effective communal self-government which permits that local affairs are decided on a local level is
one of the advantages of the German administrative system. But the times are far gone when the
designation of new built use areas could be regarded as a typical local affair. The effects of the
expansion of the settlement area have to be seen on a regional level at least. A regional planning which
regulates effectively the development of the settlement area does not exist. The content of regional
plans are not strictly binding only offer a framework and orientation for the urban land use planning.
There is no effective instrument to restrict or balance the competition between the communities on the
designation of new building land.
2.10.2 - Financial Incentives in Contradiction to Sustainable Urban Development
It can be observed, that direct or indirect financial incentives for the development of the built
environment stand in contradiction to the guiding principle of sustainable development. Such side
effects in contradiction to sustainable urban development are arise from many sources - from the fiscal
system, from direct public subsidies or from the provision of public infrastructure facilitating non-
sustainable life patterns. For example the existing system of public subsidies prefers the construction
of new buildings to the rehabilitation of the existing building stock. Especially the construction of new
single-family homes is supported by considerable amounts of public money – direct subsidies and tax
incentives. The users of new settlement areas at the edge of the cities are also indirectly supported by
the fact that the municipalities has to provide a new public infrastructure (road, schools etc.) in these
areas
Another economic side effect in contradiction to sustainable development of the built environment
might be seen in the fact, that - as elsewhere - also in the building industry external cost of the
exploitation of natural resources for the construction of buildings are not paid by the consumers and
that waste management regulations to avoid waste and increase the reuse of construction materials
(e.g. via appropriate waste fees) do not yet take effect as intended.
3 – Synthesis
For the German spatial planning and building regulation system in general it can be stated, that there is
a tendency towards the reflection of sustainable development needs. Where the target of urban
(development) planning was to achieve a “well regulated urban development” the guiding principle
today is sustainable development “which will bring the social and economic demands made on an
area into line with its ecological functions” (German Federal Regional Planning Act; see 1.1).
Mandatory weighing procedures are ought to ensure a balanced consideration of all three columns of
40
The German system of spatial planning with its different legal instruments offers the possibility to the
decision makers to bring forward the process of neighbourhood development in the direction of the
most targets of the HQE2R project. The legal system provides mainly a framework and does not
explicitly demand for changes in this direction.
It enables measures toward the improvement of all HQE2R targets. Within the legal system of urban
planning some targets enjoy an accentuated position. Especially the targets belonging to the general
objective to preserve and enhance heritage and conserve resources are supported by special legal
instruments which have strong effects on urban development. The reduction of energy consumption
and the improvement of an energy management is the aim of the energy saving decree. The nature
conservation code and the act on the protection of monuments serve to improve the preservation and
enhancement of the built and natural heritage. According to the building code the avoidance of land
consumption is a target of special significance. The target to improve housing quality which belongs to
the general objective concerning the improvement of the quality of the local environment is supported
by detailed regulations of the building regulations in the different federal states.
Whereas the targets which belong to the objectives “to ensure diversity”, “to improve integration”, “to
reinforce social life“ are difficult to support by the means offered by the system of the German spatial
planning.
Despite the existence of the possibilities offered by the legal system of spatial planning to bring
forward the process of sustainable neighbourhood development and the achievement of the targets of
the HQE2R project it can be observed that in practice often economic issues outbalance other
considerations – as for example the attraction of enterprises by offering an attractive building plot
even if the site might be questioned from an ecological point of view.
Presuming that this is not just an effect of carelessness, instruments should help to support an
integrated analysis and decision-making. While the success of today’s economic development is – or
at least seems to be – comparably easy to estimate, especially practitioners within public planning
administration utter a lack of instruments for the integrated discussion and evaluation of a
development or development alternatives towards sustainability. This is where a tool like HQE²R is
welcomed and expected to enforce the effectiveness of existing regulations and programmes.
4 - Recommendations
The planning system in Germany allows the consideration of aspects of sustainable development to a
much larger extend than the practice in urban planning is taking into account these aspects. But the
planning system does not really force the communities and the other actors in urban planning to use
these possibilities. The following recommendations will concentrate on the improvement of the use of
the possibilities the existing planning system permits to the states, the communities and the private
investors - especially the improvement of the use of the possibilities the regulations at federal and state
level offer to the communities as the public body which is responsible for the practice in urban land
use planning.
The federal system in Germany offers a framework for the communities to decide on their own about
their local affairs such as urban planning. Furthermore the planning system shows a large variety of
different legal rules in the different states. For example there exist informal Model Building
Regulations and each country uses its right to modify these Model Building Regulations according to
their own ideas. Therefore the Building Regulations vary from each state to the other. The different
states and partly as well the communities have also the right to implement their own programmes in
order to subsidy certain investments or a certain behaviour (e.g. the use of renewable energy, the
refurbishment of architectural monuments, an ecologically oriented construction of building or the
refurbishment of buildings by their users themselves in self-help).
41
This differentiated system allows learning from the best examples which exist in the different states,
regions, communities or district of a city in order to get closer to a sustainable development. It exists a
large number of good examples on the level of construction or refurbishment projects, for examples
presenting an ecologically sensitive construction of refurbishment of buildings.48 Apart from learning
from single construction projects which already have been realised private and municipal owners can
use the experience of a systematic approach towards sustainable construction which has been
elaborated by owners of a large building stock.49
But also on the neighbourhood level exist many good examples and innovative projects in urban
planning.50 Also research programmes which examine certain aspects of a sustainable development are
often combined with model projects.51 In different states exist numerous initiatives and support
programs which are concerned within ecologically-oriented construction.52
A good example how this learning process from best practice should work is the implementation of
construction regulations in Germany which provide for a more efficient use of energy. A committed
“Low Energy Standard for Buildings” 53 had been included in the public guidelines for subsidised
housing development in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein some years ago. Now this standard is
mandatory for all new construction projects in Germany.
48
one publication which presents and describes some of these examples on building level is for example:
Sächsisches Staatsministerium des Innern (ed.): Umweltbewusstes Bauen; Dresden 1997
49
for example the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Housing has worked out a guideline for all
construction works on properties owned by the Federal State: Guideline for Sustainable Building (Leitfaden
Nachhaltiges Bauen), Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Bau- und Wohnungswesen (BMVBW), Berlin 2001 in:
http://www.bbr.bund.de/bauwesen/download/leitfaden_engl.pdf
50
- one publication which presents some of theses examples according to the slogan “learning from experience”
is the website: http://www.werkstatt-stadt.de/ The examples concern the topics: sparing use of ground,
preventive environmental protection, regularisation of the mobility compatible to the city, housing supply with
social responsibility, business development safeguarding the location, integrated urban development;
- further publications are e.g. Ministerium für Umwelt, Raumordnung und Landwirtschaft des Landes
Nordrhein-Westfalen (publisher): Ökologische Stadt der Zukunft; Düsseldorf 1993 and
- the documentation of an annual competition for projects of sustainable urban development: Ministerium für
Städtebau und Wohnen, Kultur und Sport des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (publisher): Nachhaltige
Stadtentwicklungsprojekte umsetzen; Düsseldorf 2002
51
e.g. within a research programme called »experimental housing construction and town planning» about the
diminution of pollutants in town planning www.bbr.bund.de/staedtebau/exwost/schadstoffminderung.htm
52
- In Berlin e.g. investors seeking to obtain public subsidies for their construction projects have to fulfil
ecologically higher standards than the legal requirements.
- In Schleswig-Holstein measures in the “Initiative Program for Thermal Refurbishment” (“Impulsprogramm
waermetechnische Sanierung“) attempt at supplying information as a basis for environmentally responsible
action.
53
“Niedrigenergie-Haus-Standard” (NEH-Standard)
42
References
Baugesetzbuch, Textausgabe mit Einführung, 7. Aufl., München, Berlin 1998
Federal Regional Planning Act; 1997 in: www.bmvbw.de
Federal Building Code; 1997 in: www.bmwbw.de
Gesetz zur Reform des Wohnungsbaurechts vom 13. September 2001; Bundesgesetzblatt
Jahrgang 2001 Teil I Nr. 48, Bonn 2001
Guideline for Sustainable Building (Leitfaden Nachhaltiges Bauen), Bundesministerium für
Verkehr, Bau- und Wohnungswesen (BMVBW), Berlin 2001 in:
http://www.bbr.bund.de/bauwesen/download/leitfaden_engl.pdf
”Konzept Nachhaltigkeit - vom Leitbild zur Umsetzung. Abschlußbericht der Enquete-
Kommission "Schutz des Menschen und der Umwelt - Ziele und Rahmenbedingungen einer
nachhaltig zukunftsverträglichen Entwicklung" des 13. Deutschen Bundestages; Zur Sache 4/98;
Bonn: Dt. Bundestag, 1998, 467 S.
(Final report of the German enquete-commission on “Protection of man and the environment –
targets and framing conditions of a sustainable development)
Support-programme „Resource-saving Building and Housing in Schleswig-Holstein“ within the
programme for subsidised social housing construction, (Förderung des sozialen Wohnungsbaues
in Schleswig-Holstein; Finanzierungsrichtlinien 2000; Erlass des Ministeriums für Frauen,
Jugend, Wohnungs- und Städtebau, Kiel 1999
Urban Development and Urban Policy in Germany – An Overview; BBR; Berichte Band 6; Bonn
2000
Verordnung über energiesparenden Wärmeschutz und energiesparende Anlagentechnik bei
Gebäuden, BGBl I 2001, 3085 (“Energy Saving Decree”;
http://jurcom5.juris.de/bundesrecht/enev/index.html)
Internet sources
“Cities of the Future – Strategies and Measures for a Sustainable Development”:
www.bbr.bund.de
“Initiative Program for Thermal Refurbishment”: www.impulsprogramm.de (federal state of
Hesse); www.impulsprogramm-sh.de (federal state of Schleswig-Holstein)
“The socially integrative city”:
www.sozialestadt.de/programm/grundlagen/polarisierung_engl.shtml
“Urban reconstruction East”: http://www.stadtumbau-ost.de/ueberblick.htm
43
IV - ITALY
The chapter does not have the presumption to present the configuration of the Italian urban planning
system also because after the 1990 reform of local authorities the system is still changing.
Infact in Italy in the ‘nineties’, institutional modifications and operating experience modified or are
now modifying the rules, concepts and practices of town and country planning.. There follows a brief
summary of the essential elements which characterised and still today characterise town and country
planning and building regulation in Italy and its relationship with the Sustainable development criteria.
In order to better understand the meaning and the relationship between the different Italian regulations
and programmes mentioned below we have prepare an ‘overview scheme’ that graphically gives a
synthetic imagine of the situation.
Description of the process of urban planning in Italy

General Plans Sector Plans
Territorial Scale
P.T.R. (Region) 1 Regional sector Plans
P.T.C.P. (Province) 1 Provincial sector Plans
P.R.G. (Municipal Administration) 1,3,4 Town sector Plans
Executive Urban Plans Executive sector Plans

Planning Instruments
Urban Scale
P.U.T. 5
P.R.A. 6
P.E.C. 7
P.U.G.S.S. 8
...
Complex Programmes P.I. 9
V.I.A. 2 P.I.I. 10
Analysis and Programming
P.R.U. 11
Territorial and urban Scale
...
P.RI.U. 12
Neighbourhood Contracts 13
Instruments
P.R.U.S.S.T 14
Area Contracts and Territorial Pacts 15
S.T.U. 16
NOTE:
1 Law 1150/42 - “Town Planning Law”
2 Presidential Decree (D.P.R.) of 12 April 1996, Act of guidance and co-ordination for implementation of art. 40, par. 1, of Law N° 146 (2) of 22
February 1994, concerning measures regarding impact assessment
Prime Ministerial Decree of 27 December 1988, Technical standards for preparation of studies of environmental impact and formulation of
judgements on compatibility (updated and supplemented by D.P.R. N° 348 of 2/ 9/1999)
3 Ministry Decree D.M. 1444/68 - Town Planning Standards
4 Decree Law 490/99 - Unified Text on Cultural and Environmental Assets
5 New Highway Code (art. 36, Dl. 30/04/1992 n° 285) ; Guidelines for preparation of Urban Traffic Plans (Official Gazette N° 146 of 24.6.95)
6 Art. 7 of the framework law on acoustic rehabilitation, Law 447 of 26 October 1995 and D.P.C.M. of 14 November 1997
7 Drafting of a Municipal Energy Plan is envisaged in art. 5 par. 5 of Law N° 10 of 9 January 1991
8 Directive of 3 March 1999 from the Department of Urban Areas (Ministry of Public Works)
9 Art. 18 of Law 203/91
10 Art. 16 of Law 179/92, CIPE resolution of 16 March 1994
11 D.L. N° 398 of 5 October 1993, converted into Law N° 493 of December 1993, n.493, art. 11
12 Art. 3 Law 179/92, Ministry of Public Works Decree of 21 December 1994
13 Ministry of Public Works Decree of 22 October 1997 and Law 499/97
14 Ministry of Public Works Decree of 8 October 1998
15 Law 662/96 and CIPE Resolution of 21 March 1997 and subsequent modifications and additions (CIPE Resolutions of 9 July 1998 and 11 November 1998)
16 Art. 120 D.L. N° 267 of 18 August 2000 (reproduces art. 17, par. 59, of Law 127/97
44
1 - Description of the main laws or of the legal

situation in Italy
1.1 - Law 1150/42 (Town Planning Law)
Field of application: Municipal territory
Objective: To regulate the layout and additional building in built-up areas and urban development in
general in the territory of the state.
The Ministry of Public Works oversees town planning activity in order to ensure respect for traditional
characteristics, promote de-urbanisation and brake the tendency to urbanisation in renewal and
expansion of the city.
General description
Law 1150/42, also known as the “Town Planning Law” is the framework law for planning of the entire
territory of individual municipal administrations (P.R.G. = General Zoning Plan). The planning must
comply with the directives of the Territorial Co-ordination Plans (PTC - plans for which the Ministry
of Public Works is competent) in the event that the municipality is within the field of these PTC (a
supra-municipal area).
The PRG must specify principally:
1) The network of main roads, railways and navigable waterways and the corresponding plant;
2) Division into zones of the municipal territory, specifying the zones allocated to expansion of the
built-up area and the constraints and characteristics to be complied with in each zone;
3) The areas assigned to form spaces for public use or subject to special servitudes;
4) The areas to be reserved for public buildings and for public use, as well as plant and works of
collective or social interest;
5) The constraints to be complied with in zones of a historical, environmental or landscape character;
6) The regulations for actuation of the Plan.
Target SD concerned
To improve the diversity: To maintain or reinforce the diversity of the functions
To preserve and valorise heritage and resources: To preserve and valorise Patrimony (heritage)
1.2 - Ministry Decree D.M. 1444/1968 (Town Planning Standards)

Field of application
The provisions of the Decree apply to new PRG zoning plans and to detailed plans or subdivisions, to
new building regulations with an annexed construction programme and subdivisions, and to revision
of existing town planning instruments.
Field: territory of the municipality
Objectives
To set firm limits to building density, height, distance between buildings and maximum ratio between
space assigned to housing and production and space for public use or reserved to collective activities,
to public greenery or parking; these to be complied with in new town planning instruments or in
revision of existing ones.
General description
The Decree specifies:
- Maximum ratios between space allotted to housing and public spaces or those reserved to
collective activities, to public greenery or parking;
- Minimum quantity of public spaces or spaces reserved to collective activities, to public
greenery or parking that must be provided in relation to housing in single homogeneous areas;
45
- Maximum ratios between space allocated to productive activities and public space allocated to
collective activities, public greenery or car parking;
- Maximum limits for building density for the various homogeneous zones
- Maximum heights of buildings for the various homogeneous zones
- Minimum distances between buildings for the various homogeneous zones
SD Target concerned
To improve the integration: To favour the accessibility of the population to all services and facilities
of the city; To improve the integration of the neighbourhood in the city by creating life and meeting
places for all the inhabitants of the city
1.3 - Decree Law 490/99 (Unified Text on Cultural and Environmental

Assets)
The heritage: historical, artistic, ‘demo-ethno-anthropological’, archaeological, archives and books
Objectives
- To protect the cultural assets that comprise the national historical and artistic heritage;
- To update and modernise the legislation on cultural and environmental assets, unifying and co-
ordinating the regulations of the last 60 years;
- To reformulate the definition of what is protected as cultural, landscape and environmental
assets, and widen it;
- To simply the relationship between members of the public and the public administration.
General Description
The new unified text co-ordinates the previous legislation, in particular the two basic laws on
protection, which date from 1939
The Unified Text comprises 166 articles subdivided into two Titles.
- Title I concerns cultural assets and is divided into heads and sections that largely correspond to
the layout of Law 1089/39 supplemented with the additions made by subsequent legislation.
- Title II is devoted to landscape and environmental assets. It too is divided into heads and
sections and contains regulations resulting from co-ordination of Laws 1497/39 and 431/85
which together constituted the previously current system of regulation for the protection of
environmental assets.
The following elements constitute the framework:
• Certain timing and transparent procedures for constraints, pre-emption and authorisation;
• Simplification of legislative procedures to make life easier for members of the public (the owners
of property of historic or artistic interest that want to undertake restoration work, for example,
need request only a single authorisation from the Superintendency, as opposed to waiting for the
complex examination by the central departments of the Ministry. This authorisation will then be
valid for access to all the simplified procedures envisaged by town planning legislation and will
become a title to the grants and tax concessions provided for by the law, no further applications
being required;
• The introduction, for environmental assets, of measures for linkage with topics outside the field of
the Unified Text (such as evaluation of environmental impact and Conferences of services);
• Valorisation and promotion, fields in which the Regions and local authorities increase their
autonomy, supporting the classical concepts of protection and conservation;
• Expansion of the concept of cultural asset to negatives, photos, audiovisuals, musical scores and
scientific and technical instruments
• The traditional concepts of protection and conservation are joined organically by valorisation and
promotion of the cultural heritage, a field in which the Regions and local authorities are assigned
an important role, adopting the principles of loyal collaboration between government institutions.
46
SD target concerned
To preserve and valorise heritage and resources: To preserve and valorise Patrimony (heritage); To
preserve and valorise or value Landscape and visual comfort.
1.4 – Environmental Impact Assessment (E.I.A.)

Regulations concerned
• Presidential Decree (D.P.R.) of 12 April 1996, Act of guidance and co-ordination for
implementation of art. 40, par. 1, of Law N° 146 (2) of 22 February 1994, concerning measures
regarding impact assessment
• Prime Ministerial Decree of 27 December 1988, Technical standards for preparation of studies of
environmental impact and formulation of judgements on compatibility (updated and supplemented
by D.P.R. N° 348 of 2 September 1999)
The Italian national E.I.A. procedure has so far chiefly concerned works such as roads, railways,
power lines, ports, airports and dams that have a particularly marked impact on the environment
Objectives
To subject projects that have an important effect on the environment, understood as the natural
environment and the anthropised environment, to assessment of their environmental impact.
General description
For ten years, the E.I.A. procedure in Italy has been applied on the basis of transitional regulations that
originated from the provisions of art. 6 of Law N° 349 of 8 July 1986 setting up the Ministry of the
Environment.
The Act of guidance and co-ordination of April 1996 completed adoption of Directive EEC/85/337
and started the application of E.I.A. to projects of national importance.
Almost all the Regions have adopted the Act of guidance and co-ordination into their own laws,
though with different formulas. They are now able to perform the E.I.A. procedures within their
competence, thus implementing the European regulations hitherto systematically evaded.
The national E.I.A. (Environmental Impact Assessment) procedure is applied in Italy on the basis of
transitional regulations that have their origin in the content of art. 6 of Law 394/86 setting up the
Ministry of the Environment and in conformity with European Council Directive 85/337 of 1985.
Parliament is currently examining a new framework law on E.I.A. which will, among other things,
specify modifications and innovations to solve the problems brought to light in over ten years of
application of the procedure.
According to the Directive, projects that can have a significant effect on the environment, understood
as the natural environment or anthropised environment, must be subjected to an assessment of their
environmental impact. This may be national or regional, according to the category in which the project
is included.
The content and procedure for E.I.A. for which the Regions are competence are regulated by the
Presidential Decree of 12.04.96 “Act of guidance and co-ordination”, which substantially adopts
Directive EC/ 85/337.
The Italian national E.I.A procedure has so far chiefly concerned works such as roads, railways, power
lines, ports, airports and dams that have a particularly marked impact on the environment and for this
reason require examination of all the various stages of implementation, from design to construction to
operation and decommissioning.
The task of the E.I.A. Commission is to obtain opinions on the studies presented and also to conduct
checks and assessments on specific request of the Ministry of the Environment. The Commission,
established by Law 67/88, is chaired by the Director of the E.I.A. Service of the Ministry of the
Environment and has twenty members appointed every four years by prime ministerial decree. The
organisation and functioning of the Commission are governed by the provisions of a specific
ministerial decree.
47
The Investigation performed by the Commission ends with an opinion with reasons to be presented to
the Minister for the Environment. This last, having obtained the views of the Region concerned, in
concert with the Minister for Cultural Assets and Activities, issues a decree that pronounces on
environmental compatibility with a compulsory and binding “judgement”. This may be positive, in
which case it generally accompanied by technical prescriptions, negative interlocutory in view of
deficiencies in the documentation presented, or negative.
SD Targets of reference
To preserve and valorise heritage and resources : To reduce Energy consumption and improve energy
management ; To improve Water resource management and quality ; To avoid Land consumption and
improve land management ; To improve the consumption of Materials and their management ; To
preserve and valorise or value Landscape and visual comfort
To improve quality of environment: To improve safety and risk management; To improve air quality;
To reduce noise pollution; To minimise waste
Limits
Italy arrived very late at full implementation of the E.I.A.
E.I.A. has been a great step forward, which has led to a renewal, even a cultural renewal, in ways of
planning and of taking account of both individual impacts and of their cumulative effects, together
with respect for the sensitivities of the huma population affected.
It is true that E.I.A. for individual works is by no means an instrument sufficient to ensure the
sustainability of development. Rather, it has more sense the more it can be incorporated in a planning
and decision-making context in which sustainability is explicitly assumed as one of the objectives of
the action.
It would be possible in that way to overcome the current limits, in which E.I.A. is applied to works
that are only very rarely designed following criteria for environmental protection and optimum use of
environmental resources. These are limits that often lead to conflicts that are resolved internally within
the procedure, with processes that are often lengthy and tiresome. They achieve evident improvements
in the environmental impact of projects, but the process produces evident diseconomies that could be
avoided by a planning and design process that truly ‘internalised’ environmental sustainability criteria.
As things stand at present, however, each work is considered separately, from the environmental point
of view, in a planning context in which even the most traditional socio-economic assessment is often
lacking.
Adoption of the 1985 Directive in Italy has been slow and fragmentary. Still today, notwithstanding
regulatory stratification, a framework law is required to co-ordinate and complete the rules of the
game.
In the meantime, new Community rules have arrived, such as Directive EEC/97/11, which extends the
field of application of E.I.A, and the proposed Directive that introduces Strategic Environmental
Assessment of plans and programmes and which the German Presidency has put on the Agenda.
Only if these Directives are adopted in a coherent regulatory framework will Italy be able to overcome
the delay separating it from the rest of Europe.
While a new law to finally transform the E.I.A. into an efficient modern instrument is still awaited, the
procedure has been applied in recent years with both positive and negative aspects.
Among the unsolved problems, the shadow areas, the greatest is undoubtedly the placing of the
procedure too late in time, at a point where the project is too far advanced to be modified without very
substantial economic or social cost.
Among the problems on the way to a solution but not yet solved mention must certainly be made of
the lack of guidelines for preparation of impact studies specifically designed for specific categories of
works. Such guidelines, in course of preparation in collaboration with ANPA, will be a valuable
instrument for simplification and standardisation of procedures. It will be possible to supplement them
with data bases and certified simulation models to increase the completeness and reliability of
forecasts of impact.
48
Finally, there is still a need to co-ordinate Environmental Impact Assessment with the other
instruments for impact assessment introduced by the regulations, such as the risk analysis introduced
by the Seveso law.
2 – Sector Plan
Sector plans are planning instruments with aims limited to their own specific sector (mobility, green
areas, urban furnishing, noise pollution, architectural barriers, ground use, energy, refuse etc.). One of
the more complex problems in land management is undoubtedly the relationship between sector plans
and ‘institutional urban planning’.
Sector plans, in fact, often take no account of the guidelines and directives contained in town planning
instruments and the two types of plan rarely operate in synergy.
2.1 - Urban Traffic Plan (P.U.T.)
New Highway Code (art. 36, Dl. 30/04/1992 n° 285); Guidelines for preparation of Urban Traffic
Plans (Official Gazette N° 146 of 24.6.95)
Built-up area
Municipalities that meet the following requirements
1. Over 30,000 inhabitants;
2. Seasonal presence of over 10,000 individuals;
3. Municipalities with a high need for environmental protection.
Objectives
The PUT is aimed at achieving
1. Better circulation of traffic;
2. Improved road safety
3. Reduction of air and noise pollution
4. Limitation of energy consumption;
5. Respect for environmental values
General description
The PUT should be understood as a combination Plan and Programme of possible actions that can be
implemented immediately and in the short term, making the best use of existing technical and
structural resources, investing limited financial resources. It must be drawn up in accordance with the
existing town planning instruments or those adopted, as well as with plans and programmes for
improvement of public transport.
The P.U.T. is prepared in three stages or levels of refinement:
1° level: General Urban Traffic Plan (PGUT) to be adopted by the municipal council.
2° level: Detailed Traffic Plans (PPT) understood as instruments for implementation of the General
Urban Traffic Plan, in smaller areas.
3° level: Executive Traffic Plans (PET), to be understood as executive projects of the PPT and its
implementation.
The second and third levels may be prepared, approved and implemented by the municipal junta.
The general criteria for planning and creation of the P.U.T. must:
• Satisfy the demand for mobility from the population at the best possible level;
• Select and assign specific reserved and/or preferential routes, lanes etc to each component of the
traffic;
• Classify the road network by function;
49
• Regulate the geometrical, traffic and functional characteristics of the types of road first classified;
• Assign priority to public transport vehicles and the public transport network;
• Prepare plans to reduce congestion at critical traffic nodes;
• Progressively satisfy needs for car parking and regulate temporary parking by charging and other
means;
• Develop the network of pedestrian routes and areas and the cycle track network;
SD Target concerned
To improve the integration : To favour the accessibility of the population to all services and facilities
of the city ; To improve the integration of the neighbourhood in the city by creating life and meeting
places for all the inhabitants of the city ; To avoid unwanted mobility and to improve the
environmentally sound mobility infrastructure
To improve quality of environment: To improve air quality; To reduce noise pollution
Limits
In construction of the layout of the territory, there is often a neglect of the effects on road traffic of
new housing authorised on the basis of the programmes approved under the PRG zoning plan.
In the light of the different characteristics of the P.U.T. and P.U.M., it is advisable for the stages of
checking the part objectives of the P.U.M. to coincide with the biennial revision of the P.U.T.
concerned.
Road safety is a topic that needs to be addressed at the inter-municipal level
Lack of operating indications on the types of surveys useful for monitoring of traffic and of
environmental pollution.
2.2 - Plan for acoustic rehabilitation (P.R.A.)

Art. 7 of the framework law on acoustic rehabilitation, Law 447 of 26 October 1995 and D.P.C.M. of
14 November 1997
Although the plan concerns the entire municipal territory, it can be developed and implemented in
parts referring to portions of the territory or to types of plant for which it is believed that corrective
actions of a priority nature would be useful.
Objectives
The aim of the plan is rehabilitation of the areas in which the regulatory limits for exposure to noise in
the housing environment or in the external environment are exceeded (or risk being exceeded).
General description
A planning instrument that specifies policies and criteria for noise level reduction in areas where it is
critical.
By municipal acoustic rehabilitation plan is meant the instrument for regulation of sound emission,
with, as the primary objective, protection of the quality of the environment with a view to
safeguarding human health.
It should be understood as a sector plan for control and rationalisation of permits to exercise noisy
activities. It relates to the PUT (transport plan) in respect of emission from mobile sources of noise. It
assesses the acoustic impact of new actions, and regulates permits for temporary noisy activities.
Municipalities are required to prepare an acoustic rehabilitation plan in the following circumstances.
- The attention values (specified in D.P.C.M. 14/11/1997) of noise that signal the presence of a
potential risk to human health or the environment are exceeded.
- As a result of pre-existing zoning of the territory, there are areas of contact between zones assigned
to classes whose values differ by more than 5 dB(A).
50
When it is necessary to launch an acoustic rehabilitation plan, the territory is zoned acoustically
though a plan of action to reduce noise pollution in the municipal territory, with particular reference to
the most critical areas.
Preparation of the plan involves:
- Specification of the areas, infrastructures and productive and civil sectors covered by the plan;
- Indication of the rehabilitation actions to be performed in each area;
-The development, completion and verification over time of instruments to monitor implementation of
the plan and the efficacy of the actions proposed.
SD Target concerned
To improve quality of environment: To reduce noise pollution
2.3 - Municipal Energy Plan (P.E.C.)

Regulation concerned
Drafting of a Municipal Energy Plan is envisaged in art. 5 par. 5 of Law N° 10 of 9 January 1991.
“The Zoning Plans of which in Law N° 1150 of 17 August 1942 and subsequent modifications and
additions, of municipalities with over fifty thousand inhabitants must provide for a specific plan at
municipal level for the use of renewable sources of energy”. Law 10/91 is the fundamental law of
reference for the drafting of Energy Plans at the Regional and municipal level, not only because it
establishes the instruments (art. 5) but also because it defines the field and priorities for action.
The principal regulatory references, national and international are listed below:
- Luxembourg Resolution of 29.10.1990;
- European Energy Charter, adopted by representatives of the governments of the states and
representatives of the European Community meeting at The Hague on 16-17.12.1991;
- National Plan for Sustainable Development in implementation of Agenda 21, approved by the
Interministerial Committee for Economic Planning (CIPE) on 28.12.1993;
- National Energy Plan (PEN) approved by the Council of Ministers in August 1988.
Law 10/91 envisages Regional Energy Plans (art. 5, par 1) and plans for the development of renewable
sources for municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants (art. 5, par 5).
Objectives
The main objectives achievable through implementation of Municipal Energy Plans are reduction and
containment of climate-altering emissions (in particular CO2), objectives that, in brief, involve a
reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels through improvements in the efficiency of production,
distribution and consumption of energy, replacement of highly polluting fossil fuels, and substantial
use of renewable sources of energy.
General description
The Municipal Energy Plan must contain the following
- Energy balance sheet that represents the structure of the energy-environment-territory system (by
vectors, sectors, end uses, areas of territory)
- Specific plan relating to use of renewable sources of energy, to be introduced into the PRG Zoning
Plan in the senses of art. 5 par. 5 of Law 10/91
- A forecast (complete with an assessment of technical and economic feasibility – art. 26 par. 7) of
the public buildings or buildings for public use in which it will be possible to have recourse to
renewable sources of energy
- Identification of building rehabilitation projects in which there will be a need to bring them into
line with regulations on the rational use of energy, energy saving and the development of
renewable sources of energy
- Identification of possible actions for rational use of energy, energy saving or recourse to
renewable sources in industry, agriculture, services and transport
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- The forecasting and identification of recourse to Combined Heat and Power plant, in particular for
newly built areas and in relation to the siting of any district heating plant included in the Regional
Plan (art. 5)
- Forecasting and identification of recourse to “micro CHP” for consumers interested in both
production of heat and generation of electricity
- Measures, including organisational measures, to ensure knowledge, promotion and co-ordination
of investments in the energy field
- The measure necessary for accurate and complete information to users and consumers.
In short, a P.E.C. that pursues operational objectives that are truly applicable must:
- Reconstruct the energy-environment-territory system
- Provide an exhaustive picture of the historical evolution of the energy-environment situation and,
if possible, specify possible scenarios for urban development (under the economic, demographic,
territorial etc aspects)
- Identify the potential for intervention (on both demand and supply sides using renewable energy
sources) and instruments that can be activated in the different fields of action
- Draw up a consequent Plan of Action subdivided into three main areas: identification of
reasonably feasible actions; innovation (in management, regulatory and technical) that may be
required to implement them, management of the actions found to be feasible.
- Identify possible obstacles and factors for success for implementation of the plan
There follows an example of a format (taken from the law) for a specific sector of intervention within
an Action Plan.
ACTION PLAN – SAMPLE FORMAT
Code of Action…. Type of Action ….. Priority of Action …. Timing of Action ….

Name of Action ….
Objectives of the action

Actors involved or that could be involved
Steps in the action
Potential for energy saving
Potential for emission reduction
Potential effects on employment
Other benefits
Costs
Obstacles or constraints (regulatory, institutional, territorial)
Market barriers
Acceptability to users and/o operators
Interactions with other Plan actions
Interaction with other plans
Indicators for evaluation of the action
Current experience in other cities
Literature
52
The Action Plan may specify various types of instruments with which to “release” the actions and
ensure that the Energy Plan projects are not eliminated by urban development strategies. The principal
instruments are:
- In town planning regulations Technical Regulations for implementation of the PRG Zoning
Plan for identification of “Urban Energy Basins” (BEU) and the Building Regulations to set
energy saving construction standards;
- In administrative acts, the Specifications of Special Burdens (Capitolati d’Oneri Speciali) for
public sector calls for tender for building restructuring and for heating plant management, and
Service Contracts for basic services such as refuse collection and disposal, water supply,
drainage and water treatment
- In relationships with other sector plans, such as the Refuse Plan, Urban Traffic Plan and Water
Plan.
The law also clearly indicates what is meant by renewable energy source or equivalent and states that
the use of such sources must be considered as in the public interest and of public utility and that the
corresponding works must be treated as equivalent to works declared as urgent and non deferrable for
the purpose of application of the laws on public works.
Municipal Energy Plans of interest in Italy include those of: Rome, Leghorn, Bologna, Padua, Rovigo
and Sesto San Giovanni.
SD Targets concerned
To preserve and valorise heritage and resources: Reduce energy consumption and improve energy
management
Improve quality of environment: Improve air quality.
Limits
Law 10/91 does not specify the contents or headings of the Municipal Plan, though it does so for the
Regional level (art. 5, par. 1,2,3) and there are not even notes or references to explanatory decrees.
The local authority is therefore left with a great deal of discretion in deciding on the actions and
methodologies to adopt. There thus seems to be an explicit link with town and country planning
instruments such as for example Zoning Plans, Technical standards for implementation, health and
hygiene regulations and Urban Traffic Plan.
Another aspect not strictly related to the law concerned but associated with the difficulty of preparing
such plans lies in the fact that efficient technologies are not widespread, as a result of market barriers,
and the difficulty the end user has in giving costs over the entire life cycle priority over initial capital
cost because of limited access not only to credit but also to information.
2.4 - General Urban Plan of Underground Services (P.U.G.S.S.)

Regulation concerned
Directive of 3 March 1999 from the Department of Urban Areas (Ministry of Public Works):
"Rational placing of technological plant underground."
The provisions of the Directive apply to provision of technological services in newly urbanised areas
and to reconstruction and/or modification of those already existing in parallel with significant
projects for urban renewal.
Objectives
The primary aim of the directive is to rationalise use of the subsoil so as to promote co-ordination of
work for the provision of services, facilitating speedy action in order to allow regular traffic flow
and, where possible, avoid inconvenience to the population of the area affected by the works and to
business activities carried out within it.
The related aim is to encourage the choice of actions that do not involve an obstruction of traffic flow
as a result of repeated street works, thus contributing to avoiding the effects of congestion and to
53
limiting energy consumption, reducing pollution and visual impact in order to safeguard the
environment and landscape and achieve economies over the long term.
The measures themselves are likewise aimed at ensuring ease of access to the technological plant and
hence ease of maintenance, and aim to achieve, in so far as possible, monitoring and recording of any
faults through automatic signalling and to avoid or at least reduce to the minimum, the digging up of
streets, excavation work, the disposal of materials in landfill and subsequent road resurfacing
General description
According to the Directive, municipalities that are also provincial capitals, and those with a population
of over 30,000 or with a seasonal influx of tourists are required to prepare an organic plan for
rational utilisation of the subsoil within five years of approval of the Directive and compatibly with the
resources available. The plan must be prepared in agreement with firms and undertakings providing
services and is to be called the Piano urbano generale dei servizi nel sottosuolo (PUGSS – General
urban plan of underground services).
The PUGSS will be part of the PRG Zoning Plan and must in any case be implemented coherently
with urban development instruments.
The Regions may designate densely populated urban areas or areas of particular environmental
sensitivity in which such plans are obligatory.
The Directive provides municipalities, provinces, ANAS and other agencies that own or operate roads
and areas for public use in urban areas with guidelines for the installation of the underground
services of firms and undertakings that provide services.
In particular, the measures concern the installation of service infrastructure under the roadbed, such as
water mains, electrical distribution cables, electrical networks for road services (lighting, traffic lights
etc.) telecommunications networks and cabling for special services, district heating systems, gas
pipelines etc..
For installation of underground services, the directive specifies three standard categories of location:
trenches, special purpose ducts, and multiservice ducts and tunnels.
According to the Directive, the choice between these possibilities for location of the services must be
made in specially called meetings by the municipalities in relation to the areas concerned and to the
dimensions and potentialities of the services and must be agreed with the “firms and undertakings” in
compliance with the provisions of the regulations on architectural barriers in public spaces
(Presidential Decree of 24 July 1996 N° 503: “Regulations regarding the elimination of architectural
barriers in public buildings, spaces and services") and in compliance with the provisions of the
regulations on assessment of environmental impact (Presidential Decree of 12 April 1996, “Act of
guidance and co-ordination of implementation of art. 40, paragraph 1, of Law N° 146 of 22 February
1994, (2), concerning provisions on assessment of environmental impact”) on the hypothesis that
actions on network services coincide with infrastructure projects included in the list of types of project
subject to such assessment (annex B).
The prescriptions envisaged by the Directive may be the subject of specific protocols which must be
adopted by the municipalities in agreement with the firms and undertakings.
The municipalities concerned must perform co-ordination functions for the works for the networks
of services, but excluding connections to consumers.
The obligations of which in the first paragraph apply not only to municipalities but also to other
bodies that own road beds and areas for public use affected by the works of which in this present
Directive.
To this end, the bodies concerned (municipalities, authorities and undertakings) must promote
effective planning, checking the financial cover for the actions envisaged.
Until such time as the PUGSS plan has been adopted, municipalities, in concert with the other
“authorities” must conduct a census, at least every six months, of the actions required for both
ordinary and extraordinary road maintenance, as well as urbanisation works provided for in the PRG
Zoning Plan and its implementation plans, giving timely notice to the firms and undertakings that must
submit the plans for their own activities to the municipalities and/or “authorities”.
54
The municipality, in concert with the other “authorities” concerned, must call a meeting with the firms
and undertakings to plan these actions in the subsequent period and may decide whether it is advisable
to call a special conference of services in the senses of Law 142/1990.
The municipalities must in any case, after hearing the views of the firms and undertakings, adopt
regulations that govern modalities and times for issue of authorisation to open construction sites,
having regard to the provisions of Law 241/1990.
The conference must be convened within the time necessary for each “authority” or firm or
undertaking to update its own plans. In the case of the conference of services:
- The modalities for the actions to be performed must be determined jointly by the municipality,
“authorities”, firms and undertakings;
- The individual actions submitted by the firms or undertakings and their timing must be approved
in accordance with the criteria of which in art. 12;
- The solution adopted for location of the individual services must be chosen from among those
indicated on the basis of technical/economic decision criteria and/or specific town planning
constraints;
- Constraints of an environmental, town planning and archaeological character that must be
complied with in executive design of the works must be indicated.
SD target concerned
To preserve and valorise heritage and resources: To avoid Land consumption and improve land
management; To improve the consumption of Materials and their management
To improve quality of environment: To improve air quality
Limits
The Directive was approved in 1999 and therefore, since the time allowed for the municipalities to
prepare PUGSS has not yet expired, its application cannot yet be assessed.
3 – Complex programmes
Complex programmes are new generation instruments for rehabilitation of the city and the territory
that have been increasingly utilised in the last ten years for integrated action on the territory, with joint
public and private sector funding and simplified planning approval procedures.
Complex programmes presuppose not only a number of public and private sector players as linked
implementers of programme agreements, but also a plurality of planning uses and an aim focussed on
processes of reorganisation of the urban tissue, in its most degraded or compromised parts.
3.1 - Integrated Programmes (P.I.)

Regulations concerned: Art. 18 of Law 203/91
Residential building to provide homes for state employees.
Objectives
A plan for action against organised crime.
General description
Programmes of residential building to provide homes for state employees, envisaged as part of a plan
for action against organised crime. For the first time introduces into a public housebuilding
programme the possibility of proposing uses other than those envisaged by urban planning
instruments, avoiding the ordinary variant procedure and thus altering the balance of decision-making
between Regional and municipal levels of government.
SD Target concerned
To improve quality of environment: To improve safety and risk management
To reinforce social life: To reinforce the social cohesion
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3.2 - Integrated Programmes (P.I.I.)

Art. 16 of Law 179/92, CIPE resolution of 16 March 1994
The programme provides for identification of urban zones characterised by a high level of housing
tension combined with poor housing and social conditions.
Objectives
To pursue urban rehabilitation by means of actions that can influence urban reorganisation of the area
concerned.
General description
Programmes promoted by municipalities to renovate the urban, building and environmental tissue with
actions that can influence urban reorganisation and characterised by articulation and integration of
functions and types of action. Rehabilitation of the urban, environmental and building tissue, therefore
an interest not linked exclusively to the building scale.
The principal characteristics of the programmes are as follows.
Search for integration of the various types of action, with a programme to influence urban
reorganisation, locating the areas involved among those of transformation with a strategic importance
for the whole city (diversification of types of housing, too, with a view to achieving social
integration);
Presence of a plurality of functions that aims to supersede the logic of traditional planning anchored
largely to the single function, progressing to the concept of urban complexity (diversification of
permitted planning uses, integrating residential building with non residential building (commercial,
tertiary sector etc.);
Non-sectoral urban rehabilitation with a plurality of players and both public and private sector
resources
SD Target concerned
To improve the diversity: To maintain or reinforce the diversity of the population; To maintain or
reinforce the diversity of the functions; To maintain or reinforce the diversity of the housing supply
To improve the integration: To increase the levels of education and job qualification; To favour the
accessibility of the population to all services and facilities of the city: To improve the integration of
the neighbourhood in the city by creating life and meeting places for all the inhabitants of the city.
To improve quality of environment: To improve housing supply
3.3 - Urban Rehabilitation Programmes (P.R.U.)

D.L. N° 398 of 5 October 1993, converted into Law N° 493 of December 1993, n.493, art. 11
Urban and neighbourhood dimension. Fields of public residential building, contiguous and
neighbouring areas
Objectives
Renovation and rehabilitation of the stock of public housing ex Law 167/62
General description
Envisages the combination of public and private sector resources to address the traditional problems of
public sector housing on city outskirts through infrastructure provision and more equipment provision,
but also complex processes of morphological and functional renovation.
The Programme envisages rehabilitation of public sector housing to combat decay of the urban
periphery through the following.
56
- Creation, maintenance and modernisation of primary urbanisation, with special attention to

accessibility of plant and network services and also of secondary urbanisation,
- Building to complete and integrate existing urban complexes,
- Attention to urban furniture
- Ordinary and extraordinary maintenance,
- Conservative restoration and renovation
- Restructuring of buildings
The municipality promotes the creation of PRU on the basis of state and Regional guidelines and
procedures. The zones and types of action are brought together into a combined single proposal from
public and private sector actors, which should ensure, in particular, containment of public sector
capital expenditure and the addition of private sector resources. A programme agreement can be
concluded for approval of the PRU as a variant to current planning instruments.
SD target concerned
To improve the diversity: To maintain or reinforce the diversity of the functions; To maintain or
reinforce the diversity of the housing supply
To improve the integration: To favour the accessibility of the population to all services and facilities of
the city; To improve the integration of the neighbourhood in the city by creating life and meeting
places for all the inhabitants of the city; To avoid unwanted mobility and to improve the
3.4 - Urban Rehabilitation Programmes (P.RI.U.)

Art. 3 Law 179/92, Ministry of Public Works Decree of 21 December 1994
Areas in transformation in the major cities and abandoned areas
The territorial field of transformation on the urban scale is characterised by particular conditions of
decay in buildings, urban facilities and environment, both economic and social, as well as its
importance in the urban and metropolitan context
Objectives
To pursue building and functional rehabilitation of specifically identified urban areas, triggering the
process of rehabilitation
General description
An instrument similar to the Urban Rehabilitation Programmes in both content and objectives. The
programmes are extended to all areas of transformation of the city, with particular reference to areas
that have been abandoned. The objectives are similar to those of the Integrated Programmes of Law
179/92.
The programmes envisage a systematic, co-ordinated set of actions with public and private finance
combined under a convention regime (the combination of public and private resources is stated as
compulsory. The necessity for “shared methods” in the concertation dialogue is introduced.)
The types of action envisaged are as follows.
- Purchase of property to be used for primary or secondary urbanisation or public sector housing
- Creation, completion or improvement of primary and secondary urbanisation works
- Works for environmental improvement and urban furniture
- Restoration of the common parts of residential buildings
- Ordinary and extraordinary maintenance, conservative restoration and rehabilitation and
restructuring or extension of residential and non-residential buildings
- Construction or enlargement of residential and non-residential buildings,
- Urban restructuring.
57
The municipalities have prepared their Programmes on the basis of a national call for offers for award
of state financing and thereafter have signed programme agreements with the Ministry. In cases where
changes to town planning instruments have been involved, the Regions have also signed the same
agreements.
SD Target concerned
3.5 - Neighbourhood Contracts

Ministry of Public Works Decree of 22 October 1997 and Law 499/97
Urban and neighbourhood level
Neighbourhoods with widespread deterioration of buildings and of the urban environment, with a lack
of services and in a context of weak social cohesion and a markedly poor housing situation
Objectives
Rehabilitation of physically decayed areas characterised by social tension
Higher standards of liveability in residential neighbourhoods
General description
Residential and non-residential actions are envisaged through activation of private resources and the
signing of agreements between public administrations and non-profit associations, voluntary
organisations etc. Art. 2 of the CER Resolution of 5.6.97 provides for the introduction of a procedure
for participation and communication aimed at ensuring wider awareness.
Achievement of higher standards of liveability through a plurality of actions in different sectors, in
addition to that of building.
The Programme provides for a plurality of actions in different sectors, ranging from the social to urban
transformation and construction.
- Subsidised experimental building activities
- Renewal of building character and increased functionality of the urban context, at the same
time ensuing a saving in the use of the natural resources available and containment of energy
use
- More neighbourhood services, public green areas and the necessary infrastructure works
- Improvement in housing and area quality through pursuit of high standards, including
environmental standards
SD Target concerned
reinforce the diversity of the functions; To maintain or reinforce the diversity of the housing supply
To improve the integration: To increase the levels of education and job qualification; To favour the
accessibility of the population to all services and facilities of the city; To improve the integration of
the neighbourhood in the city by creating life and meeting places for all the inhabitants of the city; To
avoid unwanted mobility and to improve the environmentally sound mobility infrastructure
To reinforce Social life: To reinforce the social cohesion
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3.6 - Programmes of Urban Rehabilitation and Sustainable Territorial

Development (P.R.U.S.S.T.)
Ministry of Public Works Decree of 8 October 1998
The programme applies to large areas (subregional, provincial, supra-municipal) chosen on the basis
of homogeneous physical, morphological, cultural and production characteristics
Objectives
Preparation of an organic design for infrastructure on the territorial scale in co-ordination with
development of production in the territory
General description
Actions for the development of industry, crafts and commerce.
On the basis of a national call annexed to the Ministry decree, promotion of the programmes is
entrusted to municipalities or to Regions and provinces in agreement with the municipalities
concerned. The objective was the signing of protocols of understanding followed by framework
programme agreements to regulate implementation of the actions envisaged. The PRUSST are
concentrated on the infrastructure systems of metropolitan areas and on new development areas. They
have focussed on the following.
- Strengthening of both point and line infrastructure (ports, airports, interports, stations etc. on the
one hand, roads, metros, railway lines etc on the other) as opportunities for the creation of
territory scale development strategies
- Provision, improvement and completion of territory and urban scale facilities that can promote
and orient opportunities for development sustainable in its economic, environmental and social
aspects, with reference to the values of environmental protection, valorisation of the historical,
artistic and architectural heritage and ensuring an increase in the well-being of the community
- Creation of an integrated system of activities aimed at extension and creation of industrial,
commercial and craft establishments, at promotion of tourist accommodation and rehabilitation of
decayed areas in city centre and in the outskirts.
Though the PRUSST envisage urban building rehabilitation actions on the model of PRU Urban
Rehabilitation Programmes, there are fundamental differences which lie in their much wider and more
ambitious objectives, which include infrastructure and production development in the territory, the
possibility of expropriating the whole area for implementation of the Programme and much more
specific criteria for selection of projects.
SD Target concerned
To improve the Diversity: To maintain or reinforce the diversity of the functions; To maintain or
To improve the Integration : To favour the accessibility of the population to all services and facilities
of the city ; To improve the integration of the neighbourhood in the city by creating life and meeting
To preserve and valorise heritage and resources: To preserve and valorise Patrimony (heritage)
To reinforce social life: To reinforce the social cohesion; To improve the solidarity networks
Limits
- Stringent constraints imposed by the compulsory participation of the private sector to provide
at least one third of the total financing required for the programme.
- Complexity of the actors.
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- The proposals presented and selected include many in which the dimensions of the programme
and its territorial complexity are such as to raise doubts about the feasibility and the short and
medium term time horizons of this type of programme
3.7 - Area Contracts and Territorial Pacts

Law 662/96 and CIPE Resolution of 21 March 1997 and subsequent modifications and additions
(CIPE Resolutions of 9 July 1998 and 11 November 1998)
The areas covered by the contracts are not defined a priori. Their homogeneity lies in the situation of
crisis and the presence of abandoned areas to rehabilitate. The area and its boundaries are determined
by a specific decree of the Prime Minister
Territorial Pacts cover geographically contiguous areas which share the same problems of economic
development
They may be enlarged to cover areas in crisis
Objectives
To promote local development of areas in crisis, affected by repeated job losses and problems
connected to local economic development
General description
Area Contracts provide for the rehabilitation and/or reclamation of abandoned industrial areas to be
assigned for new industrial activities or for conversion to other uses, which may include tourism and
rehabilitation of decayed urban areas.
Direct commitment of local economic organisations, possibly assisted by national actors, to identify
opportunities for alternative development for the territory; these may also be promoted outside the
contract area.
Simplification and acceleration of the administrative procedures required for reuse or conversion of
the area to other uses.
Agreement between trade unions and businesses to ensure income protection for workers expelled
from the production process, their retraining and re-employment.
Territorial Pacts provide for the following.
- Determination by public sector actors of development strategies
- Creation of an infrastructure system functionally connected to business initiatives and capable
of implementing them
- Activation of different levels of concertation
- Synergies between individual and general aspects
- Co-ordination of the dialogue between public and private sector actors.
SD Target concerned
To improve the diversity: To maintain or reinforce the diversity of the housing supply
To improve the integration: To increase the levels of education and job qualification
Limits
The Area Contract provides for only new business initiatives, not for expansion, restructuring or
conversion.
The ceiling for capital expenditure is unrelated to achievement of the Contract’s employment
objectives.
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3.8 - Urban Transformation Companies (S.T.U.)

Art. 120 D.L. N° 267 of 18 August 2000 (reproduces art. 17, par. 59, of Law 127/97
The areas in which the actions can be performed are areas of urban territory in which there is a marked
crisis of urban conditions, where a radical transformation of the layout and its functional
characteristics is required in addition to transformation of individual buildings.
The urban areas most appropriate for transformation programmes can be classified indicatively as
follows.
• The areas between the old town centre as traditionally understood and the town’s post-war expansion
• Areas of intensive post-war building
• Neighbourhoods of public sector housing
• Areas built up illegally
Recourse to STU is particularly appropriate for transformation of areas with the following
characteristics.
• Areas where the requirement for restructuring of the urban system takes priority over restructuring
and rehabilitation of buildings, while the dimensions and strategic importance remain the same. This is
the case when the plan for the new structure can adopt a configuration quite independent of the
ownership structure;
• Areas where there is a specific discontinuity in quality that cannot be corrected by point actions or
through the total of individual actions.
Objectives
Design, implementation and management of the process of urban transformation and
commercialisation of services.
To manage a process of rehabilitation in which the total result goes beyond any individual building
actions
General description
Urban Transformation Companies (STU) are set up with the aim of providing local authorities (the
promoters) with a flexible instrument for action in established urban areas with the involvement of
private sector resources and professional skills. The company (a public private joint stock venture -
S.p.A.) plans and carries out the actions in implementation of current town planning instruments.
The procedures for establishment of the company provide for choice of an area for action, the object
and scope of the transformation, and the actuation of transparent public procedures for the choice of
the private sector members.
SD Target concerned
To improve the integration To favour the accessibility of the population to all services and facilities
of the city; To improve the integration of the neighbourhood in the city by creating life and meeting
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4 - Best practice and local experience in Italy

4.1 - The Voluntary Requisites of the Standard Building Regulations in
Emilia Romagna Region
Field
The outline of the Standard Building Regulations in Emilia Romagna Region applies to town planning
and constitutes the reference model on which municipal administrations in the Region base their own
building regulations (a regulatory instrument of the PRG Zoning Plan).
Period of implementation
The new voluntary requisites (bioclimatic and eco-sustainable requisites) were approved by the
Emilia Romagna Region in January 2001.
In August 2001 the Emilia Romagna Region allocated funds for experimental residential building,
providing an incentive of up to 10% of the cost of construction if the voluntary requisites of the
Standard Building Regulations were met.
Objectives
The measure approved by the Emilia Romagna Region in 2001 supplements the “Recommended
requisites” of wellbeing and usability of building works (already provided for by the current Regional
Standard Building Regulations) with a further set of requisites designed to respond to “new and
powerful requirements to improve the quality of life and to respect
The reception limits of ecosystems,
The possibility of renewal of natural resources (to the end of their conservation for future
generations,
The balance between natural and anthropic systems (eco-sustainability requisites)”,
Giving particular attention among these requirements to the control of interactions between building
and climatic factors, with the minimum consumption of non-renewable energy (bioclimatic
requirements), also in implementation of the Kyoto Treaty on the reduction of CO2 emissions into the
atmosphere.
The first group of eco-sustainability requirements indicated in the measure is chosen from among
the many eco-sustainability requirement possible because:
- It responds to requirements for the saving of non-renewable resources (sustainability);
- It proposes levels of performance that can certainly be achieved, taking account of the current
state of the art in the scientific field and in the building industry;
- It can be demonstrated objectively in design work and on completion of the works by qualified
professionals, without requiring increased public controls.
• The Regional Standard Building Regulations are provided for in Emilia Romagna Regional Law
33/90
• The Standard Building Regulations were approved by Regional Junta Resolution N° 593 of
28.2.995.
• The voluntary requisites for building works (Modification and addition to the Recommended
Requisites) were approved in Regional Junta Resolution N° 21 of 16.1.2001.
General description
The Standard Building Regulations of Emilia Romagna Region were approved in 1995 with the
intention of facilitating co-ordination of municipal building regulations by:
Formulation of municipal regulations tending towards uniformity and such as to make information
available to users on the quality of building works and facilitate the task of those engaged in the
building process;
The obligation to formulate such municipal regulations through prescriptions for required
performance;
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Giving responsibility to public sector personnel and professionals by specifying the tasks and
contents of controls in the various phases of the building process (planning – construction -
management).
The Standard Building Regulations also provide for the obligation for the inclusion in the municipal
building regulations of a group of cogent requisites (imposed by national or Regional laws and
regulations) and the faculty to insert recommended requisites (which give the building a quality
superior to the essential minimum imposed by the cogent requisites), all provided in the form of
performance requirement prescriptions, corresponding to the contents of Community Directive 89/106
and annexes as an integral part of the Regional Standard Building Regulations.
In 1998 the Region updated the procedural guidelines for application of urbanisation charges,
providing a possibility for a reduction of up to 50% of secondary urbanisation charges “for bioclimatic
or ecological buildings or in any case those constructed with alternative and non polluting
technologies”.
Following this resolution it was necessary to provide the municipalities with criteria to identify
buildings designed with such bioclimatic and ecological characteristics and establish a graduation of
the incentive.
To this end, in 2000 the Region added to the recommended requisites already provided for in the RET
(Regional Building Regulations), specifying new requisites (it was decided to change the wording
from “Recommended requisites” to “Voluntary technical requisites for building works) that could be
adopted as a reference for determining the “quality profile” in public programmes for grants and
building projects aimed at specific groups or at experimental building. To that end, guidance criteria
were provided on the points to be assigned to each requisite, criteria that could be used by the
municipalities in offering reductions on urbanisation charges.
To that end, the municipalities can freely adopt the criteria proposed, or they can evaluate the
indications provided in the check-list (intended to show the way in which the requirements to be
satisfied are affected by specific contexts, environmental, social, economic and town planning) and
choose to adopt (with their own resolution adopting the Regional Council Resolution 849/1998) even
only some of the voluntary requisites proposed by the Region with this present measure, or to assign
the requisites different weights from those indicated in the Regional measure.
Assessment of the impact of the works on the environment - if required by current national and
Regional regulations) - is left to territorial planning instruments and to the general and implementation
town planning instruments prefigured in Regional Law 20/2000.
There are 18 new “Voluntary requisites” to which must be added the pre-requisite of “Analysis of the
site”.
The requisites that satisfy the same needs are grouped into families. The most significant families of
“voluntary requisites” are:
Rational use of climate and energy resources, ...
- Control of the energy intake from summer insulation (complementary to the following)
- Use of the energy intake from winter insulation (complementary to the preceding)
- Energy saving in the winter period
- Protection from winter winds
- Natural ventilation in summer
- Use of thermal inertia for air conditioning in summer
- Use of solar energy for water heating
Rational use of water resources

- Reduced consumption of potable water
- Use, for compatible purposes, of rainwater collected from the roof
- Use, for compatible purposes, of wash water
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Control of the harmful characteristics of construction materials

- Control of harmful emissions from materials in the structure, from plant and from the finish
- Aseptic nature
- Use of recyclable construction materials
The requisites are organised in records to facilitate periodic updates and periodic demonstration by the
designer of the level of performance of the building, first designed and then built, in such a way as not
to make the investigations for the building permit or the certificate of conformity more burdensome.
The records indicate the following for each requirement:
a) Requisites to be satisfied, specification of performance (field of application, elements of the space
system concerned, level of performance for new constructions and for rehabilitation, modalities
for checking of the design and of the completed work)
b) Some notes of value for any future qualification of building processes (technical instruments for
qualification will be the subject of subsequent specific studies) and in particular:
The phases of the building process that make it possible to achieve the require levels of
performance and maintain them over time;
The actors in the building process most involved with the requirement;
Reciprocal interference between voluntary requisites ;
The role of the end user;
The conditioning of “physical agents characteristic of the site”
The influence of any services on effective satisfaction of the requirement and on the
possibility of maintaining it over time
The influence of the local social, economic and urban context.
Target SD concerned
To preserve and valorise heritage and resources: To reduce Energy consumption and improve energy
management; To improve Water resource management and quality; To improve the consumption of
Materials and their management; To preserve and valorise Patrimony (heritage)
To improve quality of environment: To improve housing supply; To improve cleanliness hygiene and
health; To improve air quality; To reduce noise pollution; To minimise waste
4.2 - “Savonarola Quarter” Neighbourhood Contract (Padua)

Field
From the morphological and functional points of view the San Giuseppe area constitutes an
environmental island, with its borders clearly defined by the railway to the west, the city walls to the
east and two main heavily trafficked main roads to the north and south, respectively the state road to
Vicenza and the provincial road for the Colli Euganei.
The neighbourhood is a relatively recent creation. A substantial increase in building activity was first
recorded between the two world wars, with a significant amount of social housing and also private
subdivisions in the part closest to the old city.
Following the Second World War, all the free areas tended to be built up, though without any clear
overall plan, mainly on private sector initiative (small condominiums and individual houses) but also
in part by public sector bodies (Social Housing Institute, Treasury Ministry, ESU – Institute for
University Residential Accommodation, State Railways). In this dense residential development, space
was also found for some small businesses and industrial concerns, many of which have been converted
over the years into warehouses, a large military zone and some private hospitals.
Overall, the Urban Unit is markedly non-homogeneous in structure, with a confused overlapping of
activities and functions that makes social relationships and formation of an urban identity problematic.
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The most critical aspects brought to light by the preliminary investigations are, very briefly, as
follows.
• A high proportion of senior citizens in the population, decidedly higher that the average for the
city, and a correspondingly lower percentage of children;
• About 56 per cent of households comprise one or two individuals against an average for the city of
l 51 per cent;
• A severe shortage of services compared with urban standards (1.5 m² of public greenery per
inhabitant and 0.1 m² of civic services per inhabitant);
• A high proportion of public sector housing: 27.6 per cent of the total, against the city average of
7.5 per cent;
• Widespread deterioration of buildings, affecting especially – but not only – the public sector
housing stock, which tends to isolate some parts of the neighbourhood from the urban context;
• Absence of a hierarchically structured mobility system, with consequent significant problems
of safety, pollution and the liveability of traffic routes and of public spaces in general.
Period of implementation
Planning: 1998-2001
Implementation started in March 2001
Objectives
The principal objectives of the project are:
• Reduction of polluting emissions affecting air, water and soil;
• Reduction of consumption of energy and raw materials;
• Improvement of the water balance (water cycle) of the urban section (including through provision
of criteria and incentives to increase ground permeability in both public and private areas, with
incentives to reduce consumption of potable water);
• Creation of an organic system of greenery, both to increase its ecological function (production of
oxygen, reduction of pollution, soil permeability, evaporation) and as an essential factor for direct
contact with nature and animals by the local inhabitants, especially the children;
• Reduction of sources of noise pollution and use of ‘green barriers’ to reduce noise from the major
traffic arteries bordering the neighbourhood;
• Dissemination of the principles of bioarchitecture, including in the private sector, in building
rehabilitation projects;
• Experimentation with new forms of separate collection of municipal refuse, with a view to both
recycling and reducing consumption;
• Improvement of the urban microclimate, through close co-ordination of the various actions listed
above;
• Information to and participation by the inhabitants, to launch a process that transforms the
behaviour of individuals.
Actors involved
The Partners to the Contract are:
• Padua municipality
• The local Social Housing Agency 'Azienda Territoriale per l'Edilizia Residenziale’ (ATER)
• The Regional Agency for the Right to University Study (ESU)
• The Padua municipal services undertaking.
Laws concerned
Law 493/93 (art. 11): Urban Rehabilitation Programme denominated Contratto di Quartiere
“Neighbourhood Contract”
Call for assignment of the funding allocated to experimental building by the CER (Comitato
Edilizia Residenziale – “Residential Building Committee”) of January 1998.
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General Description
The Savonarola Neighbourhood Contract is one of the Urban Rehabilitation Programmes financed by
the CER - Residential Building Committee /Comitato Edilizia Residenziale, following a call for bids
published by the Ministry of Public Works in January 1998.
The funding provided, amounting to 20 billion lire, will be used for:
• Restructuring some of the housing owned by ATER in the "Caduti della Resistenza" area of
Piazza Toselli
• Rehabilitation of all the open spaces within the residential complex
• Rehabilitation of the student hostel “Casa dello Studente” on via Monte Cengio
• Conversion of Piazza and Via Toselli to a semi-pedestrian zone.
In addition to the CER funding, it is envisaged that a further 25 billion lire will be spent by various
departments of the municipal administration, by ATER and by the Padua Municipal Services
Undertaking to complete rehabilitation of the deteriorated public sector housing and to perform an
integrated series of actions for environmental improvement and urban ecology involving the whole
San Giuseppe Urban Unit, which forms part of the Savonarola Quarter.
Among the most innovative initiatives are those for participative planning of the “system of
greenery” and of the system of mobility (with application to the whole Urban Unit of the principles of
moderation of traffic and construction of a cogeneration (combined heat and power- CHP) power
station and a district heating system extending to the whole neighbourhood.
Specific projects and actions have already been launched to promote participation by the inhabitants in
the process of urban transformation, to implement actions consistent with a more general project for a
“sustainable city of infants” and to create new job opportunities for the young people of the
neighbourhood.
In planning and implementation of the Urban Rehabilitation Programme, the aims and methodologies
of Local Agenda 21 and of the European Cities Charter for Sustainability have been adopted.
The Savonarola Neighbourhood Contract is one of three Italian Projects selected for the year 1998 by
the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) among the best local administration
practices and is therefore included in the UNCHS (Habitat) Best Practices Database (consultable via
Internet at the web site: http://www.bestpractices.org).
Significant aspects relating to sustainable development
The building rehabilitation operations, designed on the principles of Bioarchitecture and in course
of implementation from March 2001, cover a complex of 200 social housing units built in the 1920s
(the "Quartiere Caduti della Resistenza" area) and a Student Hostel accommodating about 350
students.
The most innovative aspects include the creation of a Winter garden or solar greenhouse with a
volume of over 10,000 m³ onto which the balconies and dwellings of one of the courtyards of the
residential complex will face, the systems adopted for the collection and recycling of rainwater and
the plant for phytopurification and recycling of the waste water from the dwellings.
All the restructured dwellings will be served by a cogeneration (CHP) power station and a specific
urban district heating network (the first in the city), which will be progressively extended to allow all
publicly owned buildings to be connected and also – it is calculated – about 50 percent of private
sector consumers.
The Neighbourhood Contract – designed following the methodologies suggested by the ecology of the
landscape – also devotes particular attention to studies and projects for the “green system” of the
whole San Giuseppe – San Girolamo Urban Unit and to actions for moderation of traffic aimed in the
first place at reducing urban pollution and eliminating safety risks, then, more generally at improving
the quality of life and of social relations.
SD Targets concerned
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environmentally sound mobility infrastructure; To increase the levels of education and job
qualification
To preserve and valorise heritage and resources: To reduce Energy consumption and improve energy
management; To improve Water resource management and quality
To improve Quality of life: ; To improve housing supply; To improve air quality; To reduce noise
pollution; To minimise waste
To reinforce Social link, and to reinforce the social cohesion
5 - Barriers and constraints in Italy

Article 31 of Presidential Decree 616 of 24th July 1977 specifies that land-use planning must make
particular reference to the territorial articulation of intervention of State interest and to the
environmental and ecological protection of the territory, as well as protection of land. “the concept of
urbanistica thus defined is wide and comprehensive. However the attribution of competences in
relation to the various aspects of the subjects is still fragmented and its management is in consequence
equally fragmented”54
Since the end of the ‘90s when the Regions are allowed to design their own Urban Planning Law
(Legge Urbanistica Regionale) the hierarchically model – previously referred mainly to the State – is
going to be reproduced at the regional, local and city level: the provincial plan must refer to the
Regional Law and the municipality plan to those of the higher-tier authorities. “However, it must be
pointed out that the theoretical hierarchy does not always correspond to reality, since few regions and
provinces have prepared the plans they are supposed to”55.
At this lack of co-ordination between the different level of urban policy authorities it must be added
the difficulties linked to the introduction of ‘new criteria’ – the SD criteria – inside ‘old instruments’
like PRG where the zoning approach can be interpreted in a rigid way in a ‘two-dimensions’ planning.
The search must be more ‘neighbourhood’ oriented, a more extensive areas of transformation that will
facilitate the individuation of aims, means and subjects of the development- regeneration operations
and in which the Sustainable development criteria can find a real and measurable solution.
In the following pages it is described in detail the constraints at the introducing of SD criteria in the
urban planning in Italy. The analysis was carried out according to the HQE2R 21 targets.
To preserve and enhance heritage and resources

It’s hard to find regulations regarding the saving of natural sources in urban planning laws, except for
the preservation of built patrimony and natural landscape.
1 – To reduce Energy consumption and improve energy management
The reduction of energy consumption is regulated by specific laws addressed to the definition of
buildings insulation qualities – the most complete law on this item is the n.10 of 1991.
2 – To improve Water resource management and quality
Water in Italy seems to be an inexhaustible resource.
Specific laws refer to the preservation of the water quality, but none gives clear regulations to reduce
water consumption.
54
The EU compendium of spatial planning systems and policies, Italy, Regional development studies, European
Communities 2000
55
Ibidem
67
The use of disposals for reducing water consumption was suggested for the interventions favoured by
the “Neighbourhood Contracts” law, but the choice of this environmental aspect was left to the
decision of the single municipality.
3 – To avoid Land consumption and improve land management
The urban planning laws introduce some limits to the expansion of towns through the calculation of
the quantity of new settlements referred to the existing ones, but there are no true restraints to the
reduce the quantity of areas that can be transformed from agricultural to urbanised land.
The only possible way is the promotion of rehabilitation urban plans, but it requires a strong decision
by local administrators and usually, restrictions of the urban sprawling are not so popular, especially
from the land owners point of view.
4 – To improve the consumption of Materials and their management
This target cannot be directly promoted through urban planning laws; it might be included in the local
buildings regulations and some municipalities have acted in this sense, for example Comune di Reggio
Emilia, near Bologna.
5 – To preserve and valorise Patrimony (heritage)
In Italy historical patrimony is spread all over the country and the laws for its preservation are very
strict; especially the application of these rules is sometimes too strict to promote rehabilitation
operations that could valorise and vitalise existing buildings, by the insertion of new functions.
As for the safeguard of natural resources (water, soil, energy and so on), it’s hard to find reference to
this item in urban planning laws, but there are specific laws for many of these questions.
To improve the quality of the local environment

6 – To preserve and valorise or value Landscape and visual comfort
As for historical heritage, landscape is safeguarded through specific laws promulgated at the national
level and applied by the local authorities, at different scales: regions, provinces and municipalities.
As a matter of fact, there are some cases of best practice, with the promotion of natural parks and
protected areas, but also several cases of very bad practice, like unauthorised buildings just in front of
the sea side or in proximity of historical monuments.
7 – To improve housing supply
The first law to promote the building of social housing dates back to 1962 (law n.167); it gave to
municipalities the possibility to acquire land for new houses and services by expropriation and to sell
it, after urbanisation, at compatible costs.
Many residential neighbourhoods have been built in the peripheral areas of the main Italian towns in
force of this law, improving the housing supply with new social houses concentrated in a few areas.
In 1978 another law (n.457) promoted rehabilitation plans for urban decayed areas and that was
another step towards this target; this law also provided funds for the building of new houses or the
rehabilitation of the existing stock; some of the programs promoted in force of this law had to provide
experimental contents, including environmental aspects such as the promotion of better housing
qualities.
8 – To improve cleanliness hygiene and health
For this target it is necessary to refer to specific laws related to hygiene and health; at the urban level
we refer to the local regulations for new and rehabilitated buildings; they generally include specific
articles thought in view of this target.
9 – To improve safety and risk management
The concept of safety can be approached from different points of view: there are quite a few
regulations about the installation and functioning of electrical, heating and water distribution plants
inside and outside the buildings, about the use of built spaces; the highway code provides regulations
and limits for urban traffic; there are specific rules about safety in working places, included the
building sites. Nevertheless the number of accidents is not substantially decreasing.
68
As for risk management there are specific laws individuating the areas subject to different kinds of
risks – from natural calamities to industrial pollution – and providing rules in view of this target; in the
past years some industrial accidents occurred because of lack of attention; from those experience the
general situation is greatly improved.
10 – To improve air quality
Air pollution has become a significant problem; different laws have been promulgated to avoid
pollution from industrial plants, other measures have been taken to reduce traffic in urbanised areas.
A recent agreement between the state and the regions is related to the indoor air quality, but it’s still
hard to find a complete application of existing regulations.
11 – To reduce noise pollution
The plans for acoustic rehabilitation, established by the mentioned law n.477, should contribute to
improve the situation related to this target, but not all the towns have adopted this kind of plan; in
Mantova, for example, where the streets of the historic centre are paved with stones, the noise
produced by cars frequently exceeds the acoustic limits fixed by the law; the municipality is taking
some measures to reduce traffic through this area, with limited traffic zones, but the problem exists.
On the other side, regulations about the acoustic control inside new buildings were not applied in most
of the cases; experimental acoustic impact enquires have been recently requested for new urban plans.
The situation is progressively improving: acoustic insulation tests have been requested for new
buildings before they can host their inhabitants and the demonstration of acoustic control for new
buildings must now be produced at the design level.
12 – To minimise waste
Also for this target there are specific laws and many municipalities are promoting separate collection
for paper, glass and plastic materials; the state is giving funds and special awards to the municipalities
which reach established quantitative targets.
There is still much to do to promote the recycling of materials derived from rehabilitation operations
in existing buildings.
To ensure Diversity
13 – To maintain or reinforce the diversity of the population
It is not easy to pursue this target with urban planning as it is conceived by the laws in force at the
present; social and economical factors are usually considered in the analyses previous to the
elaboration of a new urban plan, but the socio-economic and intergenerational composition of the
population can be modified as an indirect effect of urban renovation.
The complex urban programs, such as the neighbourhood contracts and the integrated programs,
recently promoted should favour a better mix of the socio-economic and intergenerational composition
of the population, but much is left to the willingness of the municipality administrators.
14 – To maintain or reinforce the diversity of the functions
The general urban planning laws are still based on the concept of zoning which is based on the
separation of the different functions, providing a specific zone for each function: residential,
commercial and industrial areas and the relative services are clearly localised in the town development
plan and different functions can find place in the same area at small proportions.
The recent urban renovation programs have been thought to modify this tendency and can ensure a
better mix of different functions in the area involved by the project.
15 – To maintain or reinforce the diversity of the housing supply
This target can be reached with specific programs promoted by the most recent laws.
The law n.167/62 called “the law for zoning plans” was, for the time of its promulgation (1962), a
very innovative law.
Each municipality, in force of this law, could indicate, through a specific zoning plan, the areas
reserved for social housing, with the possibility of expropriating them for public utility; in the big
towns this law favoured the realisation, in peripheral areas, of extended residential neighbourhoods for
the lower income classes, with no diversity of functions or social presence.
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Almost 10 years later, in 1971, the expropriation procedures were defined by a new law, the 865/71,
called “the law for housing”; the law indicates how the residential areas can be assigned to different
operators and the services that can be included in the zoning plan.
A possibility to insert social housing in more central parts of the town was introduced by the law
457/78, “for residential buildings”: with the approval of urban rehabilitation plans the municipalities
can expropriate the buildings to be renovated if the owners do not provide for that.
The more recent complex urban programs reinforce this possibility.
To improve Integration
16 – To increase the levels of education and job qualification
This target can be effected indirectly by urban planning, and there is no specific reference in urban
planning laws.
Some of the recent “complex urban programs” include the promotion of job qualification, but the
application of these recommendations is left to the initiative of local administrators.
17 – To favour the accessibility of the population to all services and facilities of the city
The existing urban planning laws usually indicate the quantity of areas reserved for public services,
but do not give rules about the localisation of these areas.
There are laws regarding accessibility to all new buildings and public services from a physical point of
view, with rules to reduce architectonic barriers, but not all the existing buildings have been equipped
with adequate facilities.
As for the available transport mode to reach the services the only law that can favour that is the one
regarding the urban traffic and mobility plans.
At the regional level, a recent law, n.1 promulgated by Regione Lombardia on January 19th 2001,
introduces, besides the usual quantitative check of the existing areas for public services, the drawing
up of a specific plan for urban services, in which qualitative aspects must be considered, including
the accessibility of all services.
18 – To improve the integration of the neighbourhood in the city by creating life and meeting
places for all the inhabitants of the city
The Italian laws mentioned in the first part of this chapter can be used to accomplish this specific
target in providing a certain quantity of areas for public services (urban standards) related to the
number of inhabitants that should live in neighbourhoods and towns within the following ten years.
Some possibilities have been introduced by the recent complex urban programs, but their use for this
target depends on the municipality interest and willingness to favour integration.
19 – To avoid unwanted mobility and to improve the environmentally sound mobility
infrastructure
The existing town planning laws do not give specific indications for ruling traffic and mobility inside
and outside the towns; unwanted mobility has been avoided in few cases of best practice.
The only means of regulation towards this target are related to the urban traffic plan and to the
mobility plan.
To reinforce Social life

20 – To reinforce the social cohesion
This target is not easy to reach just applying one of the laws related to urban planning; it depends on
the political tendency of local and national administrators.
Some of the regulations for the planning of the mentioned complex urban programs indicated this
target to be considered in the local renovation plans, but again its application was left to the
municipality administrators willingness.
70
21 – To improve the solidarity networks

As for the previous target, laws related to urban planning do not include regulations to promote it; at
the local level, solidarity networks are followed by the social services offices and their spreading
generally depends on voluntary associations activity.
6 – Recommendations
The National Conference on the Territory was held in Genoa in February 2001. Much desired by the
then Minister of Public Works, the Conference was intended on the one hand to provide an assessment
of the “Territory development” activities that characterised the 1990s, and on the other to lay the
foundation and establish the directions for future planning activity. We believe it important to recall
some of the conclusions and observations of that Conference (which had one of its preliminary
seminars devoted to “Economic planning and sustainable development of the territory”):
“In a country such as ours, with a high degree of social and regulatory fragmentation, congruence
between framework and actions always risks being a critical question. The problem is not to make an
abstract claim for planning functions but to note that the problems of formal legitimacy and of
building a consensus can easily obstruct any desire for action, however worthy (…). The most
advanced experiments, in a variety of contexts, seem to confirm a need already identified many years
ago (from the time planning first started in Italy). Government of the territory does not consist merely
in functions of regulation and control; it must also and simultaneously address the problems of
development, obviously in sustainable terms coherent with the local context and based on the
mobilisation of endogenous potential (…). In the ‘sixties and ‘seventies, the conditions to translate
these intuitions into practice did not exist. The possibility now exists, but it is essential to address the
critical points, such as the conception and articulation on different scales of the legitimate
requirements for protection and development”56
And the critical points to make sustainability criteria ‘operative and effective” in development of
Italian territory must necessarily involve interpretation of instruments at the intermediate and local
level.
These are years of transition for the Italian Urban Planning System and – perhaps - this is the time of
the recommendations in order to have more sustainable laws and regulations for the Italian Territory.
Unfortunately it seems that ‘Sustainable development’ should become the new Millennium ‘fashion’
for the urban planning. It is well declared as main criteria in the new Regional Urban Laws (laws and
design of laws) but it is quite difficult to transform them in an operative system at the local level.
As Valeria Erba wrote about the design of the new Regional Urban Law of Regione Lombardia:
“… municipality must have a kind of plan effectively co-ordinated with the higher-tier plans. A kind
of plan easy-to-read and easy-to-understand for all the citizens, with an high level of description of the
physical elements (the built environment) that is intended to be preserved and an accurate
identification of areas that will be transformed with the relative project index. It doesn’t matter the
name of this sort of plan. The important thing is to guarantee the compatibility between it and the
higher-tier plans, but overall the compatibility between it and the elements of the sustainable
development of each operations at the different levels (environmental, social, …), without too many
procedure hardenings”.57
7 – Synthesis
The fundamental Town and Country Planning instruments were introduced in Law N° 1150 of 17 The
fundamental Town and Country Planning instruments were introduced in Law N° 1150 of 17 August
1942, in particular Piani Territoriali di Coordinamento (PTC – Plans for Territorial Co-ordination),
56
P:C: Palermo, “Un’agenda di problemi per il governo del territorio”, in “Conferenza nazionale del territorio,
Riflessioni e prospettive”, Dossier Urbanistica Informazioni n.50, 2002.
57
V.Erba, Forme di piano differenti per garantire efficacia e coordinamento”, in Urbanistica Informazioni,
n.184, August 2002
71
Municipal Regulatory Plans (General and Detailed), and Building Regulations. The PTC were defined
as means to orient and co-ordinate works and activities in town planning (understood as layout and
increased building in built-up areas and urban planning more generally) on parts of the national
territory, leaving determination of details to the municipal level in the context of Municipal Master
Plans (PRG).
Under law DPR N° 616 of 24 July 1977, all the administrative functions relation to urban planning
(understood as regulation of the use of the territory, including all the knowledge, regulatory and
management aspects relating to safeguarding and transformation of the land surface and protection of
the environment) were transferred to the Regions, leaving the State (Ministry of Public Works) with
the following roles.
- The setting, in exercise of its functions of orientation and co-ordination, of fundamental lines
for the structure of the national territory, with particular reference to the territorial articulation of
actions of national interest, environmental and ecological protection of the territory and defence of the
soil;
- The forming and updating of lists of zones declared as seismic and issue of technical standards
for construction is such zones.
Law 142 of 8 June 1990 then set out the fundamental principles for division of administrative
functions between Regions and other local authorities (municipalities, provinces, metropolitan areas
and mountain communities) to be implemented through Regional laws.
These measures specify that in the light of the general objectives of social, economic and land
management planning, set by the Regions, it is the responsibility of the Provinces to prepare PTC to
set general planning guidelines for their territory and to indicate:
- Different uses for the territory in relation to the prevalent vocation of its parts;
- Siting for the major infrastructures and principal lines of communication;
- Lines of action for hydrological, hydro-geological and hydrological forestry action and in
general for consolidation of the land surface and control of the waters;
The areas in which it is opportune to institute nature parks or reserves.
The Legislative Decrees issued in implementation of administrative reforms under art. 5 of Law N° 59
of 15 March 1997 (the Bassanini Law), such as D.Lvo N° 112 of 31 March 1998, substantially
confirm this subdivision and in addition to establishing the principle of subsidiarity, specify as
follows.
a) The following remain within the competence of the State:
- tasks of national importance, that is, setting of the fundamental lines for the structure of the
national territory in reference to natural and environmental values, defence of the soil and territorial
articulation of infrastructure networks (Transport General Plan) and works of State competence, as
well as to the system of cities and metropolitan areas, including to the end of development of the
South and of depressed areas;
- relations with international bodies and co-ordination with the European Union on urban and
land management policies;
- monitoring transformation of the territory, with particular reference to illegal building and
rehabilitation;
- indication of criteria for collection and computerisation of all existing cartographic materials
and for those in course of processing, in order to unify the various systems to facilitate reading of the
data.
b) The Regions shall pass regional laws – and some, Emilia Romagna, Basilicata and Lombardy have
already done so in specific regional planning laws – to specify adequate instruments for co-ordination
that shall have the value and effect of plans for protection of nature, of the environment, waters, the
ground surface and of natural beauty, on condition that the measures concerned are in the form of
understandings between the provinces and the competent administrations.
72
All levels of government therefor contribute to territorial planning, with differing and subsidiary roles.
· State, which provides the fundamental lines of the structure of the national territory
· Regional, which provides for regional territorial and socio-economic planning and ensures that
Regional and Provincial plans conform thereto;
· Provincial/metropolitan, which prepares Provincial Plans (PTCP) and ensures that Municipal plans
conform with them;
· Municipal, which prepares Master Plans (PRG) and Detailed Plans.
Municipalities are, or better will be responsible for preparing new implementation instruments (Master
Plan /PRG, planning documents etc) but especially for bringing up to date the Technical Standards that
specify methods and rules for assessment of actions (“will be” because in Emilia-Romagna, which
started with the new Regional Planning Law LUR-ER n.20/2000 in 2000, only 16 municipalities and 2
provinces are bringing their current planning instruments up to date). Unfortunately, the system of
competences – and of issue of technical standards and regulations for implementation – is still
characterised by an absence of co-ordination and integration of the various technical standards.
Introduction of sustainability criteria without taking action on the existing complexity, as the new
Regional planning laws are doing – may mean either that there is no wish – or no possibility – for
really bringing the processes of sustainable development of the Italian territory to fulfilment, or else
that “the illusion is spreading among town planners that there is a town planning way, a town planning
solution to sustainable development”58
References
The EU compendium of spatial planning systems and policies, Italy, Regional development
studies, European Communities 2000
P.C. Palermo, “Un’agenda di problemi per il governo del territorio”, in “Conferenza nazionale del
territorio, Riflessioni e prospettive”, Dossier Urbanistica Informazioni n.50, 2002.
M. Beltrame, “Il ruolo delle politiche e delle strumentazione ambientali” in Urbanistica
Informazioni, n.184, August 2002
The EU compendium of spatial planning systems and policies, Regional development studies,
European Communities 1997
V.Erba, Forme di piano differenti per garantire efficacia e coordinamento”, in Urbanistica
Informazioni, n.184, August 2002
58
M. Beltrame, “Il ruolo delle politiche e delle strumentazione ambientali” in Urbanistica Informazioni, n.184,
August 2002
73
V - NETHERLANDS
1 - Legislation notes on municipal rehabilitation

This chapter presents a short overview on the legislation framework in which the municipality
develops its rehabilitation project.
1. Gemeentewet (Law on Municipalities)
This is a very extensive law regulating the national organisation with rights, duties, money streams,
relationship national/provincial and municipal levels and so on and so on. The built environment
should be kept on a certain quality and safety level, which results in the authority-power of the
municipality to instruct users and to develop (rehabilitation) plans. The municipality has the
responsibility for the economic and social welfare of its inhabitants.
2. Bouwbesluit en Model Bouwverordening (Law/Decision on requirements for
buildings).
This is a very extensive law dealing in the most general sense of the word with requirements for
buildings, building construction, safety, minimum space-requirements, energy consumption,
accessibility, location and so on and so on.
3. Wet Ruimtelijke Ordening (law on land-use planning)
This law instructs on land-use and can lead to instructions from the nation level to the municipality to
develop building plans and/or infrastructural provisions.
4. Wet Milieubeheer (law on environmental management)
This law instructs in a general way on environmental matters. Amongst others it instructs for example
in the Vlissingen project the necessity to investigate the soil on pollution.
5. Bestemmingsplan (law on municipal-level giving instructions for neighbourhoods
on the acceptable use of the built environment)
This plan instructs on the acceptable use, such as living, shops, offices, industrial areas and the like.
This “law” also leads to municipal licences on use, such as exploitation of certain shops, restaurants,
living, “soft” or “hard” industrial activities and the like.
6. Bouwvergunning (municipal licence for building)
This procedure is bases on (2) and (5). It is an extensive procedure during which all aspects
concerning the building/the construction and the use are being examined. During this procedure also
the so-called “Schoonheidscommissie” is being consulted. They give advice on the architectural
appearance of the building itself and the fitting into the neighbourhood.
7. Monumentenvergunning (law on protection of monuments)
This plays a role in the Vlissingen-project (Berlage-design of main-office of the Schelde, first big
concrete building in the Netherlands and some hundred years old dockyard-items, visited by Czar
Peter the Great).
8. Gewoonterecht (Rights from years-old habits)
A habit on use, developed in many years and general accepted can lead to the right to maintain this
habit. This can conflict with municipal rehabilitation plans.
9. Masterplan/Stedelijk Programma van Eisen
Specifications directed to individual projects.
Within this framework we are going to use:
• Energy: EPC/EPL (Energy Performance Rate of an object and of a location / neighbourhood).
The calculation results in a dimensionless figure giving on impression of the situation. EPN= 1,0
(dwelling) to 1,0/2,0 (buildings such as offices/schools) are fixed in the "Bouwbesluit" (law).
EPL´s range from 1,0 to a (not reachable) 10,0 (state of the art = 6,0; existing areas 1,0/3,0).
74
To give you any idea:

EPC= 1,0 results in ca. 80 kWh/m2y consumption;
EPC= 0,7 results in ca 35/40 kWh/ m2y.
• General environment:
Two computer programs, taking all sort of items into consideration (materials, location and
so on):
- Greencalc (130 is high/80 low)
- Ecoquantum.
The calculations are taking into account energy, water, materials, inside conditions and the
surrounding environment.
• Actions are being carried out for settings-up systems for Benchmarking and systems for quality
assurance, certification and labelling
• DuBo-basic and DuBo-plus system (checklists for a certain certification of projects to reach a
certain level. DuBo means duurzaam bouwen, to construct sustainable).
• Integral Building Quality: an extension of the DuBo system, taking also into account
environmental considerations such as flexibility (lifetime!), social safety, accessibility and health.
It has a "must" level (on separate agreements, so not the law) and a "preference" level. This is
regrettable not available yet (it is only in Dutch)
2 - Local experiences
2.1 - General
Locally the Netherlands proofs herself as a pluriform country. Additional to formal procedures
numerous local initiatives have been taken to improve the environmental impact. Often financial
support is obtained (subsidies from central bodies like Ministry of Economic Affairs, Ministry of
Housing, Spatial Planning and Environmental matters via national agency NOVEM) for actions like
insulation plans, durable energy (PV, wind, biomass).
Local activities are mainly related to:
Extra energy saving measures
Application of PV cells and thermal sun energy
Applications of other durable energy applications
Application of combined Heat and Power plants and the application of large district heating
systems
Rainwater handling inside plan areas
Designing of compactness of living areas
Improving combinations of working and living
Improving public transport
Improving pedestrian and cycle traffic
Handling of soil within the area
Preventing of building waste
Improving the use of environmental friendly materials
Improving the use of passive sun energy
These activities have more or less success, depending on the local situation, politics, organisational
efforts undertaken and enthusiasm of personnel involved.
It appeared however that the “thinking” and reporting on environmental issues and the real
applications in the field are still not linked and a lot of initiatives do not lead to actual results (see
further under 3: recommendations).
75
2.2 - Agenda 21 initiatives

Several municipalities started the dialogue with their inhabitants and organisations in the framework
of “Agenda 21” activities with more or less success.
Communication plans made it possible to streamline this discussion and to raise consciousness. In
nearly all cases the communication lines were set out to public organisations and, within the municipal
organisations, seen as an extra and often not good implemented in the own organisation. Results are
satisfactory but also time-consuming and “tough”.
3 - Synthesis, recommendations
It can be said that initiatives are numerous and positive and vary a lot on success or not. Local
initiatives are often “chaotic” and sometimes do not pass the “drawing board”. The local initiatives,
looking to creativeness and professionalism, have often a good quality. However, they often lack a
good underlying organisation (directed to real application) and wide organisational acceptance.
It is general understood and recommended that:
• Preparations should include a wider acceptance of sustainable initiatives in municipal
organisations.
• The gap between reporting on initiatives and actual site-execution must be closed, this mainly
to be achieved by two general measures.
o Involving of execution- departments in the preparation of sustainable initiatives.
o Discipline in the preparation departments to report on initiatives in readable
documents which are logical interdependent and developed in an administrative
orderly way.
o Implementing accepted sustainable principles and specifications in the management
procedures on the site, including the “must” to report on these matters (monitoring).
• In general communication lines must be improved and the image of the activities must be
positive (by publications, demonstrations etc.).
Synthesis related to the HQE2R methodology

The heart of the HQE2R methodology consists of five main objectives, subdivided in 21 targets. In this
chapter the Dutch status quo is projected on these 21 targets.
To preserve and enhance heritage and conserve resources

1 - To reduce energy consumption and improve energy management
This has been achieved in a satisfactory way by legal measures (bringing down consumption from
more than 110 kWh/m2 to figures like 60 or even 40 to 50 kWh/m2). Software (ERBIS) is available to
support good energy management.
2 - To improve water resource management and quality
The supply and quality of consumption water is guaranteed by legal measures. Water resource
management is being dealt with the handling of rainwater within the area and with pilot projects
involving grey water systems.
3- To avoid land consumption and improve land management
Guidelines for design on compactness of living areas and the handling of soil within the plan area are
now common use. On national level directions are being designed (planning of urban areas:
VINEX/VINEX-plus) to avoid unacceptable urbanisation’s.
4 - To reduce the consumption of materials and improve their management

These initiatives are mainly been taken on local initiatives and are often based on voluntary co-
operation.
76
5 - To preserve and enhance the built and natural heritage

This has a high priority in the Netherlands and, of course, influenced by cultural considerations.
Financial limitations and technical state are main factors here.
To improve the quality of the local environment

6 - To preserve and enhance the landscape and visual comfort.
This is mainly supported by national legislation (Wet Ruimtelijke Ordening). Visual comfort is
difficult to recognise, as it is very much depending on views of landscape architects and other
professionals.
7 - To improve housing quality
This is covered by the “Woningwet” (Law on buildings) and is according to the latest requirements.
On local level pilot projects sometimes go above these requirements (mostly due to architectural views
and local environmental initiatives).
8 - To improve cleanliness, hygiene and health
This target is, within the present status quo, a big concern. Especially all sorts of environmental
measures cause problems on minimal ventilation requirements (complaints of asthmatic affections).
The discussions on these items are starting now.
9 - To improve safety and risk management
The base has been laid down in the “Hinderwet”(law on hindrance) and “Woningwet” (law for
dwellings/resolution for buildings) and the related procedures to obtain the related allowances.
Nevertheless a lot have to be done, especially to implement procedures in organisations. Lots have
been done by local initiatives.
10 - To improve air quality
The “Hinderwet” prescribes maximum emissions related to industrial activities.
Local initiatives involves the reducing of motorised traffic (improve public transport and cycling
roads), special attention to the permissions to establish a business (“vestigingsvergunning”) and
building rules preventing the emission of open fire-places in urbanised areas. Of great concern is the
indoor air quality, due to modern building techniques and materials. In modern housing mechanical
ventilation has been legally prescribed.
11 - To reduce noise pollution
The “Hinderwet” mainly covers this target, with a general acceptance nation wide. In the new
“Woningwet”(2003) the requirements of noise problems between dwellings are taken even more
serious with new rules for noise insulation.
12 - To minimize waste
This is mostly covered by local initiatives and nowadays taken very serious. The re-use of waste on
the site herself is, however, still wishful thinking.
To ensure diversity
13 - To ensure the diversity of the population
This item, especially on local level, has nowadays the highest priority and leads to several
rehabilitation plans of old neighbourhoods. Special attention will be given to build/renovate housing to
attract middle-class people to strengthen the economy of a neighbourhood.
14 - To ensure the diversity of functions
This is directly related to 4.13. Often, in old neighbourhoods, business is leaving, making the relative
poverty even sharper. By introducing attractive renovated areas, business people are challenged to
invest.
77
15 - To ensure the diversity of the housing supply

To strengthen the socio-economical situation of a neighbourhood, this is a necessity. Nowadays nearly
all renovation plans of old neighbourhoods are being based on this starting point or even induced by
the necessity of it (see also 4.13).
To improve integration
16 - To increase the levels of education and job qualification
Although it is generally felt as a necessity, there is still a lot to be done to obtain an accepted policy,
resulting in plans integrated in rehabilitation procedures. A first step has been taken to make schools
more attractive (rehabilitation buildings in a bad technical state) and improve the “mix” of children
and young people on schools and education centres with different cultural backgrounds.
17 - To improve access for all residents to all services and facilities of the city by means of an easy
and non-expensive transportation mode.
This is a general accepted item. However, to cover this in practice is not that easy and only limited
initiatives are being taken (improve cycling roads and pedestrian areas) and improve payable public
transport.
18 - To improve the integration of the neighbourhood in the city by creating living and meeting
places for all inhabitants of the city.
Although of great concern, recognised and accepted, this item is not yet integrated in design and plan
procedures. Local initiatives are mostly directed towards easy access and transport facilities.
19 - To avoid unwanted mobility and to improve the environmentally sound mobility infrastructure.
This is a general accepted starting point by the planning and programming of rehabilitation plans.
Protected pedestrian areas, reduced acceptance of motorised traffic, good public transport and the
promotion of cycling are accepted standards.
To reinforce social life

20 - To reinforce local governance
This item is generally accepted and develops quickly towards participation. The status quo is mainly
directed towards information giving and convincing/training of inhabitants of the concerned subjects.
21 - To improve social networks and social capital
This is mainly related to (D) and reinforced by the supply of facilities such as sport facilities, libraries
and meeting places such as community centres, etc.
78
References
SDU/Van Geest e.a. : Evalueren met beleid (1998)
Samson/Van Engelen-De
Ferrank-De Knecht e.a. : Handboek Energie & Milieu (1997/2001)
SDU : Handboek Wet Milieubeheer – Praktijkboek voor bedrijf en overheid
(2000-2001)
VNG : Standaardregelingen voor de bouw (1994-1998)
Aeneas/ Dubocentrum : Dubo Jaarboek 2001/2002
NOVEM : Energy-saving policy in municipalities GEA (1992) – BANS (1998-2001)
Stuurgroep
Experimenten
Volkshuisvesting : De Milieu Maximalisatie Methode: een structurele inbreng van milieu in
stedenbouwkundige planvorming (1998)
J.L. Zieck : Energy saving effectiveness by communication (1999)
Gemeente Apeldoorn : Energiebesparing “Apeldoorn weet van wanten” (Agenda 21/2000)
Goedhart P.J. : Zoetermeer – Lokale Agenda 21 (2000)
Ambit/DSO Utrecht : Energiebesparingscampagne Gemeentelijke Gebouwen – Evaluatie
(1997-2001)
Gemeente Utrecht : Integrale Woningkwaliteit: bouwen met toekomstwaarde, duurzaam, veilig
en toegankelijk (2001)
Gemeente Utrecht : Dialoog in de Stad (2000)
Stadt Hannover : Activities of the City of Hannover towards a local Agenda 21 (1998)
KUKA Hannover : Wohnen auf dem Kronsberg. Informationen für Bewohnerinnen und
Bewohner (2000)
Kluwer
Bedrijfswetenschappen : Management Methoden en Technieken (communicatie 3.1/3.3/3.4/4.1)
KUKA Hannover : Umweltkommunikation in der nachhaltigen Stadtentwicklung (1998)
Rijkshogeschool
IJsselland : Communicatie en Milieubeleid - College Reader (1998)
Ministry of VROM and
Foreign affairs (NL) : Milieu en Ontwikkeling – Agenda 21 (Results of Rio 1992)
Ambit/ Projectgroep
Leidsche Rijn/ KUKA
Hannover : Integratie van Milieu in het Ontwerp- en Bouwproces: Het KUKA als
voorbeeld (2000)
Zieck, J.L. : Communicatie en Techniek (1987)
Zieck, J.L./University : Consumerism and the introduction of district heating systems (1980) 59
of Amsterdam
Steensel, K.M. van
SMO : De Internet Generatie (2000)
59
Consumerism (NL: consumentisme) means the program to promote consumer interests including protection of
the environment, restraints or abuse by business etc.; the policy or program of protecting the interests of the
consumer (Webster’s dictionary 1989/1996).
79
Hoek, A. van der en

Veenman, J.C.M. : Buurtgerichte Voorlichting en Energiebesparing (1986)
Katz, D en Kahn, R.L. : The Social Psychology of Organizations (1966)
Miles, R.E. : Theories of Management - implications for organizational behaviour and
development (1975)
Tull, D.S. and
Hawkins, D.I. : Marketing research, meaning, measurement and method (1976)
SMO/ Breedveld, W. : Wat Burgers Beweegt (1993)
SMO/ Basart, S.C. en
Knoester, T. : Integrale Kwaliteitszorg (1994)
SMO/ Ridder, W.J. de : Communicatie (1994)
Example pilot projects environmental communication/participation with actors (target 4.20):
Rehabilitation housing project 1300 individual households in Assen (1990)

Utrecht (1995/2002) incl. Thermie project “Energy saving by communication”(Utrecht/
Hannover) and Thermie plus project (Utrecht/REMU/Ambit)
Apeldoorn (Thermie plus)
Zoetermeer (schools/education)
Utrecht - Leidsche Rijn Milieuambities (2001)
Awareness campaign (Utrecht 1996/1998)
80
VI - SPAIN
1 - Urbanism in Spain: Principles and structure of

the legal system
1.1 - The principles of the legal system
1.1.1 The constitutional principles
We can find the main principles that regulate the activity of urbanism in Spain in some articles of the
‘Spanish Constitution’ (1976), the basic framework that order the legal system in Spain.
a/ Article 33 – Right to property. This article establishes the right to the private property, but at the
same time settles that the right will be delimited, following the laws, by its social function. The social
function of property is one of the main axes on which the spatial planning regulations are based on.
Obviously, the submission of that right to the general interest, defined by laws, must be guaranteed by
Constitution.
b/ Article 45 – Protection of resources. The public authorities must keep watch over the rational use
of natural resources, in order to protect and to improve the quality of life and they also have to defend
and recover the environment.
c/ Article 47.-Right to housing and the use of land. It establishes that the public authorities are the
responsible of the regulation of the use of land, following the general interest and avoiding
speculation. At the same time it establishes that the community will participate of the added values
generated by the action of the public authorities.
1.1.2 The main principles
a/ The urbanism as a public function. The urbanism is an exclusive competence of public

authorities, not preventing the participation of the private initiative in some cases, as the law
establishes.
b/ The social function of property.
c/ Consignment to the Plans. The planning is the tool that orders the right of property in the
territory, following the existing laws.
d/ Right to property and right to built. Since the ‘Ley del Suelo de 1975’ (‘Land’ Law) the right
or ability to built is defined by the Plans. So, the right of property do not mean the right to built.
e/ Affection of the added value due to a planning action to the cost of urbanization.
f/ Equitable distribution of benefits and charges caused by the planning.
1.2 - The structure of the legal system

The great diversity of regulations (laws, plans, ordinances about use of land and building,…)
configure a set of regulations ordered hierarchically as it follows:
1.2.1. The basic legislative structure
The first level is formed by the state and regional territorial and urban planning laws and its respective
dispositions. At the same level we can find many other specific regulations.
81
a) The State regulations

Ley del Suelo 1975 (‘Land law’). This law is the basic law that is used by the first democratic
municipalities (Democracy in Spain started in 1977 with the approval of the actual Constitution). That
law not only looked at urban development and expanse, but also introduced some articles related to the
renovation of urban areas. It was necessary to recover the urban areas, very neglected by the years of
Franco’s dictatorship.
Real Decreto 1/1992 was a unique legislative text that gathers into one the ancient laws of 1975 and
1990. It was a limited legal framework, only completed by different specific laws, related to natural
spaces, water resources,…
Ley del Suelo y de ordenación urbana 6/1998 (about use of land and urban planning) is the actual law
that regulate the use of land in Spain and it is the common base in which the regional legislations must
be based on. The law introduces the word ‘Sustainability’, but it does not clarify the concept at all.
From that point of view the law does not represent any improvement with regard to the Law of 1975.
In addition, it does not favour a sustainable urban development, but an extensive occupation of land,
since it allows building everywhere.
Article 12 –‘The land not ‘urbanisable’ (not possible to urbanise, build on) are the spaces that the
planning determines as subject to special protection, because its exceptional agricultural, forest
value,…historical, cultural,… to defend fauna and flora or the ecological balance.’
All the other land can be used to build on it.
b) The regional regulations

The article 148.2 of the Spanish Constitution explain that the Comunidades Autónomas (999Spain is a
state constituted by 17 regions called ‘Comunidades Autónomas’, with a certain degree of self-
government and its own parliament) can assume competences in territorial and urban planning.
The parliament of Catalonia completed the law of 1975 with different partial laws (4/1980, 9/1981,
23/1983, 3/1984,…).
A single legal text elaborated in 1990 (1/1990) gathered all the different laws. This was the legal tool
used since the approval of the new law about use of land two months ago.
Law 2/2002 Law of urbanism of Catalonia /
The new Catalan law was approved last June 2002. It is the first time that a complete and single
legislative text about urban planning is approved, according to the Catalan competences in that
subject, provided by the Spanish Constitution. Since nowadays the legislative framework was a great
amount of regulations that completed or developed the different state laws and the own Catalan norm
based on the “Ley del Suelo de 1975” (State land law of 1975).
c) The territorial and urban planning system

On the other hand, we can find a hierarchical and articulated set of plans, defined in the previous laws
that are tools that are important to apply and to reach all the objectives established by the previous
legislation, not only for all the territory, but for the different parts, and also for the different scales of
planning.
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2 - Urbanism in Catalonia: The new law 2/2002 of

urbanism
2.1 - Principles
This law, as it is explained in its introduction, has as main objective to reach a ‘sustainable urban
development and a rational use of the territory and the environment, at the same time that gathers the
economic development and the social housing politics’.
In its Article 3 the law defines urban sustainable development as ‘the development that must guarantee
the quality of life of present and future generations’ and it establishes that the urban laws must
guarantee the objective of this development.
In the article 3.2 it says: ‘the land is a limited resource and we must define models of urbanization
that avoid sprawling, and favours social cohesion, considering renovation and rehabilitation of the
existing urban space’
The law tries to give a complete answer to the urban process inside the limits defined by the
competencies provided by the State law 6/1998 about the regulation of land that is the common law in
which the ‘regional’ ones must be based on.
The Catalan regional law, being different than other regional laws, it is based in urbanism as public
function, refusing aggressive formulas based on free market logics and looks for a urban planning
model that guarantees the rational use of the territory and the quality of life opening it to the private
initiative, always under control of public authorities.
“ This law is for a urban sustainable development, following the idea of a rational use of the territory,
making compatible the economic dynamism and development with the social cohesion, the respect of
environment and the improvement of quality of life for the present and future generations…From this
point of view, this law has the objective of involving the present urban planning regulations of the
principles of sustainability, translated into the rational use of the territory, the fight against poverty,…
the correct management of natural resources, the use of renewal energies,…and the coordinated
action of the different tools involved in the urban planning,…. following the ideas of the Conference of
Rio 1992 and the Aalborg charter’.
In the law we can find old and known concepts, such as the right to property, the right to
compensation, distribution of benefits and charges and participation in added values, but it
incorporates new principles such as the definition of urban sustainable development and the
establishment, for first time, of planning regulations in order to reach it, promoting, for example, the
citizen participation and the publicity of the planning and management processes through the new
“Consells assessors urbanístics municipals” (municipal urban planning assessment councils).
2.2 - Competences (territorial planning politics and housing politics)

The public authorities that have urban planning competencies are:
- Generalitat (the Catalan regional government), that owns a wide faculty to promote, decide and
control the municipalities and the comarques (historical-natural Catalan territorial areas).
- The Territorial Urbanism Commissions (the ancient urbanism commissions), sited in the capital of
each province.
- The law gives competences to the special urban entities, such as INCASOL (a governmental
Catalan public institution in charge of building social/public housing), the urban consortiums /
partnerships and the municipal enterprises with public capital, that will be allowed to define new
planning and management tools and will be able to receive land. The public authorities that have to
develop new planning can come to an agreement to develop an urban audit to improve its
management capacity.
2.3 - Classification of land
The Catalan law adapts some prescriptions introduced by the State law of 1998, keeping distance with
it and taking into account the arguments of the Constitutional Court. It introduces new criterions for
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the preservation of land that can not be urbanised, restricting strictly the new constructions and
introducing the concept of sustainability as a concept to considerer, defining which are the minimal
urban infrastructures / services to build.
The “POM / Pla d’ordenació municipal” (Municipal ‘ordination’ plan), classifies territory in three
main groups:
- ‘Sòl urbà’ (Urban land / ground): The land that is integrated in an urban area and has all the
infrastructure.
In this point we find the definition of different concepts, like for example ‘plot’ (of ground), the piece
of ground that have the conditions to built on it,… It defines which are the minimal urban
infrastructures / services and introduces new variables to be considered.
Inside this group the law distinguishes two groups: consolidated urban land (that includes all the land
integrated by ‘plots’) and non-consolidated.
- Sòl no-urbanitzable (land never suitable to build on). This is an important point of the new law,
being very different by the State one, and already based on sustainable principles. ‘The land that is
not ‘urbanizable’ is not only the land with the conditions specified by the Spanish / state law 6/1998,
but also the land that ‘the planning determine taking into account sustainable development
criterions, based on the rational use of territory and the improvement of quality of life’.’(article
28.1)
The law distinguishes between delimited and non-delimited ‘urbanisable’ land.
- Sòl urbanitzable (land suitable to build on in a future), and that not already integrate an urban area.
‘The land suitable to built on it will be delimited taking into account the growth forecast of each
municipality and the sustainability criterions established by the territorial plan: for this purpose we
have to limit the sprawl in the territory and we have to favour the continuity of the different
networks.’ (article 29.2)
On the other hand, the law defines the different systems to be considered apart of the previous
classification. The open spaces and the infrastructures are defined in that point.
The law also establishes that 10 % of the possible urbanistic profits of a concrete sector have to be
handed over to the public authorities. (article 40.a)
In addition, the “POM” has to keep 20 % of the possible surface for residential to built public/ social
housing.
2.4 - Planning system

The new planning system, that substitutes the traditional urban figures, is classified as it follows,
taking into account criterions of scale and contents:
- General planning
a.1. Director plans
a.2. POM / Pla d’ordenació municipal (Municipal ‘ordination’ plan)
a.3. Normes de Planejament (Planning rules / norms)
a.4. Programes d’actuació urbanística municipal (municipal urban action programme)
- Derived planning
b.1. Plans especials urbanístics (special urban plans)
b.2. Plans de millora urbana (plans for the urban improvement)
b.3. Plans parcials urbanístics (partial urban plans)
2.4.1. General Planning
2.4.1.1. Plans directors (Director plans)

They are global instruments / tools that...
- coordinate the territorial planning / common planning criterions
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- define the framework of a sustainable urban development

- decide the great infrastructures
- define the ‘sòl no urbanitzable’ (the ground that can not be built on)
- plan the over-municipal politics about land and housing with the municipalities.
The elaboration of director plans belongs to the organisms that the Catalan ‘Conseller’ (a kind of
regional minister) of ‘Política territorial i Obres Públiques’ (Territorial Politics and Public Works),
determine, with the participation of the affected municipalities.
They are definitively approved by the ‘Conseller’.
2.4.1.2. “Plans d’ordenació urbanística municipal” (Municipal ‘ordination’ plans)

They correspond to the municipal scale, but they can be elaborated by a group of municipalities.
1. They establish the basic ‘ordination’ of a municipal territory, not only the spatial ordination (uses,
etc…), but also the temporal one.
2. The elaboration of these plans corresponds to the local municipalities.
3. They are definitively approved by the ‘counsellor’ of Territorial Politics if the municipality has
more than 100.000 inhabitants.
4. They are flexible instruments of integral urban planning for the municipality.
They have to keep at least 20 % of the new residential ceiling surface for public housing (housing
promoted by public agents, a kind of ‘social’ housing).
They have to introduce layouts for the non-delimited ‘sòl urbanitzable’ (possible urbanised land, not
yet built).
They have to be introduced in the contents of the plan the suitable environmental documents.
2.4.1.3. “Normes de Planejament” (Planning rules / norms)

These rules supply the temporary lack of the municipal plan in case of suspension of it. They are
determined by the Catalan general direction of urbanism and they are approved by the Conseller of
Territorial Politics.
2.4.1.4.”Programes d’actuació urbanística municipal” (municipal urban action programmes)

The elaboration of these programmes belongs to the municipalities.
They are the framework that allow the local authorities (town councils and ‘Consells Comarcals’, a
local Catalan authority that groups municipalities of a same historical / natural area) to apply its urban
planning competencies. It is a participation mechanism between municipalities and Generalitat to
define the politics related to the use of land and housing that have to be developed during a period of 6
years.
The existence of that programme is necessary to permit the approval of the different kind of plans of
the ‘derivative planning : plans especials (special plans), plans parcials (partial plans) and plans de
millora urbana (urban improvement plans) and the other instruments of housing and land politics. In
the procedure of approval the corresponding territorial commission of urbanism has to elaborate a
linking report related to the prescriptions that are based on over-municipal and legal aspects.
2.4.2. Derivative planning
The elaboration of these kinds of plans belongs to the local organisms, to the special urban planning
organizations and to the other appropriate organisms without the detriment of the private initiative.
The final approval correspond to the municipality, if they have its municipal urban action programme
approved, with exception of the delimitation partial plans and the special plans to built infrastructures.
The private initiative is allowed to develop special plans, urban improvement plans and partial plans.
It will be also allowed to develop municipal general planning when the municipality approves the
proposal.
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2.4.2.1. Special urban plans

The special urban plans are used to develop some concrete urban aspects: additional protection of
landscape, improvement of historical areas, definition of infrastructures and facilities,…
- Urban improvement plans
Its objective is to complete the urban tissue of a non-consolidated urban area, to renovate old urban
areas,…
- Partial urban plans
For small-scale operations, completing the general planning (volumes, alignments, building
parameters,…)
2.5 - Environmental aspects

Before the new law the environmental evaluation was not integrated in the territorial planning. The
environmental administration only supervised the elaboration of a plan after the initial approval of it,
when the plan was already finished and was a closed document came to the agreement of all the agents
involved. There was no possibility to change anything.
The new law forces (we don’t known yet the real value of that) to include environmental justifications
as one of the documents necessary to be elaborated for the approval of a Municipal Plan.
In spite of that, we think that a reasonable and well planned director / territorial plan, taking into
account the principles of sustainability from a global / territorial point of view, will be more efficient
to guarantee a rational use of the territory and an improvement of quality of life. This is the aim of the
new law, but the tools and parameters to do that are not very clear yet.
3 - Environmental planning and natural resources

3.1 - Introduction and basic principles
For the environmental laws, we have the same hierarchy of laws that for the urban planning: the
national ones (the basic framework) and the regional ones, sometimes complemented by the municipal
ordinances. It the article 45 of the Spanish Constitution (approved in 1977) we can read the first
principles taking into account the environment.
Article 45 / Spanish Constitution (1977)
Everybody has the right of having a proper environment, adequate for the development of people and
the duty of preserve it.
The public institutions will keep watch over the use of all natural resources in order to protect and
improve the quality of life and defend and restore the environment, with the support of the collective
solidarity.
The law will establish penal sanctions, and otherwise administrative ones, for those who do not respect
the previous points and will establish the obligation of repairing the damage done.
The Spanish parliament has the exclusive responsibility of elaborating the basic regulations
concerning the protection of environment, following the article 149.1.23, but The regional parliament
have the right of elaborating concrete laws referred to the regional context.
3.2 - Natural spaces planning

In Catalonia there is an extensive legislation concerning green spaces. The basic and most important
law is 12/1985, law of natural spaces.
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3.2.1. Objectives
The objective of this law is the protection and management, and if it is necessary, the improvement
too, of the natural spaces, taking into account the rational and equilibrated use of the territory.
3.2.2. Contents
From an urbanistic point of view it is important to explain that this law creates the qualification of
‘open space’ and a new kind of plan called Special Plan for the protection of environment and
landscape. The law establishes the different kinds of natural spaces that will be under special
protection.
3.2.3. PEIN / Plan for the spaces with natural interest
Decree 328/1992. It delimits 144 natural spaces on Catalonia’s territory. The total surface of the
natural spaces covers more than 20 % of the total surface of the region.
All these spaces have the denomination of ‘sòl no urbanitzable’ (land that is suitable to build on it).
This law is absolutely linked to the territorial and urban planning.
3.3 - Sectorial legislation

3.3.1 Environmental impact evaluation
3.3.1.1. Spanish regulations

“RDL 1302/1986 de Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental” : This law applies the European directive
85/337/CEE approved the year 1985. And it is the basic framework for the regional laws.
3.4.1.2. Catalan regulations
“Decree 144/1988 d’impacte ambiental: This law is only though for the development of concrete
projects (great works, infrastructures, activities,…) that can have serious consequences on
environment. All the procedure will be done under public information.
3.4 - Classified activities

The municipal authorisation to some activities that can be dangerous for the environment, having
effects on healthy, noise, cleanliness,…is under a special procedure controlled by the regional
government in order to guarantee the harmless of theses activities, or on the other hand, to reduce to
tolerable levels the harmful effects through special measures or sitting them outside urban areas.
“Decree 87/1982” : The distances that these kinds of activities must keep far from the urban areas are
established by the municipal ordinances and the existing planning. The dangerous industries will be
placed at least 2000 meters away from urban areas. If the activity is allowed by the existing plan the
expedient will be published to inform all the citizens.
3.5 - Atmospheric contamination

“Llei 22/1983 de protecció de l’ambient atmospheric” establishes the creation of territorial maps
about capacity and vulnerability of territory considering account atmospheric contamination. These
maps have to be taken into account as references for the territorial planning. These maps consider the
level of emission of each area, the meteorological conditions, the location of dangerous activities, the
conditions of housing, cultures, forest, road system, and the existence of protected natural spaces.
3.6 - Waste
The treatment and collection of wastes is a municipal competence. The state law 42/1975 hand over
the municipalities this task. The local legislation forces the municipalities to do that, considering it a
public service.
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In Catalonia law 6/1993 is the basic regulation. It is a complete law that is not only focused on
treatment of wastes, but also promotes minimization, selective collection, valorisation, recuperation
and recycling.
In Catalonia Junta de Residus (‘Waste council’) is the public responsible authority that is in charge of
controlling the development of the law.
This law also has consequences on planning, since article 43 forces the municipal planning to keep
some land to built infrastructure for waste treatment and collection.
4 – Synthesis with respect to 21 SD targets

It is difficult to elaborate a synthesis of the regulations concerning the 21 targets of the project, since
the structure of the legal system about town and land planning in Spain is quite complex. As each
institution (government, regional government, municipalities,…) have concrete competences in order
to define the framework in which the planning and the building processes is defined, we find great
differences between regions, and included municipalities, in order to understand and to deal with
sustainability.
So, in order to explain the relationship of our urban planning regulations with our targets we are
going to deal, since the principles defined in the Spanish Constitution, to the general planning and to
concrete examples of derivative urban planning (defined beforehand) developed recently in our
country. As an outstanding example, Pla de Ponent, a ‘partial plan’ developed in Gavà, a village close
to Barcelona, developing a new residential area in one of the last ‘free’ biggest areas defined in the
‘Metropolitan Plan of Barcelona’, as possible to be urbanized.
To preserve and enhance the heritage and resources

1 – To reduce Energy consumption and improve energy management.
The general law of urbanism explains that ‘ the law is for a sustainable development following the
idea of a rational use of territory, making compatible the economic dynamism with….the correct
management of natural resources, the use of renewal energies,…following the ideas of the Conference
of Rio 1992 and the Aalborg charter’.
The recent plans developed by the municipalities introduce some articles in order to improve energy
management in the new and renovated buildings. The ‘Pla de Ponent’ for example introduces some
ordinances improving the energy savings in the new buildings (and renovated buildings too), forcing
them to introduce solar panels in order to produce hot water. In that sense, in Barcelona, an important
regulation was approved in 1999 concerning the use of solar energy in the new operations. The new
installation must assure the 60 % of the annual demand of hot water. There are also some regulations
about the use of efficient lights in public spaces.
2 – To improve Water resource management and quality.

The General plans of each municipality are forced to keep some land to build an infrastructure for
waste treatment and collection.
In the article 29 of the ‘Pla de Ponent’ for example, the ordinance forces the new projects of
urbanization to introduce the use of rain water to water the common areas. The new buildings must use
mechanisms, with a concrete label of Environmental Quality (low capacity tanks, special tabs,…) in
order to reduce the consumption of water.
3 – To avoid Land consumption and improve land management.

The Catalan law of urbanism explains in its introduction that we must have ‘a rational use of
territory’ and that ‘the land is a limited resource, so we must define models of urbanization that avoid
sprawling,…’.When it defines the ‘land that can be urbanized’ (article 29) it explains that the growth
of villages and cities will be done following the general criterions of sustainability of the territorial
planning, and avoiding sprawling in the territory, favouring the continuity of networks and services.’
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4 – To improve the consumption of Materials and their management.

The Catalan law of wastes forces the general planning of each municipality to keep some land to build
an infrastructure for the treatment and collection of wastes.
The ordinances of ‘Pla de Ponent’ for example forces the new building to introduce a room bigger
than 11 m² in the flat floors of buildings to do the selective collection of wastes.
5 – To preserve and valorise Patrimony (heritage) .

There are a lot of regulations concerning green spaces. The most important, as we explained before, is
the law of natural spaces 12 /1985, absolutely linked to the territorial and urban planning that has as
main objective the protection and improvement of the natural spaces.
In an urban level, ‘Pla de Ponent’ forces for example to use autochthonous vegetation in the
urbanization of open spaces and regulates the use of lawn (in Spain, it requires a lot of maintenance
and water) limiting it to a 10 % of private non-built spaces.
To improve the quality of environment

6 – To preserve and valorise or value Landscape and visual comfort.
According law 6/2001, every project of urbanization ‘in geographical areas with a natural environment
with high sensibility, such as forest areas and landscapes with cultural, historical, archaeological
significance, gathered by a high degree of density’ it is necessary to evaluate the environmental impact
of that urbanization. Actually, the new law forces to develop an environmental study at the level of the
municipal plan.
7 – To improve housing supply.

As we explained before, the general planning of each municipality has to keep at least 20 % of the new
residential ceiling surface for public housing.
8 / 9 - To improve cleanliness, hygiene and health and to improve safety and risk management.
The distances that must keep some kind of activities (having effects on health, noise, cleanliness,…)
from the urban areas are defined by the municipal plans.
10 - To improve air quality.

The general law establishes the creation of territorial maps about capacity and vulnerability of the
territory considering the atmospheric contamination, considering the level of immission of each area,
taking into account the meteorological conditions, the location of dangerous activities, the existence of
natural spaces,….
11 - To reduce noise pollution.

There are no specific regulations for that in the general planning, but in the derivative planning we
find for example in the ‘Pla de Ponent’ the obligation of using acoustic flooring for the roadways in
the urbanisation of streets.
On the other hand, some municipalities developed concrete ordinances defining the allowed levels of
noise in streets during day and night.
12 - To minimise waste.
In spite of being appointed in the law, there are not specific obligations written. Only in the derivative
planning or the ordinances we can find some references to this topic, such as in ‘Pla de Ponent’, where
the new projects must include a plan to minimize wastes and to improve its valuation during the
process of building.
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To ensure diversity
13 – To maintain or reinforce the diversity of the population
The obligation of creating 20 % of public / social housing has obvious consequences in the
diversification of population.
14 - To maintain or reinforce the diversity of the functions.

The municipal plans is based on the idea of zoning, defining the different uses allowed in concrete
zones or areas of the municipality in which it is allowed to built on, also establishing the degree of
building (m² of built ceiling referred to m² of land), distinguishing between housing, equipments,
commercial, facilities, industries,…as much as the % of open spaces (% of public ones and % of
private ones, forest areas,…), % of road system,…
15 - To maintain or reinforce the diversity of the housing supply.

The concrete typology that can be built on a concrete area of land, such as the uses, is defined by the
municipal plan, such as blocks, detached houses, semidetached houses,…
As we explained before 20 % of the housing built on an area must be public / social housing.
To improve integration
17 – To favour the accessibility of the population to all services and facilities of the city by
means of easy and non expensive transportation mode.
The plans establish the location of the public facilities in the territory following the needs of
inhabitants, but cannot establish the transportation mode used by inhabitants. It can only influence
from a physical point of view, in the way it defines the road system.
18 - To improve the integration of the neighbourhood in the city by creating life and meeting
places for all the inhabitants of the city.
The % of open spaces and % of spaces for pedestrian use are defined in the general planning.
19 - To avoid unwanted mobility and to improve the environmentally sound mobility

infrastructure.
The road system is defined in the general plan and in the derivative plans, but not the concrete
measures to improve the public transport, depending more on politics. The plan can define pedestrian
areas and paths, roadways for bikes, the priority of streets, etc…’Pla de Ponent’ creates a segregate
roadway for bikes, covering all the area and connecting with the exterior. The housing is forced to
have spaces to keep bikes.
To reinforce social life

20 – To reinforce the social cohesion,
For its elaboration the new Catalan law, has taken the ‘social cohesion’ and ‘…the fight against
poverty’ as one of its main objectives. The law forces the land owners who want to built, to hand over
10 % of the profits to the municipality.
As the Spanish constitution explains, the urbanism in Spain is understood as a public function (right of
property, right of compensation, participation in added values,…),, so as a consequence, a social
function. The citizen can participate in the elaboration of plans, as they are a collective project. The
law guarantees the equal distribution of benefits and charges during the land planning processes.
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5 - Synthesis
Heritage
There are some general ideas in the new Catalan law of urbanism concerning a sustainable
development and making references to rational use of territory (the land as a limited resource and the
necessity to define models of urbanization that avoid sprawling) and a correct use of natural resources
(energy, water, materials and wastes).
Also, there are a lot of regulations concerning green spaces that considered the protection and
improvement of the natural spaces and value Landscape.
The new plans for the municipalities will have to introduce more detailed ordinances in order to
reduce Energy consumption and improve energy management (see the example of the municipality of
Gavà, and their new development plan).
Quality of environment
There are some measures to improve quality of life according to keep some new residential ceiling
surface for public housing, or to define campaigns taking into account health (considering different
factors about to improve the air quality, and some ordinances to minimise waste) and noise (one of the
specific problems for the Mediterranean culture).
Diversity
The diversity of population only has a point of public intervention with the obligation of including
20% social housing in the new promotions. For the existing residential building there is any measure.
Mediterranean countries have a traditional complexity in their building and in their streets and all the
public spaces. This complexity used to give to the built spaces diversity of functions. At this moment
it’s important to maintain and to reinforce this traditional complexity and not to follow introducing
extensive models of development. The municipal plans incorporate the zoning concept which defines
the degree of building and the % of housing, equipment, commercial, facilities, industries, public
spaces and infrastructures.
Integration
The integration objectives are established across introducing in the plans public facilities to the
accessibility to all services, improving public transport and designing a more environmental mobility
infrastructure (bike, more pedestrian spaces, etc.)
Social Links
The new Catalan law reinforces the social cohesion making that the land owners who want to built, to
hand over 10 % of the profits to the municipality.
And as the Spanish constitution explains, the urbanism in Spain is understood as a public function, and
the citizens can participate in the elaboration of plans.
General aspects about sustainability in the new law
In the new Catalan Law of Urbanism, there are two remarkable aspects to incorporate obligatory, such
as in the General Plans as in other derived planning, in reference to the environmental sustainability
field: the Environmental Reports and the Mobility Studies.
The Environmental Report (not to confuse with the of Environmental Impact Studies, which only
have character of obligatory in those projects that suppose a change of soil - of the vegetable coverage
- of more of 100ha), they must join inside any General Plan or plan derived from the same one. It is
necessary to elaborate yet a regulation that specifies the content of the Environmental Report, which
should incorporate a study of environmental viability, an analysis of the environment, and preventive
and corrective measures with guiding character.
In reference to the Mobility Studies, we think that the responsibility is established inside the Plans
Directors Urbanístics, with a figure over-municipal (article 56). The studies to obtain a sustainable
mobility must join both in the accomplishment of a General Plan and in his derivative plans (articles
59 and 66 respectively).
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6 - References
6.1. The green belt project and land planning
The context in which the project is situated is that of a town and country planning project which takes
into consideration, as a fundamental presupposition, a respect towards the environment.
The Diputació of Barcelona has a long tradition of intervention in the territory. It has been a key
administration in the building of infrastructures which make it accessible and one result of this labour
is a network of almost 2,000 km of roadways. By means of the instruments of co-operation between
the municipalities it has provided the urban nuclei connected by this network with equipment and with
works and it has dedicated, and continues to do so, a great deal of effort into the management of
undeveloped land.
A sample of this can be found in the plans for the prevention of forest fires, drawn up and financed at
the petition of the municipalities of the province. Although, in the case of the roadways, it is
foreseeable that they will be transferred to the Generalitat, this does not mean that in the future work
to improve the accessibility of the land will not continue. This objective will be carried out by means
of alternative action on the network of paths.
The preservation of natural spaces has been one of the basic objectives of the planning action of the
Diputació and, in the chosen areas of action, it has conditioned the rest of the previously mentioned
interventions. Both the process of development and the infrastructures have to be submitted to the
demands of the preservation of a countryside which we understand as being shaped by natural
processes and by the inescapable marks of man and of culture. In this way there is no credible project
of landscape and environmental protection that can avoid an integral consideration of the territorial
values in the sense of saving «natural» and «cultural», both within and outside the areas of special
protection.
The city of Barcelona is part of a system of polynucleic cities whose outer crown forms an arch that
goes from Vilanova i la Geltrú to Mataró, going through Vilafranca del Penedés, Sant Sadurní
d’Anoia, Terrassa, Sabadell and Granollers. We have submitted the whole system to an analysis
characterised by the assumption of holistic criteria which incorporate disciplines which are
indispensable at the change of the miliennium; structuralisim cylbernetics, theory of complexity,
thermodynamic approximations and the concepton of a whole urban system in terms of ecosystems.
The results obtained allow us to coordinatethe system of spaces with special protection as a part of this
system of cities, a substancial part which adopts a scheme of networks and guarantees the continuity
of the natural system and the conservation of the biodiversity.
This network, close by to the system of previously~ mentioned cities, consists of a ring or belt of
150.000 hectares. The network continues as such beyond the belt, but the singularity of this shape and
the fact that 95,000 have already been managed by mutual agreetment by a hundred municipalities
have caused us to formulate the Green Belt as a specific project within the more general limits of the
preservation of environment.
Uniderstood as being a component of the urban ecosystem in its entirety, thee Green Belt contributes
heavily to slowing down the distortion to the ecology in an area that covers more than 3,000 km2 and
holds more than 70% of the population of Catalonia (4,200,000 inhabitants) with an economic activity
which generates 72% of the GNP.
From this point of view, the traditional planning intervention of the Diputació becomes an integral
action directed at preserving the entire urban system, exploring the limits of its possible growth in
function of the sustainable maintenance of the whole.
The context in which operation Green Belt has to be situated is the improvement of the quality of life
of the citizens, this being the demand of the local world when proposing the Diputació to coordinate
and manage the operations that make it all possible. On the other hand, this is also the political wish
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that drives the project from within the institution due to the fact that we have always seen the
preservation of natural spaces as part of the framework of non-Cartesian humanism which
incorporates nature in its well being.
Finally, the responsibihity includes solidarity with the generations that in the future will enjoy the
country (countryside comes from country) and this means an ecological vision of town and country
planning in a puzzle. These questions are not inconsistent with other places in the world and as such it
is not at all strange that the Green Belt project has interested the local authorities of London, Rome,
Budapest and Shanghai. The creation of synergies that this happening can represent will be the best
way of forming the ecological way of thinking that requires global thinking and local action.
6.2. Partial Plan for the area of Pla de Ponent (Gavà)

The urban planning of the Pla de Ponent, area placed on township of Gavà (near Barcelona), consists
of the territory reorganizing, endowing it with new structures, public natural spaces and services,
completing the whole residential space, preserving and recovering the environmental heritage of the
city, as the delimited area has a great landscape, environmental, historical and artistic value.
The main characteristic of this new Plan are the following ones:
• Environment preservation in a ratio higher than the 60% of the area and protection of the
archaeological and architectural heritage.
• Residential action with the minor rate of built land as the PGM (General township Plan)
establishes.
• Creation of new residential spaces with approaching for sustainable and reasonable urban
increasing.
The editing of this Partial Plan means the modification from part of the General Plan, still in hand, for
the following aspects:
• Planning of this area (green belt previously) to convert it in building land, with a surface
for public spaces higher tan the 80% of the area
• Development of the area around “La Sentiu 2” converting it form building land to green
belt.
• Taking as reference dimensions the maximum parameters of density and built possibilities
included in the General Plan.
The basic instructions of this Partial Plan are the following ones:
• Identification of the main characteristic of the urban structure in Baix Llobregat (region
where Gavà is situated), Gavà’s important role in the urban structure of this region.
• Protection of environment will, as a positive point of the method.
• Definition of the new urban structure through the new residential areas, with its own
structure and at the same time related with the city.
Town planning proposal objectives:

• Identification of natural spaces and those ones those are strategic in metropolitan land.
• Protection of the archaeological and architectural heritage.
• Variety in the management of natural spaces in this area.
• Identification of main network in the area.
• Structure of the road network with new transit roads, internal roads, only wheeled roads,
and walkways only for pedestrian.
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The next proposal, is based on the idea of compacting the city with the purpose to expand the field and
creating new natural spaces; relating to the road network, the two main routes will still have their
significance, so it will be created a road network that organise all urban area. Another important point
of this natural spaces structure is the creation of new equipment, overcoat in green spaces. Relating to
residential and activity urban areas, it conceived a new residential according to the different requests.
Regulating by-laws
The Partial Plan follows guidelines from the Metropolitan General Plan; the Partial Plan will take
effect the following day after being publicised in the D.O.G.C (Diari Oficial de la Generalitat de
Catalunya) and its validity will be indefinite; in this Plan will be linked the Public Administration, the
enterprises and individuals.
For the Plan’s execution it will have to be written the corresponding urbanization projects that will fit
to the Rules of the Ground’s Law’s Planning. It will be made an area’s division, and starting from the
resultant properties it will be written the building projects. With the solicitudes of works’ licenses it
will be included the basic project of the installation. In the Plan have been included a list of by-laws
that will regulate the sustainability of the actions made in the area. It will have to be remembered the
system carried out, the solar irradiation and protection, the bi-thermal appliance’s pre-installation, the
building’s sunny, the sono-reduction pavements, rain water improvement, lighting, land reserve, the
type of roof, vegetation in private gardens and the different systems of free spaces, equipment and
road network.
The definitions and determinations about the parameters used for the idea about admissible uses and
these ones that regulate construction, land occupation, public space geometry and other urban aspects,
for all those aspects not regulated by the Plan at present, will be applied those ones established by the
Metropolitan General Plan or the modifications that affect it.
The specifications at areas and systems will have to remember the following aspects: land division,
building deepness rate in each plot, occupation, floor’s height, installations, projecting, plot’s
geometry, building volume, higher occupation in each plot, free land, minimum divisions, topographic
adaptation and fieldwork, the order of the kind of building, the order’s configuration, ground floor’s
level and the parameters for order about soft configuration.
Moreover will be regulated some specific rules for all these areas where will be established parameters
for: house for several families with intensity 1, house for several families with intensity 2, in line
houses for several families and hotels.
7- Recommendations
The laws, the procedure and the regulations that delimit the Catalan area of performance, which is
inserted inside the Spanish state but which has his own particularities, answer in different degree to the
objectives established inside the project HQE2R.
Inside these new laws the aspects of sustainability remain quiet so much to environmental as social,
and economic level. Nevertheless, his reference always is made in a generic form and without defining
concrete aspects neither establishing clear criteria of applicability or control. In this aspect it would be
advisable to have a few requirements or more specific indications for every area of the sustainability.
In this context, some of our recommendations would be:

• To define preventive concrete measures (for example, the level of energetic saving, to
define the management of residues, or the use of the resources), establishing a few minimums
from the laws.
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• Regulates in the environmental impact studies the documentation and the analysis which
are necessary to present, and the use that is going to be realized of these studies.
• Links with all the process defined in the Local Agenda 21.
• Finally, the aspects defined inside the ordinance of the Pla de Ponent, of Gavà, will be a
reference document to introduce in the new plans of every municipality.
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VII – UNITED-KINGDOM
1 - National legislation, guidance and responsibilities

1.1 - The Development of Planning
(from odpm, 2002, planning green paper, planning : delivering fundamental change,
www.planning.odpm.gov.uk/consult/greenpap)
The basic structure of the planning system is over 50 years old, although the first town planning
legislation dates from 1909. It was not until the end of the Second World War that the need to plan for
reconstruction of devastated areas made new planning legislation imperative, which resulted in the
1947 Act. The legislation was last modified in 1990.
Planning over the last half century has had its successes and its failures. The least successful aspects of
planning come quickly to mind: the sprawling housing estates completed in the 1960s and 70s;
concrete jungles that replaced our town centres and which we now know attract graffiti and vandalism;
and inner ring roads that were seen as a way of increasing mobility but all too often broke up urban
communities.
There have also been some clear wins. Planning has helped preserve our best landscapes in National
Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and many of our best buildings and townscapes
through listed building and conservation area controls. Green Belts have prevented urban sprawl.
More recently, our policies on re-use of brownfield land have promoted urban renaissance and the
regeneration of town centres.
1.2 - Planning Legislation and Guidance

(from ball, d., lyddon, d. and mabbitt, r. in isocarp,1992, international manual of planning practice
and odpm, 2002, planning green paper, planning : delivering fundamental change)
The principal planning legislation for England is the Town and Country Planning Act of 1990. This
replaces the Act of 1947, which laid the foundations of the modern British planning system, and the
Act of 1968. The definition of development in the legal context includes all ‘building, engineering,
mining or other operations in, on, over or under the land, or the making of any material change in the
use of any buildings or other land.’ Planning law also covers waste disposal, the display of
advertisements and minerals extraction. Agriculture, forestry, road maintenance and minor extensions
to buildings are not included.
As there is no written constitution in the UK, Acts of Parliament are the means by which it is set out:
• What must be done, by prescribing duties or obligations;
• What may be done, by conferring discretionary powers.
The Town and Country Planning Acts and the Planning Policy Guidance notes (see below) allow
Central and Local Government wide freedom to act, or discretion. The main statutory requirements are
that:
• Development plans must be produced;
• Development must be controlled.
Development plans are guides, they are not legal documents, and a decision on a planning application
is administrative, not legal. Therefore, neither a plan nor a decision may be challenged in a court of
law. Only the procedure or process may be challenged. The Town and Country Planning Acts set out
the framework for plan-making and development control and provide regulations for the roles of
central and local government. The safety of buildings and building control is dealt with under separate
legislation and regulations.
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The current planning system in England has two main parts: a framework of plans and development
control. A third element is the role of the Secretary of State in determining planning policy, deciding
planning appeals and some important applications. The planning system is plan-led, which means that
if planning applications are in accordance with the development plan, they are likely to be approved
unless there are ‘material considerations’ that suggest otherwise. These may be, for example,
subsequent national policy statements that may override the plan or changes in local circumstance. In
practice, such material considerations very often do apply because local plans are frequently out of
date.
Regional Planning Guidance provides a strategic planning framework in each of the eight English
regions and in London, the Mayor prepares a Spatial Development Strategy. Development plans are
produced by county authorities (structure plans), district councils (local plans) and, in unitary
authorities, a unitary development plan which combines elements of both. National parks also produce
their own plans.
The system by which planning applications are determined is known as development control.
Development control authorities are normally the districts and unitary authorities responsible for
putting local plans in place. Planning applications are submitted to these authorities and decided either
by their elected councillors or by local authority officers accountable to them.
Local government is guided in writing development plans and making planning decisions by the
Planning Policy Guidance notes (PPGs). These are listed below:
http://www.planning.dtlr.gov.uk/ppg/index.htm
PPG1: General Policy and Principles 1997
PPG2: Green Belts 1996
PPG3: Housing 2000
PPG4: Industrial and Commercial Development and Small Firms 1992
PPG5: Simplified Planning Zones 1992
PPG6: Town Centres and Retail Development 1996
PPG7: The Countryside - Environmental Quality and Economic and Social Development 1997
PPG8: Telecommunications 2001
PPG9: Nature Conservation 1994
PPG10: Planning and Waste Management 1997
PPG11: Regional Planning 2000
PPG12: Development Plans 1999
PPG13: Transport 1994
PPG14: Development on Unstable Land 1990
PPG15: Planning and the Historic Environment 1994
PPG16: Archaeology and Planning 1990
PPG17: Planning for Open Space, Sport and Recreation 2002
PPG18: Enforcing Planning Control 1991
PPG19: Outdoor Advertisement Control 1992
PPG20: Coastal Planning 1992
PPG21: Tourism 1992
PPG22: Renewable Energy 1993
PPG23: Planning and Pollution Control 1994
PPG24: Planning and Noise 1994
PPG25: Development and Flood Risk 2001
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1.3 - Responsibilities
(from ball, d., lyddon, d. and mabbitt, r. in isocarp,1992, international manual of planning practice
and odpm, 2002, planning green paper, planning : delivering fundamental change)
Central Government
Policy Produces policy statements and proposals contained in: consultation documents, green papers
and white papers; regional and planning policy guidance notes and circular letters to planning
authorities dealing with policies and procedure.
Regulations and orders Prescribing e.g. content of plans, classes of development, general permission
for specified minor development.
Decisions Approving, modifying or rejecting planning applications referred on appeal or ‘call-in’.
Local Government (District, County, and Unitary Councils, National Parks)

Survey Required to examine and review the issues which are likely to affect development in their area.
Consultation Planning authorities must consult with neighbouring authorities, government
departments and other agencies when drawing up their plans.
Structure Plan A written statement, illustrated by maps required to be made by each county planning
authority, showing policies and general proposals for the medium to long term.
Local Plan A map and written statement made by each district planning authority containing proposals
for the development of other use of the land in its area including improvement of the physical
environment and the management of traffic.
Minerals Local Plans and Waste Local Plans Prepared by county planning authorities.
Publicity Planning authorities must secure adequate publicity for the report of survey; provide
opportunity for the public to comment on development plans; make copies of the draft plan available
for inspection and comment.
Public examination and inquiries Selected issues in the draft Structure Plan are subjected to and
Examination n Public. The draft Local Plan is examined in a Public Local Inquiry unless objectors
agree otherwise.
Adoption Following any modifications as a result of objection of as required by central government
the development plan is adopted by the local authority.
Development Control The Acts set out procedures for: applying for and granting planning permission,
i.e. permission to carry out development; for appeal against decisions; for establishing the need to
obtain permission in any particular case; for enforcing decisions.
Finance The administration of planning is paid for out of revenue from local taxes supplemented by
government grant.
1.4 - Recent Developments and Looking Ahead

The Local Government Act of 2000 placed a new duty on local authorities to maintain and improve
the ‘economic, social and environmental well-being’ of their area. The principal mechanism for
implementing this is the new requirement to produce Community Strategies. The Community Strategy
is intended to be a comprehensive strategic document that co-ordinates the activities of all public
agencies within a council area. It must be produced through a process that includes all sectors of the
community. In many authorities, the community strategy will be produced by a ‘Local Strategic
Partnership’, which brings together representatives from across the public, community and private
sectors.
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In 2002, the UK Government issued a Planning Green Paper, which launched a consultation on major
reforms to the planning system of England. Among the proposals are the abolition of Structure Plans,
the main strategic planning instruments of local government. It is also proposed that local plans would
be replaced by less detailed ‘Local Development Frameworks’ (LDFs). Within these LDFs, more
detailed ‘Local Action Plans’ would only be drawn up for areas which were the subject of
development pressure. The Local Action Plans would be produced with strong community input,
possibly with leadership from neighbourhood forums. Local authorities would be encouraged to link
the planning process to the Community Strategy and Local Strategic Partnership.
2 - Comments on Planning Practice in Respect of the

HQE2R Targets for Neighbourhood Sustainability
The nature of planning regulation in England is to leave considerable flexibility for policies to be co-
ordinated and decisions to be made at the local level, with central government having powers to
intervene in the case of major developments. It could be argued that there is scope within planning
laws and policy guidance for local authorities to meet many of the HQE2R targets:
• Provision of a housing mix which promotes diversity in the population

• Using brownfield land for housing development
• Limiting out-of-town retail development
• Encouraging diversity in land use
• The siting of facilities to improve integration and transport links
• Siting of facilities to improve access and reduce travel
• To preserve the built heritage and natural environment
• To prevent development which damages the environment excessively
• To encourage development that uses sustainable construction techniques.
Whether these targets are met in practice depends in part upon the efficacy of the local planning
authority in mediating between the sometimes conflicting wants and needs of developers and their
local community.
The role of the modern planner is one of facilitation, and less frequently of large-scale intervention.
The wholesale remodelling of cities that occurred in the 1950s-70s is no longer possible, and is no
longer seen as appropriate. Local planners can guide development through local plans, but beyond
that, their role is largely reactive. Planners can only influence development where developers or public
agencies put forward proposals. It could thus be argued that the planning system does not place
barriers in the way of sustainable development, but neither does it have the power to make sustainable
development happen.
Movement towards sustainability through the planning system is thus gradual, as local planners
respond to development proposals in the light of government policy. The process can be seen to work,
for example, through recent developments in planning policy guidance notes (PPGs). The current
version of PPG 6 on Town Centres and Retail Development was issued in 1996. It provided strong
guidance to counteract the trend towards out-of-town shopping, which was consuming land and
damaging many town centres across the country. This guidance has been implemented by planning
authorities across the country and has effectively prevented the development of any major new out-of-
town shopping centres.
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VIII – DO URBAN PLANNING LAWS

SUPPORT SD?
To the question “do urban planning laws (and programmes) support Sustainable Development,
the answer , for the seven Member States studied, is YES but there are large differences of
content depending on the Member States, the cities and the actors concerned.
1 - National urban law

Different National Laws on Urban Planning, with a land-use base, have been introduced in Europe
since 1992. Our study gives four examples of where new urban planning laws have been established
and are being applied at the city level:
France: The Urban Solidarity and Renewal Law (SRU Law) modifies the Urbanism Code in the
direction of sustainable development: Urbanism must be conceived according to SD objectives.
At the city level, this means elaboration of an Urbanism Local Plan (PLU) using a new document:
the SD and Planning Project (PADD). This must justify the way city planning answers SD
objectives
Germany: The system of urban planning in Germany dates from 1960 (Federal Building Law).
There have been only minor changes in respect of the fundamental aspects of the planning system
since that time. The most important development has been a modification of some regulations in
1998 (now called the Building Code) – modifications towards a stronger consideration of
environmental aspects.
The Building Code has established the principle that “land-use plans shall safeguard sustainable
urban development and a socially equitable utilisation of land for the general good of the
community, and shall contribute to securing a more human environment and to protecting and
developing the basic conditions of life for natural elements”.
Italy: Town Planning Law + Ministry Decree (Town Planning Standard), Decree Law 490/99,
seeks to preserve cultural and environmental assets; this law is accompanied by programming
laws which allow works to be undertaken: urban rehabilitation programmes are covered by Law
179/92 and the Decree of December 1994.
Spain: Ley del Suelo y de ordenacion urbana (Soil and urban planning Law, 1998) introduces
“sustainability” without clarifying the concept
Catalonia: Law 2/2002 concerning urbanism introduces theobjectives of urban SD and of the
rational use of land and of the environment
These recent or modified laws introduce sustainable development in an explicit way and can, as
for example in France and Germany, concern many of the objectives of sustainable
development, including those covering social factors.
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INTEGRATION OF SD OBJECTIVES
IN THE URBAN PLANNING LAWS
IN FOUR MEMBER STATES
MEMBER France
Germany Italy Spain / Catalonia
STATES Urban Solidarity
Building Code Town Planning Law Law 2/2002
and Renewal
SD
OBJECTIVES 12/2000 1960 (recently modified) 2002
Need for a consideration
of all relevant aspects in
the planning proces Rational use of land
Balanced use of spaces (including environmental Preservation of historical,
Heritage and Management of natural
– natural, urban, aspects) environmental and
resources resources and use of
suburban and rural landscape character
Possibility to define renewable energy sources
special areas for wind
energy installations
Preservation of the Need for compatibility of
quality of air, water, the different kinds of use
Quality of land, eco-systems,... of properties
the local
environment Special rules for the
alleviation of urban
deficiencies
Diversity of urban
functions and social mix
Possibility to meet Diversity of housing
Balance between urban different housing Diversity of functions in
Diversity renewal, urban (social housing)
requirements and social or each area
development, rural cultural needs Fight against poverty
space and preservation
of natural space
Possibility to avoid
extremely negative
developments concerning Minimum of public space
Control of transport and
Integration the expansion of the area and public facilities in
traffic
of settlement each area of the city
Requirement of two-stage
Urbanism to be a public
Social Life Participation processes participation of the public
responsibility
in the planning process
Source: La Calade
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2 - Urban Planning Laws at an infra-city level

A Member State such as Denmark is surely more advanced than many other countries in taking into
account sustainable development at the neighbourhood level.
Several Laws are presented in this report which analyses urban planning at an infra-city level:
Denmark: Urban Renewal Law and Law on improvement of the Neighbourhood including
social measures, improvement of buildings and architectural design,… in an integrated and
coordinated approach
Italy: Urban rehabilitation (Law 493, December 1993, n° 493) – particular attention to decay in
the urban periphery; Neighbourhood contracts (Law 499/97 and decree 22/10/1997):
Rehabilitation of physically decayed areas characterized by social tension and higher standards of
liveability in residential neighbourhoods; Urban Transformation Companies or STU (2000) for
areas where the requirement for restructuring the urban system takes priority over restructuring
and rehabilitation of buildings, while the dimensions and strategic importance remain the same.
This Law supports design, implementation and management of the process of urban
transformation and commercialization of services.
France: Urban Solidarity and Renewal Law (December 2000) reinforces the role of specific
renovation procedures at the neighbourhood scale such as the “Opération Programmée
d’Amélioration de l’Habitat” or OPAH in renovating private collective buildings with the support
of national incentives (to reduce the number of unoccupied flats, to improve the standard of living
of inhabitants,...)
INTEGRATION OF SD OBJECTIVES
IN THREE LAWS AT THE NEIGHBOURHOOD LEVEL
MEMBER Denmark
Denmark Italy Denmark
STATES Improvement of
Urban renewal Urban rehabilitation Urban renewal
Neighbourhoods
SD
OBJECTIVES 2000 1993 2000
To introduce and To introduce and improve
Heritage and improve ecological, To improve the ecological ecological, resource
resources resource saving and situation saving and environmental
environmental solutions solutions
To improve the general
To improve the general
standard of life
standard of life
Quality of To prevent severe Urban furniture,
To reduce the physical To prevent severe decay
the local decay of buildings Maintenance of buildings
deterioration of buildings of buildings
environment To improve architectural and equipment
To improve architectural
solutions in urban
solutions in urban renewal
renewal
To create good Renovation of buildings in
To improve the number of To create good dwellings
Diversity dwellings and good order to diversify the
leisure activities and good housing areas
housing areas supply
Accessibility to services,
To improve the traffic particularly for
Integration
situation urbanisation of the
periphery
Social measures for
employment, reducing
crime and excessive
To involve tenants and mobility of inhabitants To involve tenants and
Social Life
buildings owners Involvement of tenants buildings owners
and owners, dialogue
between inhabitants and
experts
Source: La Calade and CSTB
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3 - Urban Planning Laws for super-local areas

The integration of sustainable development at the regional level or super – local level is made possible
by several countries which encourage the implementation of regional planning including social,
economic and ecological functions. For example,
France: Voynet Law (1999): “Territorial” projects based on a contract and the voluntary
engagement of local authorities in defining a common project on a common territory (pays) in
rural areas or conurbations. The projects directly refer to a SD approach.
In addition, the SRU Law (2000) foresees the implementation of a Territorial Consistency
Scheme (SCoT) which is a strategic town planning document aiming to harmonise sectorial
policies in the fields of town planning, habitat, transport and new installations. This document is
drafted on the basis of a boundary which corresponds to the territory of a single and
homogeneous continuous area, taking into consideration physical, economic and social
characteristics (lifesupport area, employment area, conurbation, country…).
Germany: German Federal Regional Planning Act (1997): this law for spatial planning and
regional planning provides a guide to the overall concepts of sustainable regional development
which will bring the social and economic demands made on an area into line with its ecological
functions and result in a stable order which will be well-balanced on a large scale.
Italy: Programme of Urban rehabilitation and Sustainable Territorial development or PRUSST

(1998), concentrates on the infrastructure systems of metropolitan areas and of new development
areas: Strengthening of both point and line infrastructure (ports, airports, stations, etc.),
improvement and completion of the territory with facilities and equipments, creation of an
integrated system of activities (industrial, commercial and craft establishments, tourist
accommodation,...); the PRUSST programme includes infrastructure and offers the possibility of
expropriating the whole area for the implementation of the Programme.
4 - Instrumental laws
Beside these general laws, there are also a number of instrumental laws which allow the
implementation of thematic activities in the field of SD.
This report does not aim to present all these laws since they are numerous in many Member States. To
these we can add the European directives. We focus only on several examples:
a) Energy
- Denmark: Energy Labelling and Solar thermal Energy in Public Buildings
- France: new thermal regulation “RT 2000”
- Germany: “Energy Saving Decree”: important regulation concerning environmental issues. This
decree also includes requirements for the renovation of existing buildings.
- Italy: Municipal Energy Plan
- …
b) Global cost and environmental analysis

- Denmark: Least Cost Analysis for the construction of new social housing
- Germany: All laws relevant to large super-local development projects include an obligatory
“environmental impact analysis”
- Italy: Assessment of Environmental Impact (VIA, 1996)
- Spain: Environmental assessment required by the Law of urbanism in Catalonia, necessary for
approval of the Municipal Plan for Urbanism– Tools yet to be developed
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c) Building
- Denmark: Danish building regulation valid for the construction of new buildings as well as the
substantial renovation of existing buildings
- Germany: Act for the Reform of the Legal Housing Construction Regulations stipulates : “The
promotion of social housing construction requires the sustainability of the housing supply, bringing
economic and social demands into line with the preservation of the environment”
- Italy: Voluntary Requisites of the standard building regulations in Emilia Romagna Region
(2001), including obligations for municipalities concerning energy saving, building performance,
control of the building process,...
- Protection of Monuments: laws in Germany, France, Italy, etc.
- European Union: “Construction Products Directive”.
- …
d) Open spaces
- France: legislation for the preservation of mountain, coastal areas,…
- Spain / Catalonia: legislation concerning green spaces
e) Transport
- Urban Traffic Plan : PUT in Italy, PDU in France ... to improve the circulation of traffic and road
safety, to reduce noise and air pollution, to limit energy consumption and to respect environmental
values
- …
f) Networks and works
- Italy: General Urban Plan of Underground services (PUGGS), directive of the Ministry of Public
Works in 1999 in order to rationalise and coordinate both surface and underground public works
- …
g) Environment plan
- Italy, France,...: Acoustic protection plan : corrective action
- All countries: quality of air, classified activities, waste,...
- …
These laws are not urban planning laws but reinforce the capacity to move towards sustainability. A
frequent obstacle will be the lack of interconnection (transversality) between the different services in
charge of urban planning at the global or local scale and city planning.
5 - Programmes aiming for sustainability

Beside these laws, there are also programmes which can be used for integrating SD. The study gives
some examples:
- Germany, France, Italy,...: Programmes to support people in rehabilitating their buildings
- Germany: Socially Integrative City: programme to include individual action plans in integrated
urban development at the neighbourhood level; establishment of neighbourhood management for the
following items: land management, environmental protection, mobility management, housing,
economic development.
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- Germany: “Urban Reconstruction East”

- Denmark: Agenda 21 strategy paper is compulsory for each city and requires that five fields are
covered:
• reduction of environment pollution,
• sustainable urban development and renewal,
• biological diversity,
• cooperation with the local inhabitants, organisations, private companies in defining issues for the
Local Agenda 21 plan,
• promotion of the interaction between decisions which affect environmental, traffic, social,
educational, health, cultural and economic issues.
6 - Strong points of the Urban Planning regulations

Globally, the Urban Planning Laws in Europe favour the promotion of Sustainable
Development. More and more, laws directly refer to the integration of SD in urban planning.
Moreover, some countries have all the general conditions which allow spatial planning to consider the
different aspects of sustainable development: a constitution or decentralised decision-making structure
facilitating public participation, and urban laws which cite sustainable urban development as a
guiding principle: examples are Germany and Catalonia.
In Denmark, the obligation to carry out a Local Agenda 21 favours taking SD into account in
urbanism and planning
Urban Planning laws also reflects the opinions of the public and their elected representatives that it is
necessary to consider the different dimensions of the city: buildings, activities, employment, traffic,
environment,... SD becomes a necessity to which the laws refer but there is difficulty in its
implementation...
In the same way, urban planning laws increasingly provide the opportunity to take into consideration
the wishes and interests of all the parties affected by a certain planning decision. Consultation
becomes a very important step in the urban planning process...
7 - Problems to solve
• These urban planning laws also encounter a number of problems concerning the integration of
truly Sustainable Development (SD). Several difficulties arise from the SD concept itself:
a) By definition SD requires the solution of contradictions between economic, social and
environmental factors ; SD is a locus of conflicts and these conflicts must be organized for
cooperation to be achieved between the different actors; methods for solving conflicts at the local
level are not always understood, particularly in countries which are accustomed to centralisation
(France for example). In other cases, those concerned with the three fields of SD are not used to
working together...
b) SD is a new concept and SD in cities is far from being well understood. The role of cities in the
promotion of SD is not clear; the Johannesburg Conference has only recently shown the way to set
the role of cities in the SD process
c) SD is not an urban planning concept whereas urban planning laws are created with and
sometimes by experts in urban design. New capacities must be developed for the integration of SD
concepts and to ensure they are clearly defined at the city level.
d) Difficulties in defining and quantifying SD objectives (even in very concrete actions such as
traffic plans...)
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• A second series of problems arise from the lack of references and tools:
e) Lack of references: No assessment of urban planning projects, as the laws are very recent: the
Urban Renewal Law in Denmark and the SRU Law in France date from 2000, the Catalonian Law
on Urbanism dates from 2002, ...; the new laws also lead to new interactions between public
institutions (national, local), economic actors, lobbies, inhabitants,... which have not yet been
defined
f) Lack of methods and tools for integrating SD in urban planning: France (SRU Law)
g) Methods for assessing environmental impacts are still very recent and not proved in practice (the
European directive for assessment only dates from May 2001)
• A third series of problems comes from SD not being popular and going against the current:
h) Indeed, SD implementation is very difficult for many municipalities if their teams must act
against social demands: to fight urban sprawl by restricting the development of car traffic, to
increase density by encouraging multi-family buildings, and creating a social mix: France (SRU
Law).
i) Difficulties also arise when a local development plan must be worked out according to a principle
of avoidance and give compensation for negative environmental impacts (case in Germany).
j) Direct or indirect financial incentives for the development of the built environment may
contradict the guiding principles of sustainable development. Side effects which are in
contradiction to sustainable urban development arise from many sources – especially where the
fiscal system, direct public subsidies or the provision of public infrastructure facilitate non-
sustainable life patterns. For example the existing system of public subsidies prefers the
construction of new buildings to the rehabilitation of the existing building stock,...
• A fourth series of problems comes from SD having a cost in the short term. SD generally
requires an initial cost which will be higher than the cost in the free market but SD will be
viable on the long term, by integrating external costs (social, environmental, property) which
appear later, during the life of a project.
k) One main failure of the spatial planning system which hinders sustainable urban development, is
the competition between municipalities for the establishment of new companies and the
attraction of new residents. In order to attract new companies and residents, municipalities are
tempted to designate for new building, zones which offer cheap building land: mainly these are on
former agricultural land. This cheap building land is intendeded to increase demand. As most
municipalities act in this way and inter-communal co-operation is the exception, the supply of new
building land exceeds the demand thus guaranteeing low land prices at the edge of the cities. The
resulting expansion of the settlement area with all the negative effects of urban sprawl results from
strong local planning autonomy combined with weak regional planning instruments.
l) Since private property and the right to the exploitation of land is at the very heart of any market
economy, the position of private land owners within these processes is comparatively strong. This
often prevents the reuse of unused properties for public purposes. Expropriation – although in
principle legally possible – is fairly difficult and the low financial capacity of local authorities
or municipalities usually does not allow them to pay the compensation demanded by legal
regulations: this is often higher than the value according to the current use of the properties
concerned.
• A fifth series of problems arise from the lack of experience of resident participation in the
urban planning process. This participation is new and generates considerable fear:
m) Resident consultation unusual; so the tendency is to prefer a minimum level of consultation even
where the Law can give more opportunities: for example in France (SRU Law)
106
n) Urban planning mixes technical aspects (zoning regulations for example), long term perspectives,
and the integration of global versus individual interests: the problems and the expectations of the
whole municipality must be taken into account, the municipality being both the inhabitants and
actors in the city and also the other people living or working close by. A training process is
necessary for residents but also for providers of municipal services and even sometimes for those
of State services which have been decentralised (as in France).
107
APPENDIX: THE HQE²R PROJECT PARTNERS

FRANCE
Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment
(CSTB)
www.cstb.fr
Catherine CHARLOT-VALDIEU Ville d'Angers
Route des Lucioles - BP 209 Mrs MOREAU, councillor
F-06904 SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS Cedex Mr Gilles MAHE, councillor
Mr Gildas BALES
Phone: +33 4 93 95 67 08 Hotel de Ville, BP 3527
Fax: +33 4 93 95 64 31 F-49035 ANGERS CEDEX 1
E-mail: catherine.charlot-valdieu@cstb.fr Phone: + 33 2 41 05 40 00
or charlot_valdieu@cstb.fr Fax: +33 2 41 05 39 00
Web: www.angers.fr
Laure NAGY
La Roseraie
84 Avenue Jean Jaurès – BP 02
F-77421 MARNE LA VALLEE Cedex
Phone: +33 1 64 68 84 54
Fax: +33 1 64 68 83 50
E-mail: laure.nagy@cstb.fr Ville de Cannes
Mrs COTTER, councillor
Daniela BELZITI Mr CIER
Hotel de Ville, BP 140
Route des Lucioles - BP 209 F- 06406 CANNES
F-06904 SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS Cedex Phone: + 33 4 97 06 40 00
Fax: +33 4 97 06 46 22
Phone: +33 4 93 95 64 59 Web: www.cannes.fr
Fax: +33 4 93 64 31
E-mail: daniela.belziti@cstb.fr Mimont-Prado-République
La Calade
www.la-calade.org
Ville d'Echirolles
Philippe OUTREQUIN
Mrs PRINCE–CLAVEL, councillor
Mr Jean CABALLERO, Director of technical
services
Mrs Valérie VACCHIANI
Hotel de Ville, BP 248,
F- 38433 ECHIROLLES CEDEX
Phone: + 33 4 76 63 00
Fax: +33 4 76 40 45 87
363 Avenue de Pierrefeu Web: www.ville-echirolles.fr
F-06560 VALBONNE
La Viscose
Phone: +33 4 93 40 29 30
Ville d'Anzin
Fax: +33 4 93 42 07 28
Mr Gery DUVAL, Mayor
E-mail: la.calade@free.fr or info@la-calade.org
Mr François DEPOND, "chef de Cabinet"
Hotel de Ville, Place Roger Salengro, BP 89
F- 59416 ANZIN CEDEX
Phone: + 33 3 27 28 21 00
Fax: +33 3 27 28 21 01
Salengro-République
108
SPAIN
Institut de Tecnologia de la Construcció de Catalunya
(ITeC)
www.itec.es
Fructuós MAÑÀ Patronat Municipal de
l'Habitatge de Barcelona
C/ Dr. Aiguader, 26-36
E-08003 Barcelona
C/ Wellington 19
Phone: +34 93 291 85 08
E-08018 Barcelona, Catalunya
E-mail: cramis@sct.ictnet.es
Web: www.bcn.es
Phone: +34 93 309 34 04
Fax: +34 933 00 48 52 Bon Pastor
E-mail: fmanya@itec.es
Ajuntament de Manresa/Foment de la
Rehabilitació Urbana de Manresa S.A.
Albert CUCHÍ FÒRUM
Noemí GRANADO Plaça de la Immaculada, 3 baixos
E-08240 Manresa
Emilio RAMIRO
Phone: +34 93 872 56 01
Fax: +34 93 872 72 56
E-mail: jarmengol@forum-sa.org
Web: www.ajmanresa.org
C / Wellington 19
E-08018 Barcelona, Catalunya Direcció General d'Arquitectura i Habitatge.
Generalitat de Catalunya.
Phone: +34 93 309 34 04 C/ Aragó 244-248, 5ena planta
Fax: +34 933 00 48 52 E-08029 Barcelona
E-mail: ngranado@itec.es
Phone: +34 93 495 82 86
E-mail: wbadenas@gencat.net
Web: www.gencat.es
Antic / Escodines / Vic-Remei
Collegi d'Aparelladors I Arquitectes Tècnics de Barcelona

(CAATB)
www.apabcn.es
Xavier CASANOVAS
Foment de Ciutat Vella
Carrer Bon Pastor, 5 Mr Marc Aureli Santos
E-08021 Barcelona Mr Martí Abella i Pere
Carrer Pinto Fortuny 17-19
Phone: +34 93 240 20 60 E-08001 Barcelona
Fax: +34 93 240 20 61
E-mail: xavica@apabcn.es Phone: + 34 93 343 54 54
Fax: + 34 93 343 54 55
Oriol CUSIDO E-mail:
masantos@fomentciutatvella.net
Carrer Bon Pastor, 5 mabella@fomentciutatvella.net
E-08021 Barcelona Web: www.bcn.es
Phone: +34 93 240 23 66 Raval - Ciutat Vella

Fax: +34 93 240 20 61
E-mail: ocusido@apabcn.es
109
GERMANY
Institute of Ecological and Regional Development
(IÖR)
www.ioer.de
Andreas BLUM Landeshauptstadt Dresden
Mrs Kathrin Kircher, headmistress urban renewal
Weberplatz 1 and neighbourhood planning
D-01217 Dresden Stadtplanungsamt
Hamburger Straße 19
Phone: +49 351 4679245 D-01067 Dresden
Fax: +49 351 4679212
E-mail: a.blum@ioer.de Phone: +49 351 4883620
Fax: +49 351 4883579
Holger MARTIN
E-mail:
Weberplatz 1 kkircher@dresden.de
D-01217 Dresden
Web: www.dresden.de
Phone: +49 351 4679246
Fax: +49 351 4679212
E-mail: h.martin@ioer.de Loebtau
ITALY
Istituto Cooperativo per l'Innovazione
(ICIE)
www.icie.it
Comune di Cinisello Balsamo
Antonella GROSSI
Mr Giuseppe FARACI, head City Planning
Department
Via Ciamician, 2 Mrs Lucia PALENA, Administrative Coordinator
I-40127 Bologna Mr Roberto RUSSO, City Planning Department
Mrs Marina Lucchini, head Environment
Phone: +39 51 243131 Department and Agenda 21 Coordinator
Fax: +39 51 243266
E-mail: a.grossi@bo.icie.it Via U.Giordano 1
I – 20092 CINISELLO BALSAMO (MI)
Phone: +39 2 66023450
Sandra MATTAROZZI Fax: + 39 2 66023443
Via Ciamician, 2 Web: www.comune.cinisello-balsamo.mi.it

I-40127 Bologna
Phone: +39 51 243131 Crocetta - Cornaggia

Fax: +39 51 243266
E-mail: s.mattarozzi@bo.icie.it
Comune di Mantova
Mr Michele CELONA, head City Planning
Matteo GUALANDI Department
Mr Davide ONEDA, Agenda 21 Coordinator
Mrs Nicoletta LEORATI, City Planning
Department
Via Ciamician, 2
I-40127 Bologna Via Roma 39
I - 46100 MANTOVA
Phone: +39 51 243131 Phone: +39 376 338500
Fax: +39 51 243266 Fax: +39 376 222814
E-mail: m.gualandi@bo.icie.it
Web: www.comune.mantova.it
San Leonardo - Porta Mulina
110
QUASCO - COPRAT
www.quasco.it
Ivan CICCONI
Via Zacconi, 16
I-40127 Bologna
Phone: +39 051 6337811 Comune di Melegnano

Fax: +39 051 6337814 Mr Ercolino DOLCINI, Mayor
E-mail: direttore@quasco.it or res@quasco.it Mrs Giulietta PAGLIACCIO, Environment
committee chairman
Daniela GABUTTI
Mr Vittorio CIPOLLETTA, City planning
Via Corridoni, 56 committee chairman
I-46100 Mantova Phone: +39 02 982081
Fax: +39 02 9837669
Phone: +39 0376 368412
Fax: +39 0376 368894 Mrs Letizia GIARDINETTI, City planning office
E-mail: coprat@tin.it Phone: +39 02 98208302
Fax: +39 02 98208275
Francesco CAPRINI E-mail:
letizia.giardinetti@comune.melegnano.mi.it
Via Corridoni, 56
I-46100 Mantova
Municipio, Piazza Risorgimento, 1
Phone: +39 0376 368412 I-20077 MELEGNANO (MI)
Fax: +39 0376 368894
E-mail: coprat@tin.it
Nicoletta ANCONA Web: www.comune.melegnano.mi.it
Viale Scarampo, 49 Cipes

I-20148 Milano
Phone: +39 02 3271782

Fax: +39 02 33005763
E-mail: n.ancona@archiworld.it
DENMARK
Cenergia
www.cenergia.dk
Ove MORCK Frederiksberg Kommune

Mrs Anne Aunby, Project co-ordinator
Town Hall
Sct. Jacobs Vej 4 Smallegade 1
DK- 2750 Ballerup DK-2000 Frederiksberg
Phone: +45 44 660099 Phone: +45 3821 4265

Fax: +45 44660136 Fax: +45 3821 4500
E-mail: ocm@cenergia.dk Web: www.frederiksberg.dk
Lindevang
111
UNITED-KINGDOM
University of the West of England
(UWE)
www.uwe.ac.uk
Martin SYMES
Frenchay Campus - Coldharbour Lane

UK-BS16 1QY Bristol
Phone: + 44 117 344 3968

Fax: +44 117 344 3002 Bristol Regeneration Partnership
E-mail: martin.symes@uwe.ac.uk Mr Graham Partridge, Best Practice Manager
Community at Heart
Celia ROBBINS Salisbury Street
UK- BS5 9UD Bristol
UK-BS16 1QY Bristol Phone: +44 117 903 9071
E-mail: Graham.partridge@ndcbristol.co.uk
Phone: + 44 117 344 3215
Fax: + 44 117 344 3899
E-mail: celia.robbins@uwe.ac.uk "Community At Heart" Barton Hill,
Redfield, Lawrence Hill, The Dings
Marcus GRANT
UK-BS16 1QY Bristol
Phone: + 44 117 344 3363

Fax: +44 117 344 3899
E-mail: marcus.grant@uwe.ac.uk
THE NETHERLANDS
AMBIT
www.ambit.nl
Gemeente Vlissingen
Jan ZIECK
Mr Henri C.A. Willemsen, head Environmental
Department
Glacisstraat 165
Zijpendaalseweg 1c NL-4381 SE Vlissingen
NL-6814 CA Arnhem
Phone: +31(0)118-487173
Phone: +31(0)26 4427236 Fax: +31(0)118-487070
Fax: +31(0)26 4424276 E-mail: hwn@vlissingen.nl
E-mail: info@ambit.nl Web: www.vlissingen.nl
Royal Schelde Group
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HQE2R Planification Urbaine

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Sustainable renovation of buildings

Urban planning and

Catherine CHARLOT-VALDIEU, CSTB

HQE2R is a project co-financed by the European Commission within the

Catherine CHARLOT–VALDIEU CSTB

Philippe OUTREQUIN La Calade

Under major contribution for the national parts by:

What has been the scope of these measures?

The study makes the main following points:

Memorandum: the HQE2R approach and the findings of the project.............................. 8

III - GERMANY ...................................................................................................................... 32

3.7 - Area Contracts and Territorial Pacts.........................................................................................................60

VII – UNITED-KINGDOM .................................................................................................... 96

VIII – DO URBAN PLANNING LAWS SUPPORT SD? ................................................... 100

APPENDIX: THE HQE²R PROJECT PARTNERS ........................................................... 108

Memorandum: the HQE2R approach

The objectives of the HQE²R project

1.2 - The HQE2R approach and the expected project results

THE HQE²R APPROACH TOW ARDS SUSTAINABLE

PHASE 1 : DECISION PHASE 2 : ANALYSIS

3. Inventory based on the

Source: HQE²R Project (http://hqe2r.cstb.fr) SD: Sustainable Development

- INDI (INDicators Impacts) a model of sustainable regeneration impact using

RESULTS OF THE HQE²R PROJECT:

Definition of 6 SD Choice of 5 SD Development of a shared SD

Elaboration of Recommendations to improve

1 - Laws and programmes

Special law aims are:

I.2 - The Law of Environment Protection

The law includes:

1.3 - The Urban Renewal Scheme (Byfornyelse)

1.4 - Law on Improvement of the Neighbourhood (Kvartersløft)

1.5 - Energy labelling

The law on energy labelling was put into operation in 1996.

1.5.1 - Energy labelling for small buildings

1.5.2 - Energy labelling for larger buildings

1.6 - Instruction on Least Cost Analysis

1.7 - The Danish building regulation

2 - Local experience from local Agenda 21 and

2.2 - Holistic urban renewal projects

Passages from the Administration for Planning’s guidance:

3.2 - Synthesis with respect to the 21 SD targets

The city as authority and planner

The city as builder and landowner

The city as disseminator

Lov om offentlighed i forvaltningen (Offentlighedsloven):

Agenda Center Albertslund 2000:

Fremtidsværksted i Stevns Kommune:

Agenda 21-gruppen i Haslev:

1 - The legislative and statutory context

1.2 - Voynet Act5

1.3 - Chevènement Act9

1.4 - Act governing Urban Solidarity and Renewal (SRU)10

1.5 - Other specific acts

The organisation of travel forms the main subject of two acts:

2 - The major act: the SRU Act

2.2 - Development of the SRU Act

Diagnosis and initial state = Regional project

► The “Land Use and Sustainable Development Project” (Projet d’Aménagement et de

2.2.2 The Territorial Consistency Scheme (SCoT) 21

► Content of the SCoT :