New attitude is in demand
By Ekaterina Melnichikhina
 
At the beginning of December a conference INNOVATION THROUGH NEW GOVERNANCE AND URBAN – RURAL PARTNERSHIPS took place in Cesis (Latvia). About 60 participants from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Norway, Sweden and Germany took part in the event.
The 2 day programme combined 2 main arrangements concerning Innovation Circle (IC) annual meeting and Trans in Form (TiF) “prekick-off” conference..
 
The IC meeting was dedicated to the election of a new Board, the annual report and focus for 2010. “Trans in Form” conference was full of relevant and engaging presentations and discussions which were divided by the organisers into 2 themes: “New governance for urban and rural regions” and “New urbanism in cities and at smaller places – from IC to Trans in Form”.
 
 
“New governance for urban and rural regions”
 
The presentations on New Governance emphasised the issues of the governmental level of regional reform in Latvia and Lithuania. Evaluation of Latvian regional reform was presented by Māris Pūkis - Senior Adviser of LALRG.
He explained that local reform was completed but had negative consequences. The implications for regional reform are dramatic and have therefore been postponed until after elections in 2012. As a result, RD programmes for EU funds are available only for 17 local governments from an original 118. According to Māris Pūkis, the main problem at the moment is the question: How to launch EU funds? Co-financing is not available due to budget cuts and IMF and EU restrictions.. Pūkis was not only pessimmistic and saw opportunities. He claimed that the State had free resources of 1,5 billion LVL. He found the launching of EU funds absolutely necessary for regions as they could compensate decreasing of GDP and increase revenues.
 
Laila Gercane (the head of the project and development department, Vidzeme, Latvia)was presenting the development focuses in Vidzeme Planning Region after the reform. She described main current trends at local level Post Reform. The reality was – structural and functional weakness, centralization, lack of local resources and lost focus in daily action. She found the situation challenging and giving an opportunity to establish good governance as it’s the best time to learn and to change, excellent time for innovative solutions, local democracy and public involvement. She pointed the cross-cutting issues in further development: knowledge, environment and culture.
 
Lithuania is also facing regional reform and the status was presented by Mr. Andrius Valickas – LR Ministry of Interior, Regional politics department, regional development division chief specialist – recounted the plans of Regional reform in Lithuania.
 
Mr. A. Valickas highlighted the aim of the national regional policy as to reduce socio-economic disparities within the country, in other words, disparities between the statistical (and administrative) units of the country – counties and municipalities. Indicators of the county level are analysed to estimate the overall cohesion in the country. Indicators of local level are analysed to assess the development of specific problematic areas (problem territories).
 
Lithuanian Regional Policy Strategy until the Year 2013 proposes to develop regional centres, surrounded by territories of low living standards (Alytus, Marijampole, Utena (with Visaginas), Tauragė, Telšiai (with Mažeikiai). These centres have sufficient infrastructure and economic potential and may perform functions as regional growth centres.
 
Regional reform is the part of the overall administrative reform, aimed at optimising the economy of public government in Lithuania. County governors administrations are therefore being liquidated. This process is not supposed to affect the use of EU structural support. Andrius Valickas saw EU structural support in the context of the national regional policy as following:
Horizontal measures – elimination of the competition principle for the public sector projects, long term planning for the local and regional investments, partial transfer of management functions (project selection) to the Regional councils, allocations of Structural Funds exclusively for the local and regional needs, additional funding for the growth centres and problem territories. 
Vertical measures – development of the growth centres, identified in the National Regional Policy Strategy (120 MEUR) – 7 integrated development investment programmes, developmentof the problem territories (88 MEUR) – 14 development programmes for problem territories
 
 
“New urbanism in cities and at smaller places – from IC to Trans in Form”
 
When the debates on the governmental issue subsided, the focus of the conference was on the consequences of migration for restructuring and transformation of existing towns. Many towns have lost a lot of their population over the last decade and will continue to do so. However planners and politicians have not accepted that these dramatic changes require new focus and action. Traditional post-war town planning practices are not relevant strategies for the future. Towns that do not make radical changes in their planning practices and investment will continue to decline.  There are however communities that have taken the required actions and are attracting people and business investment. The lectures that followed in the conference focused on analysing the present situation in Europe and presenting examples of what strategies and action are being implemented.
 
Opening the session was a presentation  "New urbanism: How can it be applied to smaller
towns and settlements?" Are these principles utopia or are they practical reality? For Michael Fuller-Gee, town planner and EU expert, this question has only one answer – it is proven strategy that works. As he said,
”Town Planning? It is not ”just moving paper around and making pretty drawings”. It is a matter of life or death for many communities... and people…”
 
To turn a dream of creating living, vibrant communities into reality there has to be a specific attitude in people’s mind. From the very start places should be regarded as products, so called, Place Marketing. You should know your product(What is it that your place has to offer?); understand your competitors Fuller-Gee considers that the main problem of a modern town planning is that it has created ”Urban Sprawl” – towns spread their new buildings and activities over too large areas. New shopping centers, hotels and offices are built outside the the historic town centre and as a result there are too many "dead" places. Too much asfalt and parking, empty shops and buildings and people and activities are spread apart creating a dependence on the private car. More efficient use of land should be promoted through higher density, mixed use development and the re-use of previously developed land and buildings.(What is the unique selling point that your place can offer?); define your customers (Who are the real target groups?).
 
According to the concept of New UrbanismComplete Communities” include: housing, work places, shops, entertainment, schools, parks, and civic facilities essential to the daily lives of the residents. And one of the main rules of this concept is that all activities are situated within easy walking distance of each other - "The 5 Minute Walk". Lots of people, especially young people and the 50+ generation want to live in the town centre – but there is little or no suitable accommodation available. And the environment is not nice! “What attracts people most, is other people.”
 
On the basis of the New Urbanism Fuller-Gee offers Guidelines for Growth and Sustainable Development:
ü Mix land uses – commercial, residential and cultural facilities.
ü Create living, vibrant and “walkable” town centres and neighborhoods.
ü Reinvest in and strengthen existing central areas to create a strong sense of place and identity.
ü Create attractive meetings places for everyone that enhance mental health and happiness.
ü Create a network of open space, - a cycle and pathway network - especially near water.
ü Provide regular, reliable environmentally safe public transportation.
ü Reuse and redevelop existing buildings – and houses - and poorly developed land.
ü Create housing opportunities and choices for a range of household types, family size and incomes -near the centre.
ü Encourage citizen participation - especially young people - in planning decisions.
 
Fuller-Gee gave a challenge to imagination and creative thinking of the participants and showed practical, concrete examples that have been and are being used in European and American towns. Changing planners and politicians attitudes to what people really want is sadly not not an easy thing to be done. But it IS possible.
 
Inga Berzina and Sigita Busa (project managers) already worked with Fuller-Gee and Alf Johansen earlier this summer. At the conference they presented a project “Urban Designing and Entrepreneurship Promotion Possibilities in Bauska and Aizkraukle” and showed examples of applied new urbanism in Aizkraukle and Bauska. The main question of the presentation was“How to promote growth and sustainable development of towns and villages?”
 
The answers to this question should be found during the implementation of the Trans in Form project. Mr. Alf S. Johansen (communication manager of TiF) and Mr. Bjørn Frode Moen (project manager of TiF) presented the structure and planned events of the project. To provide the project with a factual foundation solid research will be carried out.
 
This research base model was presented at the conference by Knut Vareide from Telemark Research Institute. His presentation was dedicated to the implementation of the “Regional Attractivity Barometer” in Norway.
 
Telemark Reseach Institute had worked with regional development factors and the results of this research were brought to the conference. Regional development can be measured in many ways but they had chosen net migration of people as the indicator. They had measured the correlation between attractiveness and competitiveness of the region. Regions that grow are more attractive than those that lose population.
 
According to Mr. K. Vareide, attractiveness is important for regional development, but not sufficient. Regions still need economical development and jobs. However the growth in the number of jobs depends on the development and success of business in the private sector. As companies have to be increasingly effective due to competition, they have to create more value to keep the number of employees. The private sector must be competitive. The trick is to be attractive and at the same time competitive. Employees and businesses move to attractive towns and regions.
 
 Attractiveness of a region or town is a driving force behind regional development that is stronger, or at least as strong, as the development in number of jobs.
 
Torsten Naubert from Havelland Fläming Region in Germany presented the development in his region which has been quite dramatic the last 2 decades. The region is pretty close to Berlin and are facing outmigration to the bigger cities from the smallest towns. Some places in the region which in total has about 740.000 inhabitants have a drop in population and are predicted to be dropping 20-30 % t he next 2-3 decades. He presented different ideas about how to tackle the negative trends in these most rural areas. He pointed out measures like: flexible town planning, facelifting, new designs, individual stories, professional marketing.
 
The next step
 
The conference presented a realistic status of the present situation for many of the Trans in Form partners. There are a lot of things to be done in the future to regenerate and renew towns and the  rural districts in Europe. This Trans in Form conference has shown however that it is possible to make the right plans and have dreams of growth and sustainability fulfilled. The kick-off is in February of 2010.
 
P.S. Before you refuse to dream, you should ask yourself: Are you proud of where you live – or come from? What does the place look like? Is there good infrastructure - homes, public spaces and facilities, work and study opportunities etc.?