The 2nd Baltic Urban Lab Project Meeting was organised in Tallinn on March 1&3, 2017 back to back with the 1st Workshop. The project is soon approaching its midway and the focus of the meeting was to discuss what has been achieved so far, what the partners could learn from each other and to take a look at the project final outcomes. The local City Pilots are being implemented and the cities are working hard to prepare the Integrated Plan and development strategies for the selected brownfield sites to support the better use of land. Norrköping, Tallinn, Turku and Riga presented their current progress highlighting the successful approaches and also challenges they have faced during the project.
For many of the cities, Baltic Urban Lab is the first time when they involve stakeholders in the planning process from the very beginning starting from developing a common vision for the development of the brownfield site. Cooperation with stakeholders have been very fruitful but has also required adopting new ways of working and finding right methods to facilitate dialogue between different actors like developers, land owners, inhabitants, NGOs and also different sectors within the city administration.
Some common challenges were identified among cities. It was seen necessary to find right ways to organize and manage the cooperation within the city administration before involving external stakeholders in the process. Efficient and clear communication within the administration and towards outside was seen as key factor for the success of the process. Importance of efficient and well-managed cooperation is highlighted especially in the context of complex brownfield development proces where the success of development activities requires input and resources of large group of actors.
Also, a question was raised whether it is possible to find generally applicable guidelines and principles for managing stakeholder involvement processes in different kind of urban development projects? This is one of the key questions the project seeks find answers.
During the Project meeting the partners had a chance to get to know two different brownfield regeneration projects in Tallinn the Noblessner and the Ülemiste City. Despite the rainy weather, the planners enjoyed the Site Visit and listening to the stories from the people who had developed them. Lessons learned and experiences from the City Pilots – real-life planning processes around brownfield sites will be integrated in the Guidelines for applying Integrated Planning and Partnership model for Brownfield Regeneration that will be one of the key outputs of the project.
Visiting Noblessner with the project partners from Sweden, Finland, Latvia and Estonia
Exploring Ülemiste City and getting inspired!
