Community Based Participatory Planning as a Renovation Policy

Abstract

City of Tehran is suffering from vast dilapidated areas which involve both social as well as physical decline. This problem has been reflected in urban development policies that have been established by government authorities as well as the city counselors and private stakeholders. To confront with this problem, Tehran municipality has established a principal renovation organization. During the last decades various policies has been adapted and implemented by this organization. The paper would review and analyze these policies and the outcome of their implementations.

The policies vary from purely physical renovation of the dilapidated areas which does not requires the participation of the local resident in the planning and design process and have relied totally on central decision making and funding. On the hand, participatory planning process was promoted and new approaches have been adopted to benefit from the existing social capital and to build upon the strengths of the residents and their social networks to propose plans and to implement them.

Khazaneh is located in southern Tehran, and is the focus of an actual renovation project reported in this paper. Here a participatory planning approach is adapted and new local councils are established to seek residents’ insights into the local plan and to inform them of the ideas of planners. This has provided a two-way planning system, which is encompassing both the goals of the central planning system as well as the aims of the local community.

Keywords: Tehran, Dilapidated neighborhoods, Renovation, Participation.