A Continuous Process with a Strong Vision and Frame can Deal with Transformation and Changes. Monitoring the Spatial Structure Plan of the City of Ghent

摘要

Ghent is a much sought-after tourist destination. The creators of the renowned travel guide Lonely Planet seem to agree. In the 2011 edition, Ghent ranks seventh in the list of must-see cities. Lonely Planet describes Ghent as Europe's best kept secret. Ghent is a historic city, yet at the same time also a contemporary one. The modern daily life of the city's active 300,000 inhabitants plays itself out against a gorgeous historical backdrop. In Ghent, they live, work and enjoy life over and over again each day. The famed stubbornness of the inhabitants grew historically. Over time Ghent has been transformed into an attractive and lively city. And the inhabitants of Ghent prove their progressiveness and open-mindedness every day. This makes for a colorful city scene, a rich (multi-) cultural appeal and a swinging nightlife. Part of the Ghent's attractiveness is due to its characteristics as a 'planning-minded city'. Ghent is one of Flanders' pilot cities that drew up a spatial structure plan based on the 'three-tracks methodology' (long-term vision, short-term actions and communication). In 2003, this ambitious, coherent and strategic plan was admitted by the city government as a framework for the elaboration of the spatial policy. Over the past seven years (2003-2010), OMGEVING cvba has developed a methodology to evaluate and measure the implementation of the spatial structure plan. In this way the city can monitor whether the implementation of the structure plan is on track. A yearly monitoring system was installed. Through the results of the evaluation, it is possible to identify which projects require a track change or need to shift to a higher gear. The annual monitoring also created the possibility to develop a methodology that structures the preparations for the policy development. In this way a set of criteria was developed for the evaluation of the planning efforts and the detection of the required adjustments. All these efforts have a single goal in mind: 'to improve the livability and attractiveness of Ghent for its inhabitants and visitors'. The criteria developed evaluate a series of quantitative goals which are of primary importance for the city government. With these goals, the city board of Ghent wants to achieve and refer to a number of additional dwellings, space for commercial activities and green (parks, forests...). The evaluation focuses on 'core projects' that embody the spatial structure plan of Ghent in a qualitative manner. The main question is: 'is the implementation of the project in keeping with the goals of the structure plan?'