SPATIAL PLANNING AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF GREECE by Evangelos Baltas General Secretary, Ministry for the Environment, Physical Planning & Public Works This article analytically presents the historical evolution of spatial planning in Greece, from 1920 until today. More specifically, the results of spatial planning is analysed along with the relation of spatial planning to the programs and policies of regional development, programs that were adopted by the Greek Governments, all these years. At the same time, the compatibility and the success of the implementation of spatial planning in relation to European Union s policies is presented, and more specifically with the three last Community Support Frameworks, that have been applied in Greece. Finally, this article describes the existing situation, the weaknesses that continue to exist in spatial planning, in a national, sector-based, regional and local level and finally the most modern developments that concern the enforcement of the new spatial planning frameworks (National Spatial Planning Framework and the Special Spatial Planning Frameworks for Tourism, Industry, Renewable Energy Sources, Coastal, Island & Mountainous Areas etc). 167
OPPORTUNITY GREECE Urban planning in Greece emerged at the beginning of the creation of the modern Greek State, and acquired institutional substance for the first time in 1923 (after the Asia Minor destruction). However, it was not until the second half of the 20 th century when the post-war urban growth problems began to emerge, that spatial planning was developed as a distinct speculation and an independent topic. The destiny of spatial planning in the country has always been linked to the national economic planning. During the first post Second World War period, while the economies of most European countries entered a phase of reconstruction and were applying various versions of a model that made spatial and urban planning a central policy of the country, Greece remained, and it would remain for at least a decade, a country with almost completely destroyed basic infrastructures, destroyed mid-war period industry and devastated productive infrastructures of the countryside. For the years following and up to 1950, a severe civil war would condemn the countryside in abandonment, the cities in stagnation and the developmental process of the country in inaction. In 1949, it was decided that the investment policy in low intensity fund programs would be applied. This policy strengthened the growth of light industry of consumer goods and encouraged the growth of the construction industry towards making it the driving industry, without however establishing spatial and urban planning regulations in a country level. The same year, the first four-year Growth Plan was designed (1949-1952). In the framework of post-war reconstruction, in which Konstantinos Doxiadis, as a leading figure, undertook the direction of the implementation of the Reconstruction Plan in the Ministry of Coordination, the base for the development of a new, large scale approach for encountering spatial problems was set. Beyond the particular developmental options, the pressure of the housing problem would contribute to the promotion of investments in construction. At the same time, the main characteristics of the future structure of the Greek urban network began to form, as for example the hydrocephaly of Athens on the one hand and the abandonment of many, mainly mountainous, regions on the other hand. In the period between 1950 and 1963 certain basic infrastructure works that were essential for the materialization of industrial investments and the promotion of maritime and tourism were carried out. In the beginning of the 60s, the relative normalization of political life, that was supported by the preparatory processes for the integration of the country in the EEC (July 1961), would contribute to the appearance of a new spirit that would run through the domains of arts, letters and sciences. It was the era when the scientific community of spatial and urban planning would declare the planning, while at the same time organizations like the Centre of Planning and Economic Research and the National Centre for Social Research, were founded, and speculations about 168
SPATIAL PLANNING AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF GREECE regional growth, countryside and urban space were starting to rise. In the meantime, services with clearly programmatic responsibilities were created in the Ministry of Coordination and the first special regional programs were drawn up between 1958-65, with the technical input and contribution of international organizations. The Direction of Spatial Planning of the Centre of Planning and Economic Research was founded in 1964 and the first five-year programs for economic growth of the country were worked out. At the same period, Greece was excluded from the USA financial aid programs, an event that made the country s economic reorientation towards European Economic Community (now E.U.) in 1962 a fact. After 1963 the Ministry of Coordination assigned to private offices the first Urban Masterplans and in 1965 the Special Department for the Study of the Masterplan of Athens was founded. The dynamics of the 60s was characterized by the extensive production of important studies and proposals about urban and regional growth, introducing to a limited sector of the political world that also shapes the relative policy the concepts of regional growth, spatial planning and regulatory plans of urban complexes. However, despite the efforts for the operation of the above scientific organizations and the elaboration of relative studies, the institutional background, on which the governmental practices were based upon during this period of time, continued to be characterized by the minimal presence of measures for the application of spatial planning, and would remain attached to a perception of fragmentary regulation of space, in a local urban level. As a result, the regulations fell short of the actual developments on the ground and, being unable to face the problems in a 169
OPPORTUNITY GREECE substantial way, they generated an endless process of spontaneous, unplanned or even arbitrary urban developments. This course began to establish the necessity of planning or regulation of space in all the extent of the Greek territory but it was interrupted during the period of the septennial dictatorship. That government not only did not follow any policy for the intensification of the spatial and urban planning, but on the contrary, enacted even more fragmentary measures, that strengthened the tendency for a fragmented urban growth, based on the coincidental satisfaction of the small land owners, that finally made things worse for the urban environment, adding an extra burden to it. During the dictatorship, building activity was one of the primary means used by the government to consolidate its force. At the same time, the Centre of Planning and Economic Research published the 15-year National Model of Growth that constituted the first long-lasting program in a country level. In this framework, in 1972, the Ministry of Coordination assigned to Doxiadis Office the development of the National Spatial Plan of Greece, as well as the development of the Spatial Plan for the Greek Capital, Athens. The end of dictatorship found the Greek territory, urban centres and countryside, in a new urban and regional situation, different from the one that the scientific community and the staff of the organizations had encountered in the 60s. During the period of political changeover, the recovery of lost time in the 170
SPATIAL PLANNING AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF GREECE sectors of regional and territorial growth was also attempted. During the period of political changeover, a new perception for space issues was presented. This perception was recorded in the revised Constitution of 1975, where concepts of spatial and urban planning were presented for the first time. It was also expected that the protection of the natural and cultural environment constituted an obligation of the State (article 24). A little later, the first main Law for spatial planning was voted within the Law 360/1976 About Spatial Planning and Environment, and for the first time in Greece, provisions were made for spatial plans in a regional and country level, for special plans, as well as for the creation of the National Council of Spatial planning and Environment. However, although this Law initially produced important work, it did not complete its mission. Another development of this period is the voting of the Law 947/79 about Residential Areas that was not activated because of different political choices that the next government adopted, and was therefore replaced by the Law 1337/83 (Extension of Urban Plans, residential development and related regulations). In 1980 the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Housing and Environment was founded according to the Law 1032/1980 (Creation of the Ministry of Planning and the Environment, with competences in Regional Planning, Urban Planning and the Environment, in order to facilitate coordination in the respective policy domains), and in 1985 it was renamed to Ministry for 171
OPPORTUNITY GREECE the Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works. In 1983, the elaboration of General Urban Plans began for almost all the big Greek cities. The planning of places for residential houses began as well a little later, and at the same time the regulation of smaller cities was also attempted. In 1984, concise spatial plans for all Prefectures of the country were worked out. However, this effort was never completed since these plans never acquired institutional power. At the end of the 80s, the development of Special Spatial Planning Studies began. These studies constituted for many years the only form of active small scale spatial planning in Greece. These studies resulted from the pressure that was forced by the E.U. when, during the evaluation of Integrated Mediterranean Programmes, it was ascertained that the growth of tourist regions aggravates the environment, and that the state of the environment influences tourism. Thus, during the period 1987-1990, the development of 17 Special Spatial Planning Studies for the whole country was assigned by the Ministry of Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works, and after 1990 the second generation of Special Spatial Planning Studies followed (roughly 30) which was financed via the EN- VIREG program. At the same time, several programs began after the development of E.U. financed studies (e.g. Special Environmental Studies, ENVIREG and LIFE Programs, the Regional Growth Plans, works included in the Community Support Framework etc.) Even though these programs did not result from any program of spatial planning, they had spatial repercussions. Between the initial introduction of spatial planning as a proposal for the organisation of space in 1984 and the institutional establishment of spatial planning as a requisition of national policy (Law 2742/99 on Spatial Planning & Sustainable Development), several years lay between. In the 90s and 00s, powerful institutional frameworks for urban and spatial planning were established. During that period, apart from the weaknesses that were already inherited from the past, new strong pressures arose, that were caused because of the transition from a basically rural model of hinterland to a multidimensional urbanisation model that was characterized by forms of urbanisation and spread of existing settlements, housing concentrations, growth of new housing settlements in the countryside due to the tourism growth and the peculiar urbanisation of rural space. Simultaneously, entire regions of the country, like mountainous areas and borderlands, were isolated, while others, like certain islands, were unplanned and irrationally constructed. While in the previous periods of economic growth, the structure of space did not present any particular acute problems, the current situation of many regions of the country can not satisfy the modern enterprising and environmental requirements. Thus, the de facto territorial organisation of the coun- 172
SPATIAL PLANNING AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF GREECE try has begun to progressively place important obstacles in the realisation of investments almost in all the sectors of economic activity (energy, mining, industry, tourism) and almost in every region. These territorial developments are imposed in a natural and cultural background that is still found in a satisfactory quality level. The natural background has been categorized although it has not been regulated yet - in 315 regions of the Natura 2000 network, that cover an important percentage of the territory, while the cultural background, that is still not categorized, is constituted by a number of archaeological areas, monuments of every epoch, and also traditional settlements that are developed in the countryside either in regions that still anticipate their growth, or in regions already satiated of tourism and recreation. In the running period, a new framework of regulations of spatial planning is developed, that follows the European developments for territorial development and territorial cohesion. This framework is based more or less on the principles of the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP), and includes provision for exchanges and networking for the transfer of experience from countries that face similar problems of territorial development, especially from the zone of countries and regions of the Mediterranean, where Greece is located. The diffusion of perceptions for the sustainable growth and the environment will not leave unaffected the recent development of a structured institutional framework of National spatial planning. This framework forms the constitutive map and is accompanied by a series of special sectoral-based frameworks concerning vital problems of territorial development - coastal areas, mountainous areas and critical productive sectors, like tourism, industry and the new renewable energy sectors. At the same time, across the whole country, planning in local level is underway, with local plans in the level of self-government (NUTS 4) that follow the general lines of the spatial planning of the country. Despite, however, the institutional steps, the administration is not effective enough, with regards to the confrontation of spatial developments. In 1999, with the Law 2742/1999 (Spatial Planning & Sustainable Development) a comprehensive modern institutional framework for spatial planning came to force in Greece. This law established authorities, bodies, processes and means of applying spatial planning, aiming at the promotion of sustainable and balanced development, social cohesion, protection of the environment and the empowerment of the country s position in the international and European environment. Two years later (2001) the voting of the Law on spatial planning is followed by the enactment of the first Special Framework of spatial planning for prisons. During the period 2002-2003 the Regional Frameworks of spatial planning for all the regions of the 173
OPPORTUNITY GREECE country (except Attica-Athens), were enacted, after public consultation and their approval by the regional councils. These frameworks were a result of a series of studies and processes that had already begun in 1995. These frameworks incorporated fundamental texts such as Europe 2000, Europe 2000+, and the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP, 1997). They included directions related to the regional model, the macro-geographic organisation of population and the productive system, the superlocal transport networks, telecommunications and energy, the balance between city and countryside, the increasing pressure in the coastal and border regions, the process of urbanisation and the urban network etc. In 2005 the processes for the development of the National Framework of spatial Planning and 3 Special Frameworks (for the Tourism, Industry and Renewable Energy sources) began. Today, these Frameworks have been completed and the immediate start of the process of public consultation and their enactment is expected. Simultaneously, the actualisation - composition of two extra spatial frameworks of Coastal areas and Mountainous areas has begun. The objective of these frameworks is the determination, in a fifteenyear plan, of the basic priorities and strategic directions for the integrated and sustainable regional development and the sustainable organisation of national space. More specifically, the National Framework of Spatial Planning is a reference point for the coordination and the harmonisation of partial policies, programs and investment plans of the state, of public legal entities and organisations of local government (first and second degree), and has important repercussions in the cohesion and growth of national space. The National Framework aims at the evaluation of territorial repercussions and the coordination of various sectoral-based policies that are practised in a national level, so that the capabilities of the cohesion of space along with the balanced and competitive growth of all regions of the country are considerably strengthened, highlighting a long-term prospect of viable territorial growth, which constitutes a vision for the future of the country. More specifically the National Plan determines the basic priorities and strategic directions for the integrated and sustainable development of the country that concern: the territorial structure of the main poles and axes of development, as well as international and trans-regional gates and connections of the country, the territorial structure of the infrastructure and transport networks of strategic importance, as well as nodes of trans-european interest, the territorial structure, specialisation and cooperation of productive sectors, the role of the metropolitan cities and the rest of important cities and their relation with the hinterland, the promotion and protection of the national natural and cultural heritage. 174
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OPPORTUNITY GREECE Together with the approval of the Special spatial plans the following is achieved: Establishment of explicit, complete and analytical spatial rules and criteria for each category of productive work and activities Encouragement of business dexterity and growth, with regard to its territorial dimensions. Encouragement of competitiveness of productive sectors and its further economic and territorial role. Rationalisation of territorial organisation of the productive sectors. Configuration of specific spatial rules of arrangement for the sectors or categories of productive activities. Configuration of a special procedure for the spatial setting of large scale units of national importance. Rationalisation of the relations between productive sectors (as for example industry and tourism). Better incorporation of the environmental dimension in the productive activities. Simplification of processes and legal security for investments. All the above regulatory provisions support the realization of productive investments, the regional development and the response to the relative European and national objectives, promote the rational arrangement of activities and the safety of investments, while they simultaneously contribute to the protection of the environment and the application of principles of sustainable management and growth. Objective of the Greek state is to complete right away a flexible spatial and developmental plan of the country so that the Greek enterprise initiative as well as the international initiative will clearly recognise the investment framework, while at the same time the rational and viable management of the sensitive environment of the country will be ensured. With these provisions a modern institutional framework for spatial planning is being completed. The entirety of this institutional tool remains to be tested in practice, in the resolution of an important number of problems of territorial development that the Greek territory faces, with terms of sustainable development, within the framework of economic possibilities and social organisation in a national, regional and local level. USEFUL LINKS Hellenic Ministry for the Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works www.minenv.gr 176