KINGDOM OF MOROCCO MINISTRY OF SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT, WATER AND ENVIRONMENT STRATEGY FOR SPATIAL PLANNING AND RENEWAL OF URBAN POLICY: THE SOFA OF CENTRAL METROPOLITAN AREA
STATE AND ORIENTATION OF THE SNAT 1. The national territory is overall structured around poles of growth essentially consituted by large cities: the strategic nodes of our economic development 2. The poles of growth are the principal places for wealth creation (2/3 of the national output). 3. They are the main engines of job creation and the principal source for financial redistribution schemes. Seven poles of growth 85% of the National Growth Potential The great challenge of international competitiveness will mainly take place in cities
STATE AND ORIENTATION OF THE SNAT 4. An urban system with two main groups of cities : The «economic» Cities, net producers of value that feed the national budget and the «State» Cities that have the major function to frame the territory and that rely on the national public budget 5. This division reflects the national unity and solidarity objectives with the central state operating territorial redistribution, ensuring spatial equity of basic social conditions 6. But the long term sustainibility of this macro-economic urban system appears to be fragile. - Large risks of a break in this situation due to imbalances between real growth and needed growth and public financial means -
STATE AND ORIENTATION OF THE SNAT Main signs of these breaks: Uncontrolled rapid urban growth (anarchical urban extentions, insufficient building stocks, proliferation of illegal housing, with delays in equipments) Small cities that concentrate rural issues, medium-sized cities with unorganised neighbourhoods Metropolitan areas that are facing severe lack of public transport and real estate speculation which seriously impact on their development (the case of Casablanca typically illustrates urban dynamism coupled with large dysfunctions, with an impact on the economic efficency of cities and the overall competitiveness of Moroccan economy) Proliferation of pockets of poverty concentrated in some neighbourhods
STATE AND ORIENTATION OF THE SNAT The overall competitiveness will depend on the capacity of our cities to produce growth It is urgent that these motors of growth experience a levelling up, aimed first at economic functions of cities A major and historical reversal of the economic logic and an overall questioning of practices and options of urban policy. The economic thinking is now based on competitiveness which depends on global efficiency of the socio-economic system and its environment Which tools? Which approaches? In order to deal with metropolisation and international levelling up of cities
THE CASE OF THE CENTRAL METROPOLITAN AREA (CMA) The main pole of growth is located directly within the littoral area (51% of GDP)
THE CMA IN FIGURES Today, the CMA represents 25% of the national population 38 % of the urban population, Generates the bulk of public financial resources (67% of fiscal revenues) and ensures the national redistribution A new type of region Need for a new approach to urban planning and development
ASSESSMENT AND ORIENTATION Upgrading Casablanca s infrastructure and urbanisation: its main issues are a combination of economic, socio, land use and urban factors. Deficiencies and dysfunctions should be tackled from an overall perspective. The major planning issue of the CMA, and to the overall country, starts in Casablanca THREE ILLUSTRATIVE CASES
ASSESSMENT COMPONENTS OF THE SOFA ECONOMIC AND GOVERNANCE CRISIS THROUGH THE LAND USE ISSUE -The land use map features a strange picture with a rapid increase of prices as of the periphery -This creates an imbalance of land prices in relation to the income level of the majority of the population, implying a series of cumulative perverse effects related to all aspects of urbanisation The dysfunction of the land market impacts on Casablanca and the overall region and largely explains the irrational aspect of the agglomeration Hyper-densification over 150km2 Illegal industrial and housing development LAND USE SHAPES THE ORGANISATION OF THE CITY and reflects the combination of 2 related phenomena: : over-densification and physical sprawl on the one hand, and reinforcement of urban exclusion on the other hand
ASSESSMENT COMPONENTS OF THE SOFA ECONOMIC AND GOVERNANCE CRISIS THROUGH THE LAND USE ISSUE - Minimum annual wage is 23.000 DH and 67% of civil servants receive a wage of less than -45.000 DH - «Popular» income stands between 20.000 to 30.000 DH annually. - The level for accessing «popular» housing is the double of minimum wage WHAT HAPPENS WHEN 60% OF THE POPULATION DOES NOT HAVE ACCESS TO THE MARKET? Between different forms of over-densification and slums are a wide range of more less illegal development stemming from space constraints : the issues are structural
ASSESSMENT COMPONENTS OF THE SOFA THE MAIN METROPOLITAN FUNCTIONS (business, financial activities, firms management and business services) start from the core of Hassan II-Zerktouni towards the South-East (Anfa) and the South along a classical axis oriented towards to the aiport A growing trend It just needs to be better organised
CONCLUSION It is crucial de deal with the weaknesses of the metropolitan area (catching up and development of capacities for better integration in the international economy) This requires a synchronic and integrated approach of three strategies: functional strategy spatial strategy Transport strategy NO SPATIAL DOCUMENT TODAY THAT RESPONDS TO THESE CHALLENGES
WHICH TOOLS? THE SPATIAL AND FUNCTIONAL PLAN OF THE CENTRAL METROPOLITAN AREA It is a new planning document that raises the urban development issues from the angle of economic development it is not a descriptive document. It is a framework and indicative document mainly aimed at ensuring public policy coherence in relation to : 1) Morocco s key asset: the CMA 2) National economic priorities decisions 3) Main challenges faced by the country. It can be defined according to the scale, the content and the procedure
MAIN CHARACTERISTICS THE SCALE The appropriate scale for the CMA ranging from 15 000 et 20 000 is: 1/100.000é The spatial approach is based on three pillars: the consolidated urban areas, the extended urban areas and the peripheries, requiring more specific scales: 1/50.000é A Strategic Planning Document between the SDAU (1/50.000) and the SRAT (1/200.000)
The area of the CMA 4 Sub-units The relevant area is not the administrative region The area is defined by a complex set of spatial relations that stretches up to 240 Km Rabat-Kénitra The extension of the South and South-West (El Jadida) The Great Casablanca The continental extensions
THE CONTENT Both Spatial and financial The spatial analysis In addition to the traditional urban functions (working, housing..) provide advantage to the economic functions, in particular metropolitan functions The financial analysis Based on the tension between the demand and the offer of credits related to the effective implementation for modernisation actions URBAN BASE ECONOMIC BASE Infrastructure Transport Public equipment Housing Land use Productive activities Services Identification of dysfunctions and definition of projects of upgrading involving Massive public financing It is an exercice of spatial-planning integration
THE MAIN OPTIONS
CONDITIONS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION AN APPROPRIATE GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK (closely linked to the institutional, financial, and political environment and to the implementation process) C est Doubler l effort en deux directions PUBLIC ORGANISATION CAPACITY BUILDING -Think about the means to enhance relationships among main economic development actors through a share allocation of responsibilities in order to better articulate decentralisation and deconcentration. Provide a better visibility to the existing policies Ensure a better regulation of the different political administrative systems -Adaptation et strengthening of capacity building of actors responsible for city development strategies -Know how development related to strategic planning, prospective et and monitoring of the projects