- Shopping Areas and strategic Planning    246 kb by    Lourenço, Julia M. & Bardi, Tiziana | jloure@civil.uminho.pt    Short Outline Evidence from cities in Southern Europe that have dealt with the decline of shopping areas in traditional city centres and the rise of mega shopping areas in the periphery calls for a different planning approach. Abstract During the last years, the pressure of the traffic on the cities and the lack of space requirements for mega shoppings has shifted the nature of commercial areas in many European cities. The cities’ areas presenting more problems are the historical centres that are structurally unsuitable for the intrusive vehicle’s presence. This paper analyses some case studies in France, Italy and Portugal that have dealt in different ways with both problems: the decline of shopping areas in traditional city centres and the rise of mega shopping areas in the periphery. The possibility to attract anchor shops, the fights with traditional shops associations, the upsurge of informal associations, the spread effects on both territory and business’ competitiveness will be discussed. The actions of the local and central governments have administrative, economical and technological consequences that may ask for new tools and approaches. The complexities involved in today´s planning paradigms may lead the actors to basic economic and legal security without much consideration towards sustainable, participated, equitable, qualified development. Nevertheless, from another point of view, these problems can be seen as an opportunity for change in planning processes and a better adaptation to reality, namely a better understanding of the location choices of the new operators. Keywords Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2007: Urban Trialogues   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper