- An urban Boundary Plan as a first Step towards a metropolitan Perspective for the City Region of Antwerp    813 kb by    Van den Broeck, Pieter | pieter.vandenbroeck@studiegroepomgeving.be    Short Outline The ‘spatial structure plan for Flanders’ (1997) announced the making of ‘delimitation plans’ for every city region in Flanders. Those plans point out areas for future urban development within a certain border line. The paper frames, describes and evaluates the on-going delimitation planning process for the city region of Antwerp. Three key-issues - nodes for urban development, metropolitan green structure and rurban peripheric dwelling are explored as well as the growth of formal and informal networks of cooperation. Abstract Interest The interest lies in the large experimental background with planning in small city regions and problems of cooperation between different governments that arise, the way three - network city - key-issues for the city region of Antwerp are explored and the way informal networks are incorporated in the planning process. Abstract In 1997 the Flemish government approved the ‘spatial structure plan for Flanders’. As one of the actions to be implemented the plan announced the making of ‘delimitation plans’ for every city region in Flanders. Those plans point out areas for future urban development within a certain border line. As one of the last and most complex ones, the delimitation plan for the city region of the city of Antwerp is now in progress. The paper will frame, describe and evaluate this planning process. The delimitation plan involves between fifteen and twenty municipalities in an area of about 700.000 up to 1.000.000 people. To meet the mission of the delimitation plan, three - network city - key-issues are being explored. The first issue concerns nodes and axes as concentration areas for urban development. Starting from concepts for the upgrading of the public transport network and of the road system around Antwerp, nodes on these transport networks are identified and used to locate potential urban development areas. The second issue focuses on the realisation of a metropolitan green structure. For that purpose agricultural, nature and landscape dynamics in the city region are being explored. The third issue developes ideas about rurban periheric dwelling. For this issue research is being done on the transformation of agriculture towards other functions (recreation, manufacture, dwelling etc.) in open areas in the city region. The three issues are being developed by initiative of the Flemish government in cooperation with a large number of stake-holders in the city region. Because of the very complex policy context informal networks and rather unusual planning instruments are being used. Municipal cooperation has f.i. been initiated by a former politician of the province of Antwerp who was hired by the planning team. This is necessary because of the many on-going planning processes in the city region, the large number of possible actors to be involved and the spread of competences over different governments. After one year of informal work, strategic areas and themes and cooperation on the level of the city region are slowly emerging. Keywords Antwerp city region, delimitation planning process Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2004: Management of Urban Regions   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper