Planning and Implementation of Urban Regeneration: The Adequacy of the Statutory Toolbox Available to Practice

Worn down and more or less abandoned industrial and harbor areas became more and more visible in the Danish townscapes during the 1980s and 1990s. Some limited regeneration projects were carried through, but in general much public attention to these areas did not exist until the late 1990s where the regeneration challenge became an issue in the professional debate.

The urban, economic and spatial problematics rising from structural development trends of society were subject to a committee work from 1999 through 2001. The work resulted in a number of recommendations comprising i.a. suggestions concerning new statutory tools to handle the spatial transformation of urban regeneration areas.

The paper examines the subsequent development of Danish planning legislation with the purpose of determining whether the present 'statutory toolbox' can be considered sufficient compared to the problems and challenges emerging in practice. To evaluate the adequacy of the toolbox the paper draws on case studies on urban regeneration projects in three major Danish cities.

The conclusion is that the legislative developments during the last five years must be considered very relevant to problem solving in practice - but also that the statutory toolbox still appears incomplete, especially regarding some organizational and economic issues.