The compliance of land-use planning with strategic spatial planning - insights from Zurich, Switzerland

• Published in: European planning studies 2021-07, Vol.29 (7), p.1231-1250
• Main Authors: Schmid, Franziska B., Kienast, Felix, Hersperger, Anna M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Allocation; Compliance; Content analysis; Density; digital plan data; discretion; federalism; Flexibility; Land; Land use; Land use management; Land use planning; planning evaluation; Qualitative analysis; Residential density; Socioeconomic factors; Steering; Strategic planning; zoning
• ISSN: 0965-4313; 1469-5944
• DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2020.1840522

Although many planning systems are based on a combination of traditional land-use planning and strategic spatial planning, the interplay between the two approaches remains insufficiently investigated. Focusing on the Canton of Zurich, we applied a qualitative content analysis to extract strategic planning intentions from the Cantonal Structure Plan (1995). We quantitatively analysed the compliance of changes in municipal land-use plans between 1996 and 2016 concerning the extracted planning intentions. The overall low rate of changes was accompanied by few active contradictions of land-use planning. Minor deviations from the strategic plan were seen in the spatial allocation of new building zones. Considering the socio-economic dynamics of the region, surprisingly few changes were detected regarding the permitted building density for residential and mixed-use areas. This leads us to the conclusion that the Cantonal Structure Plan (1995) was very successful in quantitatively limiting the expansion of building zones. However, it showed a limited active steering capacity regarding their allocation and the regulation of building density. Our analysis showed that margins of discretion play a key role in multi-level planning systems, balancing flexibility for locally adapted solutions against statutory boundaries to prevent their misuse, as such they need to be considered in planning evaluation.