Urban Master Plans in the Strategic Planning System of Municipalities

Abstract

Taking into account the strategic nature of the urban master plans that have become widespread in recent years, it is impossible not to note their absence among the strategic planning documents provided for by current legislation. Under the current conditions, the active implementation of these tools creates risks of both duplication of the provisions of various documents and their direct contradiction, disruption of the consistency of urban and municipal planning, and, as a result, a decrease in its effectiveness. In this regard, an attempt has been made to determine the place of master plans in the strategic planning system. The article analyzes the main points of the master plans content in comparison with the current documents of strategic and territorial planning and the practice of their application. Methodological developments in the field of master planning from a number of government and expert organizations were also а subject to а substantive analysis. The methods of studying normative and methodological acts, the comparative method, the method of formal and logical analysis, and others were used. As a result, it was possible to present the concept of master planning as a specially designed project for updating or correcting the strategic planning documents of a municipality. This approach, on the one hand, satisfies the needs of municipalities in using promising technologies for developing strategic plans, on the other hand, it allows for conflict-free integration of master planning into the current strategic planning system. A method of practical implementation of the proposed concept is proposed through the development by the Ministry of Economic Development of framework methodological recommendations for the regions on the development of strategies for the socio-economic development of municipalities, including provisions on the possibility and procedure for using master plans to update and adjust strategies and plans for their implementation. Direct legislative consolidation of the master plan concept in the current legislation is considered inappropriate.