Matthias Platzeck
Mayor of the city of Potsdam and member of the German Council for
Sustainable Development (RNE)
“Sustainable Spatial Development – More Than Just Empty Words?”
Speech at the opening of the 2002 scientific plenary session
of the Academy for Spatial and Regional Planning on
25 and 26 April 2002 in the Nicolai Hall in Potsdam, Germany
On the road to sustainable development, highly developed countries have a special
responsibility. The ongoing trends towards urban sprawl that produce more traffic and
destroy undeveloped land counteract sustainable development in the same way as
intense production and consumption patterns of modern societies. Regarding the use
of the resource ‘soil’, it can be shown that in many cases increased use insufficiently
takes into account the notion of sustainability. The growth of modern society and
business has reached a point where they are jeopardizing their own sustainable
foundation. These developments on the highest levels require corrections to the
current trend that do more justice to the scarcity of soil, energy, water and clean air,
and that leave options for the future.
Since the Rio Summit, discussion about sustainability and sustainable development
has solidified on the community, local and global levels in the fields of politics and
science, and numerous concepts have been developed. The variety of processes
and active players requires, more than ever, regional and global thinking and action,
in order to describe the processes of sustainable spatial and settlement development,
define strategies and facilitate implementation on a cooperative basis.
In Germany, the implementation of sustainable development concepts in urban and
regional planning is reflected by a very different image and is accompanied by certain
scepticism. To give you an example, I would like to quote from the study of the
Institute for Management in Environmental Planning at the Technical University of
Berlin that offers the following theory. The empirical study of the implementation of
sustainability concepts in the area of German regional planning showed, “… that
sustainability as a goal and sustainable spatial development as a guiding principle
have not yet been clearly defined. This might have been realised for parts of some
plans. Central aspects of the idea of sustainability, such as long-term planning
(durability), global aspects such as consistency, transparency and reduction of
material and resource flows are almost completely excluded. However, some positive
aspects have to be recognised.”
Using the phrase ‘empty words’ to introduce our topic today, suggests a certain
degree of scepticism towards sustainability. I feel challenged by this in a positive
sense. Namely as Mayor of Potsdam and as a member of the German Council for
Sustainable Development (RNE), which the German Chancellor founded more than a
year ago.
I
Here in Potsdam, the term ‘sustainability’ has not remained empty or vague. In the
nineties, we had to cope with the legacy of the Red Army. Being a traditional garrison
town, Potsdam had to renovate hundreds of hectares of contaminated military sites
and convert them into sustainable areas.
The re-use of inner-city fallow land is an important signal for urban development,
environmental protection and local finances. The Federal Environmental Agency
(UBA) once estimated the value of fallow land in Germany at approximately 40 billion
euros.
Potsdam built apartments on fallow land, e.g. on the territory of Bornstedter Feld.
This has been a major contribution to an improved quality of life for the residents. We
offer living space to young families rather than push them away to the suburbs.
Together with a variety of other measures, this is an important step towards
developing a functioning city. For the future of our city, goals and concrete
sustainability measures are a MUST for social, economic and ecological
development, as well as for the betterment of urban space design. A clear focus on
this goal is also the basis for the federal competition on expanding urban
restructuring concepts. The city of Potsdam is also a participant in this competition,
and has therefore dealt specifically with an integrated, sustainable urban
development concept.
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Potsdam is therefore an excellent venue for this discussion, ladies and gentlemen.
Generally, however, one has to say that East German cities suffer from a lack of
effectively using industrial and military fallow lands. In many East German areas and
cities (Leipzig is one example) the high book values for fallow land, recorded by the
banks in 1992/93, are a barrier for sensible urban development. And, although highpriced trading areas are often possible to realise, the situation with regard to housing
development is much more complicated, not to mention green spaces and common
areas. That is why I opt for restructuring prices for soil, in the context of social and
environmental policy. Funds are often a good solution, and the Ruhr area has
demonstrated how to achieve this. The Ruhr Area Fund was a follow-up subsidy
programme for the mining industry. And that was absolutely correct. I suggest
considering a follow-up subsidy system for public infrastructure and large-scale fallow
lands from the Germany Railways, for example. Sustainability is a future-oriented
concept; however, it also demands reasonable consideration for the vices of the past.
In this context, there is still a lot to do.
II
For us, sustainability does not only mean converting fallow land into usable land, but
also to focus special attention onto internal developments and, in so doing, the
protection of vested interest. By concentrating on internal developments and federal
and regional funds (via urban development planning) together with urban funds, it
can be made available for promoting private and public projects in the redevelopment
areas of Potsdam. Here, it is predominantly the regulations governing building law
that will be used for controlling and implementing redevelopment processes. The
redevelopment of major parts of the Dutch Quarter is more or less complete. The
historic city centre has already started to attract an increasing number of visitors.
Babelsberg with its almost completely renovated central area has once again
become an urban highlight.
Regarding the ever-increasing number of apartments that are impossible to rent out,
the re-development of existing buildings has started to play a significant role.
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Although Potsdam currently does not have very high vacancy figures when compared
with the city in general, about half of our citizens live in industrial housing
developments, predominantly in seven large former socialist settlement areas. A
housing area that is part of the urban development funding project is the ‘Schlaatz’.
Here, signs of segregation have become extremely visible. With the programme
‘Social City’, we intend to implement an integrated action plan, with realistic targets
for an efficient district management, by recruiting and mobilising local players in order
to guarantee sustainable development.
III
East German cities are an involuntary harbinger of a development that more or less
affects the entire German and European urban development situation. I am talking
about the phenomenon of shrinking cities.
Today, Germany has 82 million inhabitants. Experts have predicted that in 50 years,
there will only be 65 million, even if there is an immigration rate of 200,000 persons
per year. This affects settlement developments and existing housing, but also the
quality of life and social cohesion. Cities in the West also lose citizens to the suburbs.
As for the city of Kiel, an estimated 3,000 people will move away from the city per
year. There they will create a demand for expanded infrastructure and mobility, and
more land. In rural areas, there will be conflicts arising as well, if major areas will be
abandoned. This actually contradicts the postulate of spatial planning, which is to
provide balanced and equal living conditions. Still, everybody tries to avoid this issue.
Business consultants, cities and communities prefer to talk about growth and a
constant increase in the demand for land. This is sadly what we call whistling in the
forest. The concept of sustainable development does offer solutions, but for this we
need to think long-term.
IV
The Sustainability Council advised the German Government to restrict land usage
from 129 to 30 hectares per year, as a target of its National Sustainability Strategy.
The German Government embraced this idea.
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We know the architects’ and urban developers’ criticism concerning this goal. Some
consider it to be an illusion and not realistic. They argue that land development
cannot be controlled, since it is a phenomenon of prosperity and not of planning. In
addition, the environmental policy has been upholding the 30 hectares per year
target for years without ever reaching it.
I would like to briefly describe our point of view. With the 30 hectares target, we
intend to send out a political signal. The signal is: urban development and spatial
planning are important for a clear policy of sustainability. In this context, a lot of
important steps can be taken: ranging from areas, such as construction and housing,
urban development, to spatial development. Also we need the agricultural areas for
an ecologically responsible agricultural policy.
The 30 hectares target cannot be implemented by merely pointing to the existing
targets of spatial and regional planning (similar to what the National Sustainability
Strategy intends to do). Such an approach will fail, and this has been proven in the
past. Instead, we need new ideas. From my point of view, the Academy for Spatial
and Regional Planning has to play a central role, namely, to promote a new
cooperation of the parties involved.
One example: shouldn’t we take the ratio between the number of inhabitants and the
number of jobs as a benchmark for a financial transfer in the future? A balanced ratio
of approximately 2.5 / 3:1 would be rewarded and deviations would be punished.
Some cities (such as Bonn in the West) do not need more jobs. They already have a
considerable number of commuters (in the case of Bonn: 90,000). Furthermore, small
rural communities today often want to survive by becoming sleeping cities, because
they do not have the resources to create jobs. Also a temporarily limited right to build,
a flexible approach to flat-rates for private houses, and varied local shop opening
hours should no longer be considered taboo topics. In the future, municipalities
should be rewarded for sustainable spatial planning.
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V
Sustainable development measures reflect various dimensions. One thing which is
important for us to note is that sustainability is becoming part of the younger
generations’ thinking. To answer this, we launched the project ‘Our Schoolyard will
be Designed by Us’. In the context of this project, 12 schools in Potsdam organised
projects within the framework of the Federal Horticultural Show 2001 (BUGA), to
redesign parts of their schoolyards. Students, teachers and parents participated, and
they created outdoor classrooms, ponds, dry walls, art walls and plant beds with
bushes and shrubs. These places, designed and created by the students
themselves, help create awareness for the relationship to their immediate
environment. At the same time, social integration is being promoted because of the
sense of community that arose during the course of the project. Teamwork produces
ownership, and due to this, the schoolyard becomes an area worth preserving.
Destruction, neglect and decay are therefore reduced. At the same time, various
educational themes (social cohesion, environmental education, creative design, and
organised, systematic working) were combined with each other. The manual activity
also promoted the students’ physical development. As a result, this project integrated
several main aspects of Local Agenda 21 (environment, education, health,
sustainability) by introducing the concept of sustainability at an early stage.
VI
As mayor, l also of course feel that despite these numerous successes, the
implementation of sustainable development may be compared to hurdles and
additional stumbling blocks when it comes to decisions and daily activities. In this
context, I would like to finally mention two aspects:
1. It is extremely complicated to find an integrated approach to urban development,
taking into account sustainability and an optimum use of financial resources. The
reason for this is that in many cases interconnectedness is not transparent enough,
and a number of target conflicts arise during the concrete implementation phase. The
decision process and defining control and efficiency criteria is very difficult to realise.
Furthermore, it becomes apparent that the criteria for examining the legitimacy of
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decisions – a main task of administration – have to be widened, due to new
sustainable development demands and have to be incorporated into everyday
administrative activities. This requires a new way of thinking within the entire
administration regarding their internal relations, but also with respect to their
perceived role in the eyes of our citizens. Sustainable urban development needs to
be seen in close connection with the setting up of a new, modern administrative
steering system.
A second aspect is that there are numerous concepts and ideas about how
sustainable development should be reflected in all areas of social life. However,
implementation, public relations work and coordinated actions of the players,
characterised by their different interests, is an extremely complicated and complex
process. Apart from the purely technical possibilities and scientific findings that need
to be taken into consideration when it comes to planning activities for sustainable
spatial and settlement developments, it is dialogue, communication and cooperation
that have to be supported in order to define and implement regional goals and
manage conflicts. This requires communicative-cooperative strategies that, on the
one hand, should be initiated by the administration, and should focus on social
multipliers, and on the other hand, should be launched and managed by the citizens
themselves. This is a special challenge for me, as mayor: namely to implement the
concept of sustainable development step by step, through political action, talks with
citizens and industry leaders, by taking administrative measures and by cooperating
constructively with regional government institutions - not only on city but also regional
levels. Setting up the necessary communication processes is a time-consuming and
conflict-ridden process because the goals and needs of the various players are
dramatically different.
These aspects are a challenge for scientists, because cities are not able to provide
the necessary theoretical prerequisites. This closes the circle and brings me back to
today’s plenary session. I wish you a positive and challenging meeting, with
practicable results that will help the cities and regions along their difficult path to
sustainability and will fill the empty words with meaning.
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