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13-11-15, 21:08
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/real-estate/publics-view-in-masterplanning-of-limited-use-say-specialists
Public's view in masterplanning of limited use, say specialists
It is good to listen, they say, but urban planners must take a stand or risk making bad decisions
By Lee Meixian
[email protected]
@LeeMeixianBT
NOV 7, 2015
HOW much participation and say should local communities have in their cities' master plans?
Asked this question, urban planning specialists say, surprisingly: "Not much."
Still, Liu Thai-Ker, former chief at the Housing & Development Board and the Urban Redevelopment Authority, and, many say, the architect of modern Singapore, said: "Definitely as a principle, we should listen to people. The critical issue is that, at the end of the day, the planner should take a stand and not try to be popular. That is the key difference.
"If you try to play a politically correct game and play popular, you make bad decisions. You can't even please everyone collectively because different people want different things."
While revising the Singapore Concept Plan 1991, for instance, he made the effort to take into consideration communities' needs before executing the plan.
The problem was that much of the feedback from residents was not very helpful, because it tended to be inward-looking, concerned only with these residents' immediate environments.
Meetings with professional and business organisations yielded more useful feedback because people from these organisations were clear about what they needed from cities.
Going farther back into history, he recalled how resistant squatter-residents were at first to moving to high-rise flats in the 1960s. The government had to entice them, not just with brand new flats, but also shopping malls and schools and extended bus lines.
The government also moved the residents in cohorts, as communities instead of individually, so that neighbours and relatives could still live near one another.
"When you push, there must also be a pull factor," he said.
Then, from 1969 to 1971, he noticed the letters to newspaper editors on the resettlement issue changed in tone, from "Why must you resettle me?" to "Why haven't you?".
Dr Liu said that people are sometimes not in the best position to make decisions, because they lack the broader overarching perspective that the government has. But if a government does its job well, people will in time be persuaded of the benefits.
Sometimes, governments also have to appease the people and compensate them for the inevitable changes they have to make to their livelihoods.
"We went down to minute details to compensate the squatter residents - not only measuring the size of the huts but the number of chickens, and even the age and weight of the chickens and the pigs, and also the height of their vegetables," he said.
"Our government really went all out to make people believe that we were fair to them, and ensured that their livelihood did not change for the worse, but for the better."
Peter Edwards, director of Singapore-ETH Centre for global environmental sustainability, agrees that planning has to be done by a select group of people, but he added that this may change in today's digitally inter-connected age, where the gathering of feedback can be efficiently done using technology.
"We are entering a time when people expect to be consulted, and expect their answers to be considered and taken seriously," he said.
Public's view in masterplanning of limited use, say specialists
It is good to listen, they say, but urban planners must take a stand or risk making bad decisions
By Lee Meixian
[email protected]
@LeeMeixianBT
NOV 7, 2015
HOW much participation and say should local communities have in their cities' master plans?
Asked this question, urban planning specialists say, surprisingly: "Not much."
Still, Liu Thai-Ker, former chief at the Housing & Development Board and the Urban Redevelopment Authority, and, many say, the architect of modern Singapore, said: "Definitely as a principle, we should listen to people. The critical issue is that, at the end of the day, the planner should take a stand and not try to be popular. That is the key difference.
"If you try to play a politically correct game and play popular, you make bad decisions. You can't even please everyone collectively because different people want different things."
While revising the Singapore Concept Plan 1991, for instance, he made the effort to take into consideration communities' needs before executing the plan.
The problem was that much of the feedback from residents was not very helpful, because it tended to be inward-looking, concerned only with these residents' immediate environments.
Meetings with professional and business organisations yielded more useful feedback because people from these organisations were clear about what they needed from cities.
Going farther back into history, he recalled how resistant squatter-residents were at first to moving to high-rise flats in the 1960s. The government had to entice them, not just with brand new flats, but also shopping malls and schools and extended bus lines.
The government also moved the residents in cohorts, as communities instead of individually, so that neighbours and relatives could still live near one another.
"When you push, there must also be a pull factor," he said.
Then, from 1969 to 1971, he noticed the letters to newspaper editors on the resettlement issue changed in tone, from "Why must you resettle me?" to "Why haven't you?".
Dr Liu said that people are sometimes not in the best position to make decisions, because they lack the broader overarching perspective that the government has. But if a government does its job well, people will in time be persuaded of the benefits.
Sometimes, governments also have to appease the people and compensate them for the inevitable changes they have to make to their livelihoods.
"We went down to minute details to compensate the squatter residents - not only measuring the size of the huts but the number of chickens, and even the age and weight of the chickens and the pigs, and also the height of their vegetables," he said.
"Our government really went all out to make people believe that we were fair to them, and ensured that their livelihood did not change for the worse, but for the better."
Peter Edwards, director of Singapore-ETH Centre for global environmental sustainability, agrees that planning has to be done by a select group of people, but he added that this may change in today's digitally inter-connected age, where the gathering of feedback can be efficiently done using technology.
"We are entering a time when people expect to be consulted, and expect their answers to be considered and taken seriously," he said.