Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 31st NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview WG1: Local Government Author(s) Anton Gorodnichev Higher School of Economics Moscow Russian Federation Sofia Borushkina, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy Title Transformation of planning tools of urban development at the local level in Russia: from socialist legacy to authoritarian urbanism File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Anton Gorodnichev Abstract The urban governance and planning system developed in Russia by the mid-2000s looked quite like a modernized system necessary for the successful governance of Russian municipalities. However, almost immediately after the formation, this system began to change and deteriorate. By the 2020s, the result of such changes was the degradation of the quality of planning documents, the hollow essence of planning tools and mechanisms combined with the officially declared interest of federal and regional authorities in the quality of governance at the local level! In the early 2010s. the idea of the master plan arose in the expert community and among public authorities as a reaction to the ongoing degradation processes of urban planning. The urban development of Russian cities is regulated by several institutions, determined by the main federal laws on urban planning, local self-government, and strategic planning. The key local level document is the long-term socio-economic development strategy. A long-term document of urban planning is developed on its basis and is titled 'general plan'. Urban land use is regulated through an indefinite zoning code. The general plan, zoning code, and strategies are developed for one municipality and approved by the same municipality. We conceptualize master plans in Russian urban planning practice as i) a strategic document that allows public regional authorities to work under limitations of the existing urban planning system; ii) a document that is intended to replace the existing system of urban planning. The functions of master plans are controversial because of their specific position in the gray legislative zone. This practice is based on both formal institutions of governance and planning, and informal, but at the same time quite legitimate. Our research question is how the policy tool of master planning is used in planning in conditions of legal uncertainty and challenges of contemporary urbanization. We hypothesize that the change in urban planning tools is indicative of a paradigm shift in urban planning that is currently gaining momentum in Russia. We show the embeddedness of the new urban planning tool in the existing legal field and try to explain the reasons and implications of the ongoing transformation of the urban planning system To sketch out the main contours of master planning practice in contemporary Russia we employ a legal and institutional analysis surrounding the incorporation of the master planning approach. Case analysis of several published master plans gives additional evidence and helps to achieve a comprehensive picture of changing urban planning practice. We analyze 16 cases of master plans. Our selection of master plans represents almost every part of the country and covers both central and remote settlements, with different characters/features and history, population dynamics, with a population from 10,000 to 1,000,000+ people. The diversity of cases is intended to discuss how the master planning tool in Russia adapts to different origins and tasks. Our research may be of interest to the working group for several reasons. Our research shows how planning is carried out at the local level in conditions of strict centralization of governance. We consider that the master plan is a creative solution for local and regional authorities, as well as professionals, contradictions, and challenges of multilevel governance.
