Prudent development - a shared responsibility
14 Urban and housing development
The Government's primary objective is to promote sustainable development of towns, housing and buildings. Residents and users in individual urban and housing areas should participate actively in this development, for instance through a lifestyle that calls for everybody to consider the environment and limit resource consumption as a part of everyday life. With respect to social life, buildings and infrastructure, towns must be organised and managed with a view to significantly reducing resource consumption and environmental impact. Towns should be vibrant and diverse, while town centres should be bolstered in their role as centres of business and culture. The individual town quarters should offer housing, service trades, public institutions and sports facilities, thus revitalising urban areas.
We must limit the expansion of towns and put old business and harbour areas to better use. Urban transportgenerating functions should be located with a view to providing the maximum number of people with easy access to public transport. We must also reduce the negative impacts of mounting urban vehicle traffic along with other environmental impacts.
Towns must offer a variety of types of housing, and authorities should intensify activities targeted at depressed urban neighbourhoods. Urban renewal creates a balance between old and new, emphasising quality, exceptional architecture and urban ecology. Preservation-worthy cultural environments must also be safeguarded. By the same token, we should improve the quality of urban recreational opportunities and preserve allotment gardens.
Greater prosperity and increased division of labour have led to a sharp rise in traffic, which currently constitutes the greatest threat to urban environments and thus urban quality in general. To curb growth in transportation, we must exercise caution in using new rural zone areas for urban purposes. Instead, urban development should take place in areas that already lie within existing town limits. To strengthen and preserve local communities, we must continue to develop villages in rural districts. Draft regional plans will outline the Government framework for such action.
The intention is to reuse existing depressed urban areas by making optimal use of the social, natural and building resources available in local areas, by intermixing housing and various other urban functions and by ensuring adequate accessibility. Such towns must be based on principles of location and traffic operation, ensuring that public transport, cycling or walking account for an increasing part of traffic volumes. To ensure this development in the Greater Copenhagen region, nonresidential buildings and other facilities will be placed close to railway stations. At the same time, the mixture of services, trades and different types of housing will make towns more vibrant, diverse and socially sustainable. Plans for urban revitalisation must be based on dialogue and partnerships between the various players.
Sustainable development places certain demands on user behaviour and lifestyles in towns and housing areas. Drawing on its previous experience in community involvement, individual measurement of household resource consumption and green accounting in the respective housing areas, the Government will strengthen initiatives intended to change behaviour and attitudes towards environmental and resource problems.
Urban revitalisation - from cement production to a mixture of residential and non-residential housing The Lindholm Brygge area at Limfjorden, close to Aalborg, is changing. Until 1979, a cement works employing around 500 staff occupied the area, but new businesses are now coming in. An international electronics group is building 15,500 square meters of floorage for more than 400 engineers, who will be developing mobile telephones. Today, the electronics company offers almost as many jobs as the former cement works. Lindholm Brygge will also house an IT company, a technical school and an adult vocational training centre, providing a total of about 100-150 jobs. About 400 new dwellings will be built along with recreational areas that will allow the
public access to the inlet. Fully developed, Lindholm Brygge will cover an area of 102,000
square metres, or approximately twice the size of the area occupied by the former cement
works. |
The quality of green areas is under pressure and must therefore be boosted. We must also
improve urban opportunities for recreational activities, for example by providing
facilities for informal sports activities. These areas are pivotal to physical and mental
welfare in urban areas, and many people use them. Furthermore, green areas and urban
nature are important to the urban life cycles of substances: they can filter rainwater,
receive compost and host plant and animal life. Since allotment gardens are often situated
in areas attractive to other functions, they are also under pressure, but we must
safeguard them as valuable elements of urban recreational options.
Buildings and facilities located in towns constitute important elements of the economic and cultural capital of society and also play a key role in overall resource consumption and environmental impact. Energy consumed to construct and operate buildings accounts for half of Denmark's total energy consumption, while materials used for buildings and facilities comprise the greater part of the consumption of Danish raw materials. Thus recognising and limiting resource consumption and the environmental impacts of the general life cycles of buildings are important challenges. These challenges can be met by increasing the utility value, flexibility and quality of buildings, thus extending their lives and reducing the need for structural changes.
When it comes to aspects like quality, size and location, housing market conditions often make it difficult to move to a new home that fulfils current needs. The individual housing areas must provide variation, recreational opportunities and easy access to nature.
Objectives and activities 2001-2006
The recommendations of the Danish Industrial and Urban Development Committee as well as the Government's Report on Urban Development from May 2001 contain a number of proposals for new initiatives and legislation that can boost the development of sustainable towns in relation to location and use of areas. Focus should be on developing the proposals to select urban revitalisation areas, to establish specific urban revitalisation companies, and to prioritise the order in which old urban areas should be revitalised.
Through initiatives such as pilot projects, the Government intends to help develop new urban structures that can reduce the demand for transportation and promote public transport. This places demands on cooperation between local and regional authorities. To avoid unnecessary traffic impacts and to provide green areas of a high quality, we must develop strategies for locating shops, offices, institutions and dwellings in urban areas.
We must continue and develop the existing programmes of general urban renewal and neighbourhood improvement. Two specific aims are to involve all citizens and to integrate social, economic and environmental initiatives in local communities. The spotlight will also be on measuring resources consumed by individual households and on establishing green accounting in housing areas. The Government's committee on urban development will designate three to five pilot areas with a high concentration of social problems where private and public stakeholders will implement initiatives through concerted action. Funded by an urban development pool, themes such as "Urban Business", "New Suburbs" and "Towns, Housing and Traffic" will be implemented on the principles of sustainable urban development.
To achieve more socially sustainable urban and housing areas, the Government will introduce a Bill to increase the right of disposal and coownership in subsidised housing.
Members of the Danish building and construction industry must increase their competencies in sustainable building and construction, and they must also show a greater interest in and commitment to fostering sustainable development. The Government recommends intensified urbanecological initiatives, including sustainable product development, environmentally acceptable planning and design, complete financial calculations, building materials declarations and green accounting. Building regulations will be tightened, thus introducing stricter requirements for energy consumption and healthy buildings. The action plan for environmentally sustainable building and construction practices to be published by the Danish product panel for building and construction later in 2001 will provide a suitable basis for sectors in the area to coordinate their actions. The new four-year acceleration pool promoting ecological building and construction work will support a number of development projects.
Efficient efforts in the energy area are best secured through international cooperation. Denmark will strive to ensure that sustainable energy is strongly represented in EU energy policy and on the global agenda in 2002 and the years ahead. Continued energy cooperation in the Nordic region is also important, not least in the field of electricity. In recent years, higher priority has been given to the development and transfer of expertise and energy technology for use in Central and Eastern Europe and in developing countries. This will remain a key element of Denmark's initiatives to ensure global sustainable development.