For centuries Europe has seen widespread urban growth, but deindustrialisation, and the recent economic crisis, have sparked a decline in the economic strength, populations and employment levels of many cities. Forty per cent of medium sized European cities experienced a decrease in population in recent decades, according to the EU funded SHRINK SMART research project (2009-2012). These cities are faced with a decision: continue trying to regain growth; or opt for sustainable management of shrinkage, a process often more complicated to govern than growth. The URBACT project OP-ACT is the reaction of ten small and medium sized cities to the challenges of demographic change and population decline. As such towns face the dual dilemma of an increasing need to act and diminishing financial means, OP-ACT’s partners focused on the most urgent issues. Together they identified a set of strategic actions for the successful restructuring of shrinking and stagnating cities.

Main results

Five Priority Actions to Boost Small and Medium Sized Cities

OP-ACT’s partner cities defined five main overlapping and interlinked priority areas, which informed their search for solutions to demographic change and population decline: 

Priority 1: Stabilise communal revenues. Tackle decreasing communal revenues in order to stabilise the financial situation. Improve the city image and to attract new inhabitants and investors.

Priority 2: Address social services and social inclusion, the sector most hit by budget reductions. Partners reported that many planned projects for young people, senior citizens and migrants had to be postponed or cancelled completely. 

Priority 3: Boost the local economy. Boost the local economy to break the vicious circle of “economic stagnation – closing of local businesses – falling employment – outward migration”. 

Priority 4: Adapt urban development to demographic change. Measures to deal with vacant premises and brownfields, as well as changed technical and social infrastructure requirements. In this context “reduction” can also lead to the creation of a greener, less polluted and more liveable city.

Priority 5: Promote existing local advantages. Partner cities tried to (re-)discover and focus on their own qualities rather than compete with the advantages of larger metropolitan areas.

Core Approaches to Making Cities Smaller, Greener, More Attractive

If the inevitable refrain from growth is accepted, the planning of future, smaller cities can start. Steps include “re-naturising” depopulated areas, re-using brownfields or vacant buildings, restructuring economic development and adapting social infrastructure. With a smaller population and geographical area, a town can be a greener, more enjoyable and attractive place to live. This can have a positive impact on the regional competition for new inhabitants and investors.

Two core approaches proved essential for OP-ACT’s partner cities during the development and implementation of their measures:

• Plan and implement projects in a holistic manner. In most cases integrated projects are more adequate than sectoral projects;
• Involve the general public in the planning and implementation process and choose the right stakeholders.

OP-ACT Actions for Towns to Tackle the Challenges of Demographic Change

Understanding that every city needs to deal with demographic change in its own way, the OP-ACT partners defined some key actions for small and medium sized towns to choose from. Here are some highlights:

Raise awareness, gain political leadership and acceptance. City councils should accept the paradigm shift away from growth to stabilisation or reduction, and develop their integrated urban renewal concept accordingly. Avoid negative connotations: highlight the chance for active transformation. The urban renewal concept should cover the urban area and all factors influencing urban development. Managing such a restructuring process needs the commitment and skills of all involved actors much more than handling growth. Active planning and steering are required more than ever.

Involve local and regional stakeholders and citizens, a vital instrument in the restructuring process. Administrative departments, local actors such as enterprises and business, real estate developers, social institutions and NGOs, and citizens, should all take part, right from the development of an action, through the decision-making, and up to implementation. This is the only way to guarantee identification with the project and sustainable modification according the policy “Let’s plan together with the citizens and not for them!” Many volunteers worked in OP-ACT’s partner cities, proving that citizens are willing to support public administrations, especially in providing social services. It is vital to establish a culture of dialogue and interaction, to ensure strong communication with all people involved.

Choose to cooperate, not compete, with neighbouring municipalities. This is one way to share communal tasks and costs, to ensure a coordinated city-hinterland development and to reduce competition within a region. This needs an atmosphere of trust, equal rights and transparent structures.

Re-use abandoned areas and brownfield sites. A positive city image must be supported by the local population and must reflect reality. As well as a city’s “hard” location factors, promote its increasingly significant “soft” factors. These include quality of life, a safe environment, a range of sports, leisure and cultural activities, and the availability of green spaces. It is precisely this improvement in quality of life that can be reached by re-using abandoned areas and brownfields as open or green spaces. 

Match social measures with intended populations. Inward-migration can be enhanced by promoting the advantages of “urban life”. Creating affordable and family friendly living spaces and initiating integration programmes for foreign immigrants can help attract new inhabitants. 

Adapt the local infrastructure and services to the changed age structure, both for the increasing percentage of senior citizens, and for the young people to keep them in town. Some possible actions are: make pavements near retirement homes barrier-free; offer free transportation to social clubs; build more-generation houses to reduce barriers between senior and young citizens; offer adequate education facilities, and creative and sport activities for the young, as well as good meeting points.

Create incentives for investment. Build one “eye-catcher” building in the area, to be revitalised with city funds or through public-private-partnership. This can stimulate private investment in further development in the area. Special incentives can be offered for investors and entrepreneurs, such as tax relief, cuts in red tape, reduced rents.

Strengthen links between education and labour markets for local needs. Do not forget the importance of cooperation between local educational facilities and local businesses to offer the education and training required by the labour market. Self-employment can be promoted as an alternative job opportunity for young people with the help of coaching programmes and adequate workplaces.

Reorientate the local economy, enhance old traditions. Restructuring should also be implemented in the local economy. New sectors such as creative industries, as well as culture and historic handicrafts, can be developed supplementing the traditional ones.

OP-ACT concludes that demographic change and population decline, rather than representing a sad road to despair, should be seen positively as the beginning of a new “slim town” era. Creating realistic visions should be central to urban planning. Local, regional and federal public authorities are now asked to provide an appropriate framework to secure the right direction of restructuring, so that the urban structure does not lead to social polarisation. Integrated and holistic strategies as well as national funding programmes are needed to implement the transformation to a well-tailored urban fabric. 

The OP-ACT Charter

Formulating the partner cities’ demands at various political levels, the OP-ACT Charter has been signed not only by the mayors of all ten partner cities, but also by cities outside the OP-ACT project. The Zealand Denmark EU Office, for example, has recommended other cities to support and sign the OP-ACT Charter. The range of requests includes calls for:

• The adjustment of financial allocations to specific solutions, not just to population numbers;
• More flexible support and funding programmes for small and medium-sized cities;
• No cutbacks to social facilities or infrastructure arrangements. Avoid devolving welfare and social support costs to cities;
• Targeted migration and family policies;
• The launch of a European award for innovation and sustainable approaches in the field of demographic change in small and medium-sized cities.

Prospects

OP-ACT’s partnership has decided to work together on creating new strategies beyond the project’s closure. Smaller partnerships have also formed between OP-ACT cities. For example, Dabrowa Górnicza and Medias agreed to work together on the specific topic of “mobility”, with some involvement from Notodden. 

URBACT Local Support Groups in most partner cities will continue to apply an integrate approach to demographic change as associations, linking the target groups with city administration departments, and often with elected city representatives. They will support and evaluate the implementation of measures defined in their Local Action Plans.  

Almost all OP-ACT’s partner cities have integrated their Local Action Plans into strategic planning documents for the coming years. While implementation is politically approved, the financing of many actions is still to be discussed. Here are just a few examples of actions already implemented, as part of each city’s wider approach to tackling demographic changes. The library in Ancona has opened. An “experience elevator” in Altena will be ready by late 2013 to serve as an incubator for positive development and help revitalise the old town (see “Zoom on Altena”). In Leoben, many events for young people were organised in 2012, new events are integrated in the 2013 cultural programme, and actions for senior citizens and migrants are in preparation. Dabrowa Górnicza put some initial short-term solutions into place in 2012 and 2013, and started preparations for long-term actions such as the social and infrastructural revitalisation of urban public spaces, in particular, Zielona Park.

Read more

• OP-ACT minisite - URBACT website
• Zoom on Altena - URBACT website
• Zoom on Nagykálló - URBACT website