What is Urban Master Planning ?
Answers (4)
lalith Kumar (
Senior Manager-Project Development at Tata Realty & Infrastructure limited
Urban Master planning is akin to Business Planning for any enterprise.
Here the "enterprise" is the subject "Urban space".
We may be aware that a business establishment in its business plan, accounts for its present resource requirements and forecasts its future growth potential and inturn plans infrastructure requirement. The business plan becomes the "blue print" for its sustainability and growth.
And so is a 'Urban Master Plan' plans its present requirements (spatially and resources) and accounts for its future requirements by forecasting the growth patterns. Resources would mean spatial, financial, infrastructural.
It also prepares the blue print for sustainability.
The Critical Success Factors for an urban Master plan is allocation of the right resources at the right quantity and for the right duration. This is where Urban Planners, Urban Designers, Development Finance spealists contribute their part.
Today funding and sustaining an Urban Infrastructure (Roads, Railway links, Metros, Ware houses, Industrial parks, Water supply, Power supply, sewage disposal, housing etc) are critical for a good urban space. The Government obviously could not fund the entire development and need to be self sustained at the same time factoring the affordability level of its users. This is where private sectos business acumen and latest technologies need to be 'married' with Governmental urban policies. Thus began the concept of PPP in urban master planning. There is tremendous scope for improvement in today's urban space through PPP.
A good Urban Master Plan forecasts for atleast next 20 years and accomodates the infrastructure and blue print for its sustainability. The concept of FSI, Transfer of Development rights (TDR), Incentive Zoning, Public Private Partnership (PPP) etc. are tools of an Urban Master Plan to acheive what it is intended to acheive.
Pls refer the book 'Urban scapes' by Frank Lynch for greater clarity.
regards
Lalith kumar
Adam R
Vice President of Corporate Development at BG Capital Real Estate Investment Trust
Usually this refers to a master development plan where various zoning grids are laid out over a designated area. This is a tool municipalities use to allocate land uses among residential, commercial, retail, industrial, and gvernmental, educational, and religious uses. On a large scale it can be referred to a "master planning" and on a smaller scale it is sometimes referred to a PUD (planned unit development) or Cheretteing which is very specific as to the type of use and construction methods to be employed.
Geoffrey D
Project Manager at S. B. Friedman & Company and Real Estate Development Consultant
Note that my direct experience with master planning is limited to the United States.
The scale of a master plan can range from tens of acres to thousands of acres.
A master planning exercise can be initiated by either a governmental entity or a private landholder though there is often some level of collaboration between the public and private sectors in a master planning process.
As a point of contrast, smaller communities also develop Comprehensive Plans. The scale of these plans is the entire municipality. They cover a more broad range of issues with less specificity and often a bit more of an aspirational tone.
A good master plan has a strong basis in physical and market realities. It can be aspirational but shouldn't be delusional. (For example, if it is not reasonable to believe that 10,000,000 square feet of industrial space can be absorbed in the next x years, the plan shouldn't anticipate building infrastructure to support that amount of building space in that time frame.)
Frequently there is some amount of public input in a master planning process as master plans often define ways in which public resources are to be allocated in the future. A charrette or other meetings in which concepts are presented to the community for input are frequently used mechanisms for gathering feedback.
Geoffrey D also suggests this expert on this topic:
Let' look at the words seperately : " Urban " " Master " and "Planning". In a layman's view , urban is city or town as rural means villages , so anything which is not a village is urban. Master would mean - the source of or alternatively , the key control of some element and planning would mean preparation of certain elements in a definite order. Hence, Master Urban planning , if simply put , would be a space which is not a village , has a controlled set of elements put in some definite order.
Technically speaking, Master planning refers to planned development of cities and towns wherein the development is forecasted as per the growth trends observed in the past. It is basically the organisation of spaces with suitable physical and social infrastructure in place. It is a means to have suitable spaces with the minimum required amenities by population .
