Vienna is a dynamic and successful city. Many people love to live there and many other plan to live in this city. This development bears good prospects for the city and the inhabitants, working places and urban quarters with high-quality but affordable housing units. On the other hand, there are challenges due to this growth, as many people are confronted with the transformation of their accustomed environment. Contemporary planning processes are relevant instruments for a fast-developing city like Vienna and should go hand in hand with cooperative methods.
The ‘Masterplan Partizipation’ was initiated in 2013 to anchor participation as relevant part of the urban planning processes and to develop standards and rules. The project aims to reach a constructive communication between all partners in an urban planning project. These are citizens, people from the municipality, investors and other institutions. The key element of a participative project is the communication, for which it is important to respect the following principles: early, face to face and clear. Communication in an early stage of an urban planning process is a relevant basis for successful participation. Direct communication (talking face to face) is a low-threshold action to give citizens the chance to bring in their ideas and worries when confronted with an urban planning project. Clear means understandable communication in documents and conversations, and not-technical terminology. Therefore, a base was developed for contributing to the participation loop (Beteiligungsschleife). It shows the typical sequence of participation: Feedback or Response (Rückmelden) is a new element and gives feedback to citizens about participation results and how they are included in further planning steps.
The people involved are who live within a circle of 500 metres around the project area; they have to be informed and invited to participate. These are inhabitants, local organisations, entrepreneurs and many others. Overall, 150 people were involved in the genesis of the Masterplan Partizipation and there was a blog where the public were informed and everyone could give input and discuss it. Citizens were also invited to workshops to bring in their opinions and ideas. The contractor of the Municipal Department 21 and consultant for the masterplan interviewed people from relevant groups (experts, citizen action groups, planners, …). This was the starting point for the transformation into a new participation culture. The announcement of the prompt execution was very important to get the project into action. Since then, the coordination for civil participation and communication (founded in the Municipal Department 21 in 2013) has been responsible for the implementation of the Masterplan Partizipation. Together with the planners of the department, the coordination unit could create good experiences, collect know-how and give this to project partners. The coordination unit organised training for planners on how to communicate with citizens and collect inquiries.