Last month Kosovars celebrated the first year since they declared their independence. Exuberant scenes of happy people, music, dance ... and an incredible orchestrated fireworks. The daily reality is a little less exuberant. Not only in the economic terms as the unemployment rate is more than 40%, but also in terms of institutional legislation. The adoption of  the new constitutional law in 2008, as well as several amendments to existing should lead among others to a more efficient and effective public administration including the field of spatial planning. One of the preconditions for the greater spatial order is the availability of educated urban planners and UN-HABITAT as the implementer of the Municipal Spatial Planning Support Programme supports initiatives aimed at establishing closer cooperation between Kosovo academics and their counterparts in Europe and across the world.

Recently, Huig Deneef, a spatial planning advisor working for MuSPP in Peja/Pec, was invited by the head of Department of Spatial and Regional Planning of the University of Florence, Prof. Arch. Raffaele Paloscia to give a lecture on the spatial planning situation in Kosovo. The visit offered also an opportunity to initiate first contacts between Italian and Kosovar spatial planners.

The lecture delivered on February 10, 2009 was attended by students, professors and professionals. The first part of the lecture had an informative character and set a broader context for the spatial planning legislation and practice, both before and after the conflict, and presented UN-HABITAT’s engagement in this field through its current and earlier programmes. The second part was focused on discussion that was triggered by statements referring to the mechanisms aimed at enforcing development control, such as legislative framework, and on the need for empowering civil society.

Contrary to the highly-regulated Italian spatial planning, the laboratory-planning environment seems to be of interest to academics in order to find creative ways to implement sustainable spatial planning policies. Several topics were intensively discussed like the use of “zoning plans” or the importance of so called “inverse planning”. For the clarity of the discussion the two concepts were defined as follows: “zoning plan” refers to a general approach to fit all spatial development activities in one plan, like the Urban Development Plan. “Inverse planning” refers to the planning and regulation of the land not allocated for construction by defining and determining the value of  agricultural land, water, forests, natural areas, etc.. The complementary incremental planning approach seems also valid for Italy. 

To illustrate the need for the mix of these approaches, Huig Deneef in his lecture made reference to a project plan for a by-pass road in Peja/Pec. UN-HABITAT team in Peja/Pec is working on both levels by implementing strategic projects which include mechanism for development control and improving the quality of life. The project aims to upgrade the by-pass road in Peja/Pec. This will regulate on one hand urban development as the road will function as an urban boundary, while on the other hand, re-directing the traffic flow from the city centre to the by-pass road will improve the quality of life for the citizens in terms of the level of noise, air pollution and road safety.

As a direct follow up to the established cooperation with the University of Florence, two students from this University will soon start working as interns for 3 months in Peja/Pec to support the implementation of this strategic project and finalize their master thesis in urban and regional planning. Their presence will not only improve sustainable cooperation between Italian and Kosovar planners, but it will also be helpful in establishing cooperation with students and practitioners from EU member states.