Experience from the implementation of the spatial plan of the Republic of Serbia (1996), and some lessons regarding the preparation of the strategy of sustainable spatial and urban development of Serbia (2008)

Abstract

The Spatial Plan of the Republic of Serbia was enacted in 1996, almost 30 years after the moment its preparation had been launched. Apart from defining a set of standard development propositions for a national development document of the kind, it also stipulated a reform of spatial, urban and environmental planning. However, the Plan has never been implemented in a programmed, systematic and organized way, apart from the fact that the mechanisms for its implementation, as scheduled and necessitated on the part of the planning profession during its promulgation, have neither been provided for. The otherwise stipulated mid-term programme for its implementation has not been passed either. To this extent, the Plan represents a typical example of a politically instrumentalized development document. More than ten years after its promulgation, the key development problems of Serbia became even more complex. Consequently, it is of an imperative to prepare a new national strategic framework plan for sustainable spatial and urban development. On this occasion, however, the planning profession ought to exact from the political cluster of society to demonstrate an effective political will to prepare and pass a new plan (or to that case, a strategy), as well as to provide the necessary measures and instruments for its implementation. This should also instigate appropriate adjustments in the planning profession, viz., in the first place, a care for full professionalism and "non-manipulative persuasion" to play the key role within new planning approaches, as well as to undertake a radical departure from "systematic and organized mobilization of interests and bias", now the dominating forms of communication on the political and professional scene.

Prostorni plan Republike Srbije donet je 1996. godine, skoro 30 godina nakon započinjanja rada na njemu. Osim što je Planom bio definisan veći broj razvojnih odredbi koje su uobičajene za dokumente ove vrste, njime se takođe nastojala pokrenuti reforma u oblasti prostornog, urbanističkog i envajronmentalnog planiranja. Plan, međutim, nikada nije ostvarivan programirano, sistematski i organizovano, niti je za njegovu implementaciju bilo obezbeđeno sve ono što je bilo predviđeno i traženo od šire planerske profesije u času njegovog donošenja. Nije donet srednjoročni program za njegovu operacionalizaciju odnosno sprovođenje. On je tipičan primer razvojnog dokumenta koji je politički instrumentalizovan. Više od deset godina nakon njegovog donošenja, razvojni problemi Srbije postali su još složeniji, pa se kao imperativ postavlja da se donese novi državni strateški okvir u oblasti održivog prostornog i urbanog razvoja. Ovoga puta, međutim od političkog klastera društva mora se zahtevati da demonstrira stvarnu političku volju za pripremanje, donošenje i ostvarivanje novog plana (ili strategije), odnosno da obezbedi neophodan instrumentarijum za implementaciju razvojnih odluka. To iziskuje određena prilagođavanja i kod planerske struke a najpre, da obezbedi da visoki profesionalizam i nemanipulativno ubeđivanje postanu okosnica novih pristupa, kao i da nastoji na radikalnom i postojanom otklonu od postojeće "sistematske i organizovane mobilizacije interesa i pristrasnosti", kao dominantnog oblika profesionalnog i političkog komuniciranja.