Urban transformation: Institutional structuring and capacity creating of local governments for urban transformation legislation

Urban transformation which has firstly emerged in England after industrial revolution and then, in the process of rebuilding the cities destroyed after World War II in Europe, have been debated in Turkey after Marmara Earthquake in 1999 and it finally got into legislation in 2012. The legislation, entitled "Law on the Transformation of Lands Under Disaster Risk", or publicly known as "Urban Transformation Law", came into force on May 31, 2012 and published in the Official Journal No.28309. The scope of the thesis bases on how urban transformation law and enforcement legislation and various legislations related to urban transformation legislation have impacted institutional structuring and capacity creating of local authorities that are the major authority of plan execution processes. In this context, first, detailed documentary analyses were done in order to reflect the legislative frame, second, in depth interviews were done in order to put the local authorities institutional restructuring experiences as reflection of new legislative frame. The literature review reflects the definition of urban transformation concept in a broad context. Literature search showed that both the definition of urban transformation and its scope vary remarkably. The differences of the concept and its scope have reflected in line with several urban transformation implementations chronologically on an international field. Although the dynamics of urban transformation have varied over several examples, the major factors such as economic and social tend to be similar in cases. Moreover, case base search puts that transformation processes from the project development to management and implication have varied in different cases as well as in different geographical parts such as Europe-America-Asia. In all cases, adminstrative systems, socio-economic environments, various internal and external factors are directly affecting the scale and scope of urban transformation processes. Literature search has been extended to include Turkey as well. The urban transformation concept and processes in our country have been studied by following academic studies and legal framework. The Law No: 6306, complementary acts that may be of interest in the context of urban transformation have been examined. Based on the documentary analyses, urban transformation legislation as a whole has been evaluated and discussed in terms of its basic characteristics and anticipated material reflections. Beyond the documentary analyses, in depth interviews have been done with several municipalities. The aim of the in-depth interviews is to understand and reflect the institutional reactions of local authorities to this new legislative frame. The policy question is structured as how local authorities interpret the frame Law and its complementarities and restructure their organization frame in order to manage the execution processes. Local governments which have been subject to the interviews within the scope of literature search, are the Metropolitan Municipalities of Kocaeli, Bursa and Eskisehir. Interviews with the authorities working in the related units of the mentioned municipalities compose the analysis method. Interviews, put the restructuring processes and types in investigated local authorities. There are some similarities, as well as, some differences have been observed in searched municipalities. This shows that although there is a frame law, local authorities organization frame restructuring might change depending on their capacities and experiences of plan execution processes, as well as, the size or numbers of anticipated urban transformation areas. The frame Law does not include the any organizational frame for local authorities in order to facilitate urban transformation execution process. However, it is seen that each municipality has established a department aiming to guide transformation executions within the boundary of municipalities. In depth interviews clarify the responsibilities of solely established departments and those interactions with planning departments under the organization structure of municipalities. Additionally, information regarding the scale and scope of the activities being carried out within the scope of urban transformation has been obtained. Beyond the administrative restructuring of local governments according to the Urban Transformation Law, the capacity of municipalities from the human resources perspective in particular is examined. The interviews indicate that the urban transformation law and complementary acts have been interpreted in different ways by local governments. Interviewed local governments have structured different administrative or management organization schemes to manage transformation executions, moreover, each has applied varying methods to guiding the transformation processes. As emphasized theoretically and in several cases, participation is an essential component of a succesfull urban transformation implementation. Not only the local residents but also the other stakeholders such as market actors, non-governmental organizations should be included in any urban transformation process from the beginning to the end. Although participation is essential, the legal framework ignores the participatory transformation processes in Turkey. The participatory transformation processes are understood the agreement of residents on plans that prepared by related authorities which ignores their participation to the planning process from the beginning. Another interesting result is about interpretations of local autorities on urban transformation. From their point of view, municipalities or solely established departments in them, the transformation has a narrow meaning bases on redistribution of ownership rights rather than having comprehensive meaning includes social and economic dimensions. More importantly, transformation is considered as parcel-base transformation instead as a part of comprehensively discussed urban development processes and planning policies of the whole. Interviews show each municipality has its own organisation scheme each of which was restructured in order to guiding demands base on transformation in their authority area in last decade. Those organization schemas vary either by in hierarchy or responsibilities in the hierarchy. The urban transformation department in Kocaeli and Bursa metropolitan municipalities are operating under the planning departments. Nonetheless, the urban transformation department in Eskisehir was separately established independent department from the department of zoning and city planning. It is seen that each municipality has its own organization schema, execution process, professional capacity and technical sophistication. The law does not clarify the concept of transformation comprehensively and its inherent relation with planning that is reflected the organizational structures of municipalities and their execution processes. The frequent use of expropriations in urban transformation implementations in Bursa is important in terms of ownerships rights. The acquisition of academic support in the planning processes of urban transformation in Eskisehir places this city to a different place among other municipalities. In Kocaeli, a number of analyzes covering all districts within the metropolitan area have been prepared by applying geographical database. This is an important database able to reflect the priority transformation areas within the boundary of the metropolitan municipality that provide a ground of physical planning, financial planning and developing ad hoc solutions to these transformation areas. All of these three metropolitan municipalities mentioned above developed their own implementation practices. However, because of the fact that the standards defining urban transformation dynamics are not developed adequately, it is clearly seen that metropolitan municipalities can not correspond immediately in area-based urban transformation implementations. The fundamental problem behind this issue might be the legal framework which enacted without properly discussed and included professional insights.