Regional and land planning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Regional and land planning - Essay Example Specifically, the problem of accommodating the skateboarders of LOVE Plaza has been contentious. A partial plan has been underway to provide solution for the perceived planning problem. And it cannot be determined whether the problem should be focused on community cohesion, aesthetic, practicality and economy, heritage, safety, or even inclusion. It should be noted that the problem about inclusion of perceived community â€Å"nuisance† in the planning scheme has been a challenge not only for planners but also for policy-makers and the residents. However, their part in the history and narrative of places cannot be easily dismissed. The author has noted the importance attached by skateboarders in LOVE Plaza within the discussed area and will argue the need to reconsider their petition to provide them a fair space within the public realm. You are to prepare an article for a town planning journal to test your capacity for research and original thinking. The topic of your article s hould be a fairly recent or current town planning issue facing a local government authority and/or a local community, preferably be one that is being debated in the community and in the media. It has to be an issue to do with a type of development that falls under the jurisdiction of a local government authority (i.e. is assessed by a LGA). The article should achieve the following: Define the town planning issue. The town planning issue is the renovation of the Dilworth, JFK, and Municipal Services Plazas in Philadelphia focused on the re-accommodation of skateboarders at LOVE Plaza. The area has been for quite a while an issue when the original structures started to be seen as failed spaces. It had too many of the same thing in one place, and previously a â€Å"grand scheme to create a downtown of the future, with offices and retail integrated into the underground transit system,† (Saffron, 2011, P 7). It was conceived by planner Edmund Bacon who was described as legendary, and executed by Vincent Kling's firm based on Rome's Piazza Navona (Saffron, 2011). Renovation is a contentious word for planners and designers not only due to sentimental or heritage and aesthetic reasons but also economic (Needleham, 1968; Sigsworth and Wilkinson, 1969). There are a lot of various considerations for renovation, regenerations or redesign foremost of which is its financial and economic implication not only to the governing body but also to the rest of the stakeholders that include residents, and even non-residents for that matter. Certain balance is needed to be achieved in all processes of renovation so that there is double if not triple care taken by planners, designers and authorities in order to meet all criteria and expectations that the changes would achieve. The plazas were arranged to set off views of new towers, viewed as timely in the 1960s, complementing the modernist campanile Kling that housed the city services. It was envisioned as a â€Å"great place s for downtown workers to lunch alfresco,† (Saffron, 2011, P7) but had claustrophobic high walls, inaccessible and yet had multiple staircases. The area also became a turn-off because maintenance had been neglected and due to lack of public interest, it was claimed by the skateboarders in the 1990s (Saffron, 2011). The area had been evaluated to be