Cities Alliance Project Output Presentation: Urban planning law reform in Latin America Urban Planning Education and Applied Research in Sub-Saharan Africa P131278 This project output was created with Cities Alliance grant funding.
Reforming the urban legal framework in Latin America: principles and challenges of Urban Law Edesio Fernandes
Urban Law Integrated approach: law and management Urban policy/urban reform national laws Planning is not a profession, but an interdisciplinary pratice
Why look at LA Consolidated urban development: 80% Colonial history and contemporary accommodation of different legal regimes (especially Portuguese-speaking African countries) Renewed tensions between statutory law and customary traditions (native Indian groups, quilombolas, favela dwellers)
Ongoing legal reform Supporting urban reform movement and led by social movements, NGOs, universities, political parties, sectors of capital and local administrations since mid- 1970s National Forum of Urban Reform in Brazil Realisation of central role of legal order in sociospatial segregation and informality Main issues: individual approach to property rights; elitist urban planning regulations; exclusionary urban management processes Sociopolitical bet on role of redefined legal order in the promotion of inclusive and fairer territorial order
Differing national processes Dispute of legal paradigms as to the definition of both property rights and city Constitutional and legal developments From state- and community-led urban development control (Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia; populist ) to market-led urban development (Peru, El Salvador; neo-liberal ) Brazil (City Statute) and Colombia (Law 388): social function of property and of the city New framework of The Right to the City: right of habitation; right of participation Lessons, both positive and negative
The most important lesson: need for articulation Land (rural and urban): central dimension Urban planning (mobility and transportation, infrastructure provision) Housing (regularisation) Environmental Fiscal (budgetary) Economic development Four R s: restitution, registration, regulation, and regularisation Land governance framework: a framework law and integration of procedures To be adapted to regional and local realities by provincial and local laws
Social function of property A more socially-oriented approach to property rights Individual and collective/social/environmental /cultural rights and interests Intertwined collective rights to: territorial organisation (territorial responsibility); environmental preservation; decentralisation; popular participation; regularisation of consolidated informal settlements Social right to housing
A new definition of property rights Right to property; public law Emphasis on non-ownership legal forms Fair distribution of costs and benefits of urbanisation Separation between property and building rights Onerous sale/transfer of development, building and use rights Expectancy of rights does not constitute rights; no-compensation (objective responsibility)
Urban planning: highly political process Different approach to urban planning: not merely a technical exercise From mere regulation (police power, external limitations to property rights) to more market inducing process (social obligations, compulsory orders) What can be done where/ how/ when/ by whom Where the poor can live Understand formation of land and property prices
New elements in the discussion Earmark land for social housing (Special Zones of Social Interest ZEIS) Use vacant land as well as abandoned/under-utilised built properties Involvement of private sector and communities in provision of social housing Social function of public land Urban planning regulations: attention to socioeconomic realities before determining standards, criteria and requirements (size of plots, possibilities of mixed use and construction, etc.): Invert logic? Regulate more what needs to be regulated
Difficult issues Distribution of responsibilities for infrastructure provision Stricter treatment of urban expansion areas Mixed use (inclusionary zoning) The problem with the gated communities
Law and management: integration Principles and rights + processes, mechanisms, instruments, and resources A tool box is not enough: vision/project for city Cumbersome, bureaucratic, lengthy, costly procedures Capacity to act
Politico-institutional aspects Decentralisation, but within intergovernmental articulation context Metropolitan administration: local is not municipal
Politico-social aspects Clearly defined framework for involvement of private sector, community and voluntary sectors Popular participation as a legal right, condition of legal validity; not merely sociopolitical legitimisation Participation in Executive, Legislative and Judicial powers Politicisation of decision-making process
Who pays the bill, and how Financing of urban development beyond tax revenues Updated cadastres and tax systems are not sufficient Capture of surplus values: Colombia Urban operations in Brazil: the challenge of redistribution
Regularisation of consolidated informal settlements Not tolerate: high costs and burdens Prevention: cheaper, easier, faster Regularisation: cannot be housing policy par excellence
How to regularise Upgrading Legalisation Socioeconomic programmes Scale and presence of the state (less in more areas)
How to legalise Housing rights not the same as property rights Distinguish between public and private land Range of legal instruments Collective rights Security of tenure and sociospatial integration Permanence of the communities Gentrification and eviction by the market
How to finance Need for sustainability to replicate at larger scale Participation and involvement of residents Redistribution of resources generated elsewhere
Brazil Emphasis on municipal Master Plans: 1440 Progress in urban reform agenda, data and information production, environmental and cultural heritage, ZEIS, participation... but still traditional regulatory planning Formal and social effectiveness Further regulation and changes Failed to intervene directly in land structure, free attribution of development rights and to recapture surplus value Rules of the game have been changed, but game is still played according to old rules
Process of disputes Legal, sociopolitical and ideological Extreme decentralisation: capacity to act Implementation Obscure technical and legal language Change in legal and urban planning cultures Planners reluctant to extract implications of concepts Conservative judiciary Legal education
But, above all Growing commodification of cities Record breaking levels of land and property speculation Globalisation of land markets Aggressive penetration of international capital Unlocking land values Public interest