CITIES FOR CITIZENS

Power to the people

Citizens play a critical role in contributing to the life of a city, and as such cities need to integrate peoples’ ambitions in their decision-making process. But how far can they really get involved? Mark Faithfull reports

Utrecht’s buzzing canal side is being placed at the service of its residents

Cities were hit hardest by COVID-19, which raised unprecedented questions about their longterm direction and saw an exodus — at least temporarily — of residents who could choose to work remotely in second homes, or relocate away from the main office. Now, their priority is to become more liveable, with inclusive areas, mixed-use developments, cultural amenities, museums, public services and accessible open spaces to attract people to remain or return to urban living. “Citizen engagement is crucial and can help local authorities tremendously in understanding what is valuable for a given community,” says Kim Herforth Nielsen, founder and creative director of Denmark-based 3XN/ GXN Architects. “It provides the developer with foresight as well as a strong outset for building-in long-term resilience, both of which are necessary to achieve major projects. Citizen engagement is not just about inviting the local community to choose a cladding colour but about drawing on their knowledge of place — and recognising that as a unique expertise — to understand what a certain site and place means to people.” There is certainly political will behind such an approach. The European Union’s Cohesion Policy, updated last year, includes an ambition to bring Europe closer to its citizens by “fostering the sustainable and integrated development of all types of territories”, which include a more competitive and smarter Europe, a greener, low-carbon transition towards a net-zero-carbon economy, and a more connected Europe by enhancing mobility and a more social and inclusive Europe. Perhaps the highest profile project is in Paris, where the Champs-Elysees is blossoming into a green and predominantly pedestrian boulevard. In Spain, Barcelona has closed off many streets to cars around its historic centre and the concept of the ‘15-minute city’ has gained traction, again notably in Paris and Milan, which are both pushing ahead with plans for self-sufficient neighbourhoods. Recognising the need for industry guidance, last year the Urban Land Institute (ULI) launched Zooming In On The “S” In ESG: A Road Map For Social Value In Real Estate, highlighting the importance of social value, noting that most attention so far has been focused on environmental issues. ULI says that social value creation for real estate is by definition place-based, with the starting point for government to provide a vision and establish

sustainable development objectives and priorities. Local, placebased expectations and needs are best articulated at local government level and co-created with citizens, community groups and businesses says ULI. “The real estate industry clearly has a role to play in creating social value. Where property is solely looked at through the lens of being a financial asset which can generate revenue and profit, has led to a disconnect between financial value creation and social value creation,” says Lisette van Doorn, CEO of ULI Europe. “COVID-19 is a wake-up call… and opens up opportunities to rethink how to repurpose and connect real estate development and investment to local, place-based needs. We need to prioritise and consider the role of the real estate industry in helping tackle social and spatial inequalities.” That said, while the rationale behind such a cohesive approach is clear, 3XN/GXN’s Herforth Nielsen points out that there are challenges involved in integrating citizen participation as this approach takes time, skill, planning and influences the budget. “It is important to be attentive to the challenge of managing citizens’ expectations as well as turning input into value for a project,” he says. “This demands clear communication of the project’s parameters as well as skill to testdrive activities on-site. Another aspect is the risk that only vocal people end up as representatives for a community.”

This is a point taken up by Pascal Smet, secretary of state at the Brussels-Capital Region, who adds: “More than direct interaction, I think that citizen involvement and ownership are important elements in developing an urban policy with broad support. Progressive urban policy focuses on improving quality of life. By focusing more on the objectives and less on the means, we can create a broad base of support among a large part of the population.” To achieve this requires the participation process to involve and inform the widest possible group of Brussels dwellers in the decision-making process, preferably at the earliest possible stage, he says, with the added complexity that Brussels is a diverse city with 183 nationalities, second only to Dubai. “This is a major challenge,” Smet says. “Traditional forms of participation often focus on a homogenous target group — typically highly educated, well-informed middle-aged people — and my starting point is to listen also to those who say nothing.” For some cities, this means taking a more radical approach to the

rules concerning town planning and real estate. In the city of Utrecht, Netherlands for example, a striking urban development plan to transform a canal-side industrial estate has been drawn up by the municipality together with 10 landowners. Subject to agreement by locals, the 60-acre (24 ha) site could be up and running as a dense, eco-friendly car-free suburb by 2024. The plan envisages a 17-block mixed-use district for 12,000 residents, none of whom would need privately-owned cars for their daily needs. While the centre of Utrecht is already largely pedestrianised and cycle-friendly — and has been since the mid-1960s — many of the city’s suburbs were designed with cars in mind and Merwede will become the city’s first largely car-free suburb. Furthermore, from January 1 this year municipalities in the Netherlands have been able to ban property developers in certain areas from investing in buy-torent residential. This is a move to safeguard the availability of affordable housing in Dutch cities, after figures from four of the largest cities revealed that 34% of properties sold in 2020 were bought by property developers. “We should not forget that politicians are elected to make clear and courageous decisions and experts are trained to develop quality projects,” Smet says. “The right balance is crucial. I have made many streets and squares car-free [in Brussels] and constructed new tram lines. Each time, there is resistance from a very large group of local residents, based on a ‘not in my backyard’ attitude. As the project progresses, this resistance disappears. Maintaining the focus on long-term objectives throughout the project is therefore necessary.”

“Traditional forms of participation often focus on a homogenous target group — typically highly educated, well-informed middleaged people — and my starting point is to listen also to those who say nothing”

Pascal Smet Pedestrian plans are afoot for Paris’ most famous boulevard

CONFERENCES & EVENTS AT MIPIM 2022

CITIES FOR CITIZENS

TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 15.00 - 15.45 – Agora Room WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 10.15 - 11.00 – Agora Room

CITIES FOR CITIZENS: NEW FRONTIERS OF ENGAGEMENT

Citizens play an increasing critical role in contributing to city life, but how can cities integrate people’s ambitions in their decision-making process to engage everyone, while achieving major projects? What are the key challenges in integrating citizens’ views and how far should they be involved, as civic leaders strive to create human-centric cities?

Greener cities will be home to better assets

Abigail Dean

Nuveen Real Estate’s head of strategic insights Abigail Dean warns that landlords who underestimate the importance of ESG and impact investment trends will soon be left behind

WHILE the world’s urban areas have been tipped as key centres of future economic growth, the most important cities will be the ones that can not only capitalise on current trends, but lead with pioneering examples of innovation, according to experts at global investment giant Nuveen. “Environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters have become a key focus for the industry. This isn’t just an asset-by-asset issue, it’s a city-level problem,” says Abigail Dean, Nuveen’s head of strategic insights. “The cities that are taking a lead are already pursuing decarbonisation, starting with publicly-owned buildings and looking with fresh scrutiny at infrastructure and planning regulations. Some of these locations may look more expensive to investors today, but will be future proofed in the longer term.” According to Dean, these actions are making key cities more pleasant places to live and work, and more attractive to occupiers. They also represent a wake-up call to property owners. “From London to New York, we are seeing the introduction of much further reaching and demanding legislation, which will have a direct impact on landlords in the near future.” The implications for the capital markets are also significant, Dean says. “There’s a clear expectation that ESG is incorporated into institutional investment markets, and the risk for landlords who don’t step up is that they will be left with stranded assets.” She adds: “Real estate is usually a long-term investment, and equally, can’t pivot overnight in terms of sustainability improvements. It can take time to implement energy transition and even put in place the minimum standards for refurbishments. So, the time to act is now.” Leading on from making buildings more environmentally efficient, Dean says that the “S” in ESG is another growing area of scrutiny — representing a chance to place the built environment at the service of its citizens. “Social equity has really risen up the agenda,” she says. “The pandemic shone a light on issues which are becoming more entrenched due to the cost-of-living crisis. “Real estate does have a role to play in this, most obviously through affordable housing and rents, SMEs and social enterprises. We are trying to proactively tackle the problem with our own affordable housing impact strategies.” She adds: “Combining social investment with environmental goals is even better — delivering net zero carbon buildings with a socially useful purpose is the ultimate goal.” In all this, property owners now have a helping hand when it comes to portfolio improvement thanks to advancements in technology. “The pandemic accelerated the ways that businesses and individual consumers engage with tech in their everyday lives. We think that tech will be at the centre of real estate investing, now and in the future,” Dean says. “There’s never been a better time for the industry to adopt more innovative tools, and we’ve made great strides ourselves with everything from tech-enabled hub management systems, to tech that facilitates deals.”

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MIPIM 2022

François Hollande to give keynote speech at MIPIM 2022

We are pleased to welcome François Hollande former President of the French Republic for an inspiring keynote session. He will share with the real estate industry his beliefs and positions regarding the big issues our society is facing with: the climate change, but also the economic and social issues every nations are experiencing in a sanitary crisis context since 2 years now regarding diversity, equality or employment and fiscality among others.

Tuesday 15 March at 3:00 pm Grand Auditorium

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