The German federal government and the Länder governments attach fundamental and strategic importance to the integrated action plans for the implementation of Districts With Special Development Needs – the Socially Integrative City. This is spelled out in the administrative accord on urban development support (1999-2002) concluded between German federal and Land governments: "Problems in districts with special development needs must be tackled with an integrated concept amounting to an holistic upgrade strategy in a comprehensive package of targeted social and environmental infrastructure policies. (...) Local authorities shall produce a sustainable, integrated, district-based urban development action plan to support measures. The action plan (a design and implementation concept and a cost and financing overview) shall offer targeted, integrated solutions to complex problems, identify all necessary steps (including those to be taken by external property developers and financiers) to achieve goals, present spending estimates and specify funding sources."(1)
These stipulations make the fundability of a district contingent on the elaboration of an integrated urban development action plan for the neighbourhood. One important function of the plan – or at least of the political decision to draft such a plan – is to give the Länder a basis for awarding Socially Integrative City grants. Updating plans as specified in the administrative accords facilitates annual review of appropriations and spending for awarding bodies in each Land .
Administrative regulations, guidelines, invitations to tender and aids relating to Socially Integrative City which are published by the Länder usually address integrated action plans. Baden-Württemberg, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia have adopted stipulations from the administrative accord without additional commentary. Only five of a total of nine Socially Integrative City districts in Saxony-Anhalt now require integrated action plans since the remaining districts receive parallel funding from the URBAN programme. Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania have added their own substantive and procedural stipulations.(2)
Six Länder have augmented the administrative accord with comprehensive and, in several cases, detailed suggestions and recommendations for developing integrated action plans. As well as being useful aids for municipalities, these contributions highlight the fact that these Länder consider action plans a useful tool. The situation in these Länder is as described below.
(1) 2002 Administrative Accord, Article 2, Paragraph 6.
(2) Cf. Soziale Stadtentwicklung in Berlin: Erfahrungen mit dem Quartiersmanagement, parliamentary paper no. 14/1045 of the Berlin Abgeordnetenhaus, Berlin 2001, p. 6.
Ministerium für Stadtentwicklung, Wohnen und Verkehr des Landes Brandenburg, Ergänzungserlass zur Förderrichtlinie'99 zur Stadterneuerung zum Programm "Stadtteile mit besonderem Entwicklungsbedarf – die soziale Stadt", Potsdam 2001, p. 3. "Funding is available for the formulation of an integrated action plan covering urban construction, architectural and social issues as a basis for future neighbourhood development. The draft should draw on extensive contributions from neighbourhoood management and local stakeholders, and be open for further augmentation. The plan will be the basis for all participants' actions during and beyond the entire renewal process. The action plan, which must be continuously modified and adapted to new targets, shall include a plausible representation of how development objectives will be reached within the time frame of the overall measure. Municipal government shall pass a self-binding decree."
Wohnen in Nachbarschaften (WiN) – Stadtteile für die Zukunft entwickeln, Handlungsprogramm 1999-2002, Stadtteile mit besonderem Entwicklungsbedarf – die soziale Stadt, Senate statement of 25 September 2002, published in parliamentary paper 15/621 S of 25 September 2002, Bremen 2002.
One short section on Mecklenburg-West Pomerania advises that integrated urban development plans (for districts rather than whole cities) should be drafted to include projects "financed from programme funds" and "integrative" in the sense of being "supported by all departments"; Ministerium für Arbeit, Bau und Landesentwicklung des Landes Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Integrierte Stadtentwicklungskonzepte (ISEK). Ein Leitfaden, Schwerin 2001, p. 7 (http:www.am.mv-regierung.de/index.htm).
(3) Oberste Baubehörde im Bayerischen Staatsministerium des Innern, Soziale Stadt. Wege zu einer intakten Nachbarschaft, Munich 2000, p. 25 f. (Städtebauförderung in Bayern, Arbeitsblatt Nr. 3).
(4) The neighbourhood development plan (QUEK) corresponds to the integrated action plan; Cf. Stadtentwicklungsbehörde Hamburg (STEB), Leitfaden zur Darstellung von Quartiersentwicklungskonzepten im Rahmen der Sozialen Stadtteilentwicklung , Hamburg 2000; Ingrid Breckner, Heike Herrmann, Toralf Gonzalez and Dieter Läpple, Endbericht der "Programmbegleitung vor Ort" des Modellgebiets Hamburg-Altona-Lurup im Rahmen des Bund-Länderprogramms "Soziale Stadt" , Hamburg 2002, p. 54 ff.
(5) Hesse Ministry of Economics, Transport and Development (Ed.), HEGISS Hessische Gemeinschaftsinitiative Soziale Stadt, HEGISS Hessische Gemeinschaftsinitiative Soziale Stadt, Darmstadt 2000, p. 17 pp.
(6) The Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Urban Development, Culture and Sport in North Rhine-Westphalia, Stadtteile mit besonderem Erneuerungsbedarf – Ressortübergreifendes Handlungsprogramm der Landesregierung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf 1998.
(7) Ministry of the Environment, Saarland, Checkliste zur Bewertung von Förderanträgen/integrierten Handlungskonzepten im Rahmen des Förderprogramms "Stadt-Vision-Saar", Saarbrücken 2001.
(8) Saxon Interior Ministry, Stadtteile mit besonderem Entwicklungsbedarf – die Soziale Stadt. Leitfaden zur Erstellung Integrierter Handlungskonzepte of 20 March 2000 , Dresden 2000, p. 5.
Translated from: Soziale Stadt - Strategien für die Soziale Stadt, Erfahrungen und Perspektiven – Umsetzung des Bund-Länder-Programms „Stadtteile mit besonderem Entwicklungsbedarf – die soziale Stadt", Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik 2003
