Communication platform

The conference, which took place on February 14th, started with a presentation by Rajmund Ryś on the work of the Department of Spatial Policy at the Ministry of Regional Development, which has taken over the oversite of urban planning and spatial development at the national level. Since January 2013, the remit for issues such as socio-economic development strategy, spatial policy, urban policy and European funds has been given to this new department. The next person to take the floor was Łukasz Madej, the president of the management board of ProDevelopment,who spoke on the impact of conurbation development on the property market.
What were his conclusions? The greater Warsaw area is unquestionably the leader among Polish conurbations, with good development prospects for the next few years. However, the adoption of a supra-local approach to make it possible to use the transport infrastructure under construction will be needed for the proportion of projects to grow outside the capital. One obstacle to this is the limited access to financing for borough development in the areas outside Warsaw which do not have access to co-financing from the budget of the city. With the theoretical part of the conference over, it was discussion time. Five experts discussed the cooperation at the local authority-developer level as well as the public-private partnership format. Irena Herbst of Fundacja Centrum PPP revealed the results of the biggest survey in Europe on public-private partnerships, which show that while being the leaders in passing PPP legislation, we do very poorly in terms of its implementation. Only 33 PPP contracts have been signed in the last four years, out of which just 14 projects have been completed. Maria Jolanta Batycka-Wąsik, the leader of Lesznowola borough, however, announced that the number of projects could be about to increase. The town would like to develop a PPP project on over 80 ha of the borough's land to construct medical, cultural and sports facilities. Dariusz Anisiewicz, an architect working for Echo Investment, which built the Olympic Centre and the Athina Park office complex in Warsaw, shared his experiences of working with local authorities. Another topic considered by our guests was negotiating with city officials. Jolanta Kalecińska of White & Case concluded that both parties need to learn how to talk to each other because it is impossible to reach any agreement otherwise. However, Bohdan Szułczyński, the deputy mayor of Warsaw's Bemowo district, noted that there is considerably less scope for discussion when projects are built in areas covered by local zoning plans. Faced with strictly defined rules, developers have little choice but to comply. The next person to take the floor was Guy Perry, the founder of the IN-VI architectural studio, who demonstrated that the length and quality of our lives depend on where and how we live. Even the distance from a supermarket is of no small importance to our health. Another discussion concerned zoning plans: to create them or not? There were as many opinions as there were interlocutors. The last topic wasthe issue of infrastructure. "It should not be the case that the costs of new infrastructure are off-loaded onto the current borough residents," warned Andrzej Olbrysz of Lesznowola borough. Jacek Wojciechowicz, the deputy mayor of Warsaw, insisted that public areas are extremely important for the city. However, while implementing spatial policy, the authorities must bear in mind the financial constraints. A solution to this problem was offered by Grzegorz Benedykciński, the leader of Grodzisk Mazowiecki council, which has carried out a number of projects with European funds. For the first time after the conference, we honoured the most thriving local councils with our 'Leaders of Growth' awards. The winners were selected on the basis of an analysis of many factors carried out by the contents partner of the conference, ProDevelopment, and on online voting. In the 'Borough of Warsaw Conurbation' category, the third prize went to Piaseczno, which is the best borough in the region for demographic development. The second prize went to Michałowice, which has very low unemployment. But the winner was Lesznowola, judged to be extremely entrepreneur-friendly. In the 'Districts of the Capital City of Warsaw' ranking, the third place on the podium went to Mokotów, which has an excellent location and transport links. The second best district turned out to be Białołęka, which has superb investment potential.And the winner was Bemowo, which will most probably be able to boast an underground metro line in the future. Online voting decided the winners in two categories: 'Innovative Project' and 'Coherent Development Strategy'. Five projects were nominated in each category and a total of 1,309 votes were cast. The winnerin the 'Innovative Project'category was Grodzisk Mazowiecki, for the revitalisation of the multifunctional areas in the town centre. The winner in the 'Coherent Development Strategy' category turned out to be Podwarszawskie Trójmiasto Ogrodów, which includes Brwinów, Milanówek and Podkowa Leśna.