June 9 . Danish Planning System & Family Courtyards

Urban Growth Boundaries in Denmark

We talked to Gertrude Joregensen today who is in the department of Urban and Lanscape studies at the University of Copenhagen. She gave us a brief introduction to how planning is done in Denmark.

The European Union gives directives that the states must implement in their own legislation. The municipalities must adhere to broad objectives that the states set and the state level has the authority to over-rule municipal level decisions.

The states has made a spatially explicit plan for the Copenhagen region. Like they have done in Portland, the state has set up strict boundaries for regional growth so housing is placed regularly in relation to the existing city, instead of becoming scattered across the countryside (like we see in the farmfields of the United States). The municipality must adhere to this spatial plan.

We have seen Urban Growth Boundaries (UGB) in the United States, especially in Oregon. They key difference between the Portland UGB which we in the US are more familiar with, and the UGB in the Copenhagen area is that the UGB in Copenhagen is revised every four years to take into account any changes that have taken place in planning for the future of the region. Gertrude said that no dramatic changes have been made to the UGB when the revisions are made and that the general plan looks much the way it did when it was first created, but the flexibility is afforded when it is needed. Furthermore, the new planning strategy must be approved by a public hearing.

Again, this seems like something that works because the Danes trust their government when they alter the plans every four years to do the right thing.

Secret Courtyard Extravaganza!

Later in the evening, after Virginia's mishap on the bus -- yep, lost her passport -- we met up with Kurt Chistensen (Photo, Right) and Ryan Horton's mother-in-law for a tour of Copenhagen's family courtyards. This tour was great because we got to see inside of the blocks in a very old and historical part of Copenhagen called Vestebro. Originally this was the densest area of the city, most recently contained the red-light district, but also a very diverse neighborhood with very high turnover. My impression of this area on a previous visit the week before is that it is extremely busy with car and bicycle traffic and there is little greenspace or public areas to speak of! Well, I was wrong... it was on the inside!



The idea was to try to create a more liveable neighborhood here. Many of the flats were renovated to include bathrooms and kitchens where there originally were none and some of the housing was removed from the inside of the city blocks to create large courtyards on the interior. Some of the courtyards were paved (Photo, Right), but most of the ones we toured on the inside of these mid-rise blocks were green and included bicycle parking, picnic areas, children's playgrounds, and swaths of green grass in an otherwise very concrete neighborhood (Photo, Right). The weather was relatively bad on the day that we visited but it would be nice to see how well-used these courtyards are on a nice day.




I really feel like this could work in Milwaukee. In busy neighborhoods where the buildings abut the sidewalk and there is little chance for piece of mind with the traffic and buzz of city life, these courtyards were gems! I also loved the fact that they felt so secret... some of them were gated so you would never even know they existed. I think that mixing density with these kind of shared spaces is the way to go (Photo, Right). This is part of what Milwaukee's condo boom is missing -- the attention to the parts of life that exist beyond the walls of your dwelling!