A pathological analysis of Mashhad neighborhood development offices from a local participatory planning perspective

Subject Areas : Creative City Design

mojdeh baastani ¹ (Department of Urbanism, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran)
Fatemeh Mohammadniay Gharaei ² (Department of Urbanism, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran)
maryam ostadi ³ (Department of Urbanism, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran)
Mohammad reza Rezaei ⁴ (1. Department of Urbanism, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran 2.Department of Geography and Urban Planning, Yazd University, yazd, Iran.)

Received: 2023-03-04 Accepted : 2023-07-12 Published : 2023-10-01

Keywords: Mashhad, Indigenous Planning, participatory planning, Neighborhood Development Offices,

Abstract :

The neighborhood development offices in the neighborhoods targeted for regeneration have taken a big step towards increasing the participation of the residents. However, the city administration emphasizes solving the problems with a spatial approach rather than solving the economic and social problems. This study aims to analyze the performance of neighborhood development offices in selected neighborhoods (Sis Abad, Toroq, Darvi, 22 Bahman, and Vakil Abad) in Mashhad from a local participatory planning perspective. Using the “Plan-Process-Results (PPR)” approach, And the statistical population included 24 experts in the field of urban regeneration, the officials of the development offices of selected neighborhoods and the trustees of selected neighborhoods were used, and the means of collecting this research are semi-structured interviews, questionnaires and library studies.the research criteria including context building and trust building, use and promotion of local capacity to develop the neighborhood, drafting a strategic document for the regeneration of neighborhoods (participatory document), and interaction with the city managers and other government agencies were evaluated. The results concerning context building and trust building showed that although the trust-building projects have progressed up to 50%, execution challenges have led to the loss of the residents' trust to some extent. Furthermore, the neighborhood development document lacks any executive guarantee and legal support. Thus, it seems that trust building takes place step by step when the demands of residents are addressed. In addition, local knowledge, receiving public feedback, and local authorities can act as facilitators to build public trust and promote public support.