The master plan is prepared through cooperation

The future of the City of Espoo concerns all residents. Each resident has the opportunity to discuss the master plan. The master plan concerns the City in its entirety and its future development. It influences the everyday life of all residents and aspects such as companies’ operating conditions. This is why varying types of knowledge and views of the future are needed in the planning. As such, we cooperate closely with residents and other stakeholders.

Planning and decision-making

The Espoo City Planning Department is responsible for preparing the master plan. The planners gather all kinds of information through studies and surveys by hearing experts in various fields discussing matters with residents and stakeholders, such as business representatives and the operators in charge of the City’s technical maintenance. The planners also cooperate with the various sectors of the City.

The City’s elected officials play a key role as they set the objectives for the master plan. They also decide the direction to which Espoo should develop and how the different districts can develop in a balanced manner. In addition to legislation, decision-making in Espoo is directed by the Espoo Story, the regional plan for Uusimaa and the MAL agreement between the Finnish Government and the Metropolitan Area.

Preparing the master plan is a multi-stage process

We began to prepare the master plan for Espoo in spring 2022. Even before the planning process was initiated, the planners had collected information and feedback from various sources: residents, experts and other stakeholders. This work will also continue at the starting stage. You can also see the participation and assessment scheme and provide feedback on it.

At the preparation stage, the planners will prepare a draft of the plan, after which experts will assess its impact. Moving forward, the planners will turn the draft into a plan proposal based on the feedback received from decision-makers, residents and other stakeholders. In the plan proposal, they will reconcile the different perspectives and objectives as far as possible and prepare the proposal for decision-makers to process.

Participation is valuable

The city is designed for its residents – current and future ones – as well as other actors in Espoo. For this reason, their participation in the planning process is important.

Interaction with residents has begun well in advance before planning and will continue throughout the preparation process at all stages. You can explore the participation and assessment plan (PAP) and give feedback on it.

Lot of information already collected from residents to aid in planning process

The City Planning Department collected the residents’ experiences, views and wishes on the local urban environment with a My Espoo on the map survey in 2022. Around 6600 Espoo residents took part in the map-based survey. They marked nearly 70 000 meaningful places and improvement ideas on the map. This information is now being used in the master planning process. Read more about the survey and its results.

The Our Espoo 20X0 event series invited the residents of the city to discuss for whom, how and on what terms Espoo should be built. An extensive series of events consisting of themed evenings, discussion evenings and a workshop reached around 1600 Espoo residents in the spring and summer of 2022. The discussions and chat messages during the event series were recorded carefully. The material was analysed and important themes for Espoo residents and recurring topics of discussion were identified. The results will be utilised in the master planning process.

Read news article on Our Espoo 20X0 results

Master Plan 2060 quick poll was used to collect residents’ views on future Espoo. The poll was available on the web and mobile devices in three languages for one month, 20 Oct until 20 Nov 2022. The survey received 1400 responses. The results will be utilised in the master planning process.

Two residential events were held at Espoo libraries in October and November 2022. Master plan professionals were present at these informal events to chat with residents and answer their questions. Alongside discussion, residents could leave messages on post-it notes on a future Espoo timeline. All messages were recorded and taken into account in preparing goals for the master plan. Library pedagogues guided children to draw their dreams of future Espoo at both events. The drawings were recorded and the material will be utilised in further planning.

Watch a video recording of the Sello library event in Finnish(external link, opens in a new window)

If you want more information about city and master planning, you can