Residents included in Espoo Master Plan 2060 preparation

Espoo is growing, and the changing world is visible here too. Espoo Master Plan 2060 is a plan for how will we receive that growth in a controlled manner and how we will guide the change for the benefit of Espoo and its residents. 
The master plan is a general plan for land use. It includes things such as decisions on the most important traffic routes, overall green areas and how, where and when homes for the growing population will be built.

1. The master plan concerns you and everyone else in Espoo: residents, communities and companies. Once the master plan is approved, it guides detailed planning and construction.
2. The master plan concerns future generations. We have a responsibility to think about the lives of Espoo residents in the coming decades. Using the master plan, we will be able to solve challenges related to the change taking place in the world and the growth happening in Espoo.
3. Now is the best time to get involved. The draft master plan is a preliminary plan that is developed based on feedback. At this stage, there is room for new ideas.  
4. Residents’ opinions matter. Residents’ previous participation has already affected the goals and draft version of the plan. 
5. Your perspective matters. We need the opinions, views and ideas of all kinds of Espoo residents on how Espoo should be developed. In Espoo, the future is created together.

Residents and other participants give their opinions on the draft plan. This is an important step in the plan process. Opinions can be given on the map platform, by email or by letter.

All feedback is processed by the planners of the City Planning Department. If written feedback concerns a specific location or area, they will convert it into geographic information. This means that the opinion will be linked with the location it is about. This allows planners and experts to make the best use of the information. The opinions provided through the map platform are already geographic information material.

Based on the opinions and other feedback, the planners begin to prepare a plan proposal. Planning is also influenced by many other factors and past decisions. In addition, residents have many different and diverging views. Planning is about coordination and seeking the best possible solution.

When a plan proposal is published, its plan summary explains how opinions were taken into account in the planning.

Data collection from residents began already two years before the initiation of the master planning process and continued in the starting stage. Residents’ values and wishes are strongly reflected in the objectives of the plan.

• The ‘My Espoo on the Map’ survey conducted in the autumn collected information on residents’ experiences, forms of mobility and development ideas. Approximately 6,600 residents responded to the survey and left nearly 70,000 entries on the map. They serve as background information in the planning of the master plan. Research has also been carried out on the material at Aalto University. Read more about the survey and the utilisation its results.
• ‘Our Espoo 20X0’ was a series of 14 events in spring 2022. The events focused on discussion on the future of Espoo by residents, elected officials and experts. All discussions were documented and analysed, and a report was published. The results were utilised when the Espoo Master Plan for 2060 was drafted. Read more about the event series and the report.

• We organised two residents’ events.
• We carried out a quick survey, in which the residents of Espoo were allowed to propose and support various things that they think will be important in the Espoo of the future. The most important of all were natural values.

• We held a remote event on goals in spring 2023 and conducted a survey.  
• We asked the resident associations of each major district to form a common view of the development of their area. In addition, we organised a workshop to discuss these wishes while looking at maps.
• The Espoo Master Plan 2060 was presented and made open for discussion in regional residents’ evenings organised by the City Planning Department in different parts of Espoo in 2023.

• Read the participation and assessment scheme
• Read the starting stage interaction report (in Finnish).(external link, opens in a new window)
• Read the draft stage interaction report (in Finnish).(external link, opens in a new window)