Residents have been involved in the drafting of the objectives of the Espoo Master Plan from the very beginning
Espoo’s new, city-wide master plan looks to 2060. The first step in the preparation of the master plan is the drafting of its objectives. The City’s aim has been to incorporate the resident perspective into the process from the very beginning, to which end it has provided residents and other stakeholders with numerous opportunities to express their views and influence the drafting of the objectives of the new master plan.
The objectives of the master plan are based on the City’s strategy, the Espoo Story. The master plan is a general plan for land use and transport, in which the city and its development are examined as a whole. The objectives guide the master planning and anticipate the development of the city in the coming decades.
“The city will continue to grow and change in the future as well. However, this change needs to be controlled and sustainable. The master plan allows us to manage changes over time and shape the city to become more climate smart, for example”, says Master Planning Manager Essi Leino from the Espoo City Planning Department.
The information received from residents is part of an extensive range of preparatory material
The City’s master planning officers utilise a wide variety of data sources in the drafting of the objectives. To serve as a basis for the planning work, the City has collected information and views about the future Espoo from residents and organised several events. These have included the Our Espoo 20X0 event series organised in spring and August 2022, which consisted of five themed evenings, one workshop and nine discussion evenings, reaching a total of approximately 1,600 residents. The views expressed in the events have been aggregated, analysed and taken into account in the drafting of the objectives.
In October and November, the City also organised two comprehensive master planning events at Espoo’s libraries, where master planning experts engaged in discussions with and answered questions from residents. Between 20 October and 20 November 2022, residents’ views on the future Espoo were also collected via the Master Plan 2060 survey.
Another notable data source utilised in the drafting of the objectives of the master plan has been the map-based My Espoo on the Map survey carried out in 2020. The survey received responses from approximately 6,600 Espoo residents who marked nearly 70,000 places important to them, comments and development ideas on the map.
Focusing on nature and sustainable growth
The detailed results of the Our Espoo 20X0 survey will be presented in a soon-to-be-published report, but we can already reveal one of the conclusions drawn based on the results: nature is important to the residents of Espoo. Nature was also highlighted at the master planning events held at libraries: residents want to cherish it and are concerned about the preservation of urban nature as the city continues to grow. The top three responses in the Master Plan 2060 survey were also all related to nature.
“We have considered it very important to listen to residents and take their views into account already in the drafting of the objectives of the master plan. This interaction will continue throughout all the stages of the master planning process. Engaging in dialogue helps us build trust in considered solutions as the city continues to grow”, Leino summarises.