Abstract:
Redevelopment of distressed and blighted areas are targeted by most of development policies.
However, a number of policies have been changed as the result of the ineffectiveness of the previous experiences, the incompatibility of the development tools and plans, the lack of financial resources or social movements. Large-scale redevelopment projects have usually been considered as the powerful tools for urban revitalization, modernization and implementation of radical plans while many of those were criticized due to their various consequences including social exclusion, inequality, social conflicts, environmental damages, inconsistent scale, etc. Downtown of the City of
Mashhad; Samen District, has experienced various physical interventions in the form of large-scale projects during the last century. Although the projects and intervention policies have been transformed during the past decades, previous faults were ignored and sometimes were iterated in these experiences. In fact, it seems that urban development solutions in the district have not been sustainable solutions and couldn’t maintain or shape a sustainable community in the historical and formerly economic urban core of Mashhad. This paper, focusing on mega redevelopment
projects experienced in Samen Districst after 1920s, aims to highlight the critical aspects neglected or bent in Samen redevelopment program. Based on the nature of large-scale redevelopment projects and the current sustainability criteria, it qualitatively assesses the sustainability of the redevelopment projects through content-analysis method. According to the results, despite the competitiveness and place promotion goals of the Samen redevelopment project, the adopted approaches and policies could not lead to a state of sustainable development.
Machine summary:
"The general evolution of large-scale redevelopment projects Period Target Funding Focus, Approach Challenges 1950s- 1960s Blighted areas, Government fund Deconstruction and Extensive displacement, undeveloped rural areas redevelopment environmental impacts, destruction of cultural heritage mid 1960s- early the transition era Public fund Rehabilitation, heritage lack of financial resources, 1970s conservation, renewal projects Totalitarian renewal projects Mid 1970s- late megaprojects without Private Renewal projects, first Non-vibrant urban spaces 1980s environmental impacts partnerships regeneration projects Late 1980s Brownfield areas, CBDs Public-private Regeneration, economic Unaffordability of redeveloped partnership growth, mixed-use areas, lack of public participation development, stakeholder engagement While looking at the comprehensive list, in this paper, sustainability assessment of large-scale redevelopment projects was done based on three famous dimensions of sustainability (economic, environmental-physical, social-cultural) (Table 2).
The different financing methods include: selling the properties owned by municipality (about 169 projects costing over 32000 billion Rials); renting and mortgaging properties; selling a square meter or Samen Housing Program (targeting the low income and vulnerable classes and include seven projects and 1477 residential units, 404 retail stores and a further 1000 residential units); partnership (32 commercial, hotel and residential projects via participation bonds costing 800 billion Rials); public funds and bank facilities; stakeholder or shareholder method (140 Billion Rials and 136 billion Rials for Sara and Narjes / Fig. 3: right: Land uses in Samen district in 1994, left: Samen’s redevelopment plan (Tash, 2015) Projects respectively); Attracting investors to certain projects (130 projects in direct intervention zones and 39 projects in indirect intervention zones about 48000 billion Rials); the Plan’s Account (An agreement between the municipality and Urban Development and Revitalization Corporation in order to transfer the plan’s executive management to Samen Development and Housing Corporation)(Jafarzade Najar & Jannati Naim, 2013)."