Ο χωροταξικός σχεδιασμός στην Κύπρο: Ιστορική εξέλιξη και προοπτικές

Abstract

This article presents the evolution and prospects of regional planning in Cyprus. The first part of the article covers the evolution of the planning legislation and the corresponding planning practice from 1951, while the second part focuses on the presentation of the two regional plans that have been developed for Cyprus until today: the Island Plan in 1973, which remains inactive after the events of 1974, and the Policy Statement for the Countryside, introduced in planning legislation in 1990 in an attempt to deal with the problems created by the process of rendering inactive the former. This analysis concludes that there is a significant gap in regional planning practice today, since the Policy Statement for the Countryside fails to organise the regional space effectively. The above finding, when combined with the significant methodological weaknesses found in most recent spatial plans, reflects the urgent need for a comprehensive reform of the whole Cypriot planning system. Specifically, this reform should re-activate specific tools that work at the scale of regional planning and, in parallel, introduce the scale of sub-regional planning, initiatives that should be accompanied by the decentralisation of the production of spatial plans from the public sector to private enterprises.