The General Urban Plan of Bologna is a regulatory tool that identifies strategic guidelines to transform the city in the long term.
In 2018, the City of Bologna began reviewing the plan, defining objectives and priorities to improve the quality of the city, and identifying new directions to transform the territory, quarter by quarter, to definitively approve the plan at the end of 2020 through different phases of consultation with citizens and technical groups.

THE PATH OF INFORMATION AND INVOLVEMENT

The Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana has supported the path to revise and approve the plan through a process of listening to and involving citizens. The indications collected within the tools and actions set out by the Neighbourhood Laboratories and through other means of city consultation have enriched and complemented the more technical decisions in the Plan proposal.

The path is organized into the following phases and activities:

April and May 2019
Six meetings with territorial representatives, associations, and representatives of social entities in each neighbourhood. Participants discussed the initial objectives of the Plan defined by technicians, addressing the following issues on the neighbourhood level: environment and health, urban economies and jobs, homes and proximity-welfare, public space and mobility, and culture and education.

May to July 2019
Six public assemblies open to all interested citizens to collect needs, indications, and proposals about gathering places and distinctive places to improve the liveability of the various areas.

July to September 2019

• An online questionnaire to collect recommendations, needs, and proposals regarding the various areas of the city.
• Six neighbourhood walks led by citizens and the communities themselves to gain further knowledge about the territory.
• Five thematic meetings with representatives and interest holders in the city to acquire further knowledge, needs, and visions regarding some transverse issues in the city (environment, residential system, attractiveness and services, new economic trends, urban regeneration).

At the end of 2019, the results of this path were sent to the City and over the course of several meetings, the content was expanded upon with city technicians.

In 2020, following the Administration’s presentation of the Plan proposal (18 February), the Foundation was busy disseminating the content of the plan and meeting about the strategies of the Plan on the territorial level, mostly through digital means compatible with the COVID crisis.

In particular, the path was organized into moments for public presentation and expansion on the plan; moments for interaction and meeting to collect further reflections and contributions for the Plan proposal, with respect to both the main issues and local strategies in the different areas of the city (e.g. channels for digital interaction, remote meetings, etc.).

In May 2020, 3 digital thematic laboratories were held with representatives and interest holders in the city to present and expand upon the three strategic objectives that characterize the choices in the plan: liveability and inclusion, resilience and environment, attractiveness and jobs.

Following this, the citizen-wide path was followed again. In June 2020, 23 digital public meetings were held. Area by area, the objective was to talk about the strategies on the local level in the General Urban Plan of Bologna, opening the discussion to the participants.

In parallel, a web space was opened — the Quaderno degli attori del Piano Urbanistico Generale [Notebook of players in the General Urban Plan] — where all citizens and interested parties (associations, committees, informal groups) could submit their own contribution between 29 April to 24 July 2020 to enrich the discussion about issues in the Plan.

In the long term, the goal is to develop a structured means of listening through which local strategies described in the Plan can be periodically assessed, enriched, and implemented. In fact, the tool is designed to be updated over time.