Zbigniew K. Zuziak DSc, PhD, M. Sc. M. Arch. Professor
at The Cracow University of Technology (CUT),
School of Architecture, Institute of City and Regional Design, Cracow - Poland
E-mail: zzuziak@nsnet.pl
Planning for Metropolitan Areas in Poland and EU cohesion policy
This is an attempt to outline some features characteristic for the new situation of spatial planning in
Poland with specific reference to metropolitan areas and their development strategies in the context of
EU cohesion policy. In this field of spatial policy two specific tasks - at least - are deserving special
attention:
Ø to prepare a new generation of spatial development plans for metropolitan areas,
Ø to define and manage development projects that could be supported by EU structural funds.
The author focuses on the question of mutual relations between these tasks and describes two possible
approaches to this problem: “selective” and “structural”. The first one is close to so called “project led
planning” and implies that the policymakers’ attention should be concentrated on projects having
potentials of positive structural impact. The second one emphasizes positive synergy possible only
when we look at the relations between specific projects in the context of the structure defined in the
spatial plan of metropolitan area. In the time of deregulation and institutional / governmental
fragmentation, however, spatial integration and respective policy coordination faces serious obstacles.
For these reasons, the new interpretation of metropolitan structure becomes a significant issue in the
area of planning methodology and the practice of strategic management and governance at the
metropolitan level.