Good practice:

Green Belt in the Radom Functional Area

The proposed solution deals with the creation of the Radom Functional Area (FA) complementary development strategy, divided into four modules: spatial, environmental (greenbelt concept), transport and revitalization. Since municipalities have full control over their planning, the implementation of regional projects involving the cooperation of many municipalities is often hampered. In cooperation with municipalities, a coherent strategy was developed to address these aspects in the case of comprehensive and multi-dimensional spatial planning projects.
Under the public procurement procedure, private contractors prepared methodology and solutions, whereas the project leader - Radom FA Association - supervised their consistency and quality. The project started with the appointment of a management unit, responsible for the implementation of the strategy.
The module concerning the Green Belt includes the creation, protection, development and management of the Radom Open Area Network "Green Belt" within the Radom FA, together with some recommendations for the implementation. The components of the network were open areas (adequately wide, continuous and creating a coherent functional and spatial system) located outside the dense development areas.
The main recipients are the city of Radom and the communes included in the plan. Indirect stakeholders are provincial and national organizations dealing with water, forestry and infrastructure policy management.

The amount of funds for the environmental module is 347,911.61 PLN (approximately EUR 73,000). The total amount of funds is 1,547,072.98 PLN (approximately EUR 326,000). A total of 12 people worked on the project: 1 Manager, 3 Coordinators of modules, 8 expert collaborators.

- Complete action plan including all four modules, with local diagnose and action plan for each.
- Integrated Program of Natural and Water Resources Management (within the Greenbelt nature module).
- Establishment of singular management unit responsible for project implementation.

Due to the large independence of municipalities the project had no strong impact on their spatial plans. No appropriate legal tools can facilitate the implementation of such solutions. Also, the process was jeopardized by the lack of support at national level.

This good practice shows the importance of preparing a well-coordinated strategy for the formulation of regional plans. The strategy was developed for addressing several aspects related to the future of the entire region. The methodology developed for working on the strategy is innovative and allows also to identify possible limits toward its effective execution. Despite the challenges related to the legislative process, it is a great example of an attempt undertaken by local governments to organize themselves when it is necessary to solve problems on a larger scale, beyond the single municipality.