Project description

Green-field retail settlement promotes a rapid urban sprawl and leads to traffic congestion and environmental problems. These processes impair the resources of residence, infrastructure and space available in the towns and thus run counter to sustainable regional development. The settlement of retail enterprises in city centres can strengthen a healthy development structure.

The project aims to strengthen polycentric urban systems and to contribute to regional development in the CADSES area. A transnational project team has been assembled for VITAL CITIES under the Lead Partnership of the InvestitionsBank des Landes Brandenburg, in which the main stakeholders are represented and will jointly work on solutions
applicable at the local level. Implementation of the project will be supported by the law firm Nörr Stiefenhofer Lutz, which operates offices in all except two of the member countries of the project.

The project objectives will be met by implementing the following activities:

• Analyses, studies and surveys of consumer behaviour conducted at the local level. The results will be integrated in a comparative study at the transnational level
• Presenting and explaining the legal framework for retail settlement in the city centres of the project member states.
• Carrying out of “retail trade forums” at the local level, in which the main political decision-makers will be represented and where local conditions will be analysed and solutions identified by a transnational team.
• Ascertaining the optimization possibilities for supra-regional retail strategies
  Pooling and exchange of experiences illustrated by specific case studies in the Lombardy region, in Budapest and Bavaria reflecting different approaches and aspects.

With these measures the project will contribute to the strengthening of the legal framework in the respective countries, the local municipalities will have the necessary information available for a systematic development of retail trade, networks between participants and decision-making bodies will be established at the local level and interested retail companies will be provided with guidelines enabling them to ascertain the economic and legal requirements for retail settlement and assess the economic risks involved. The activities will lead to the development of CURTIS - “Comprehensive urban Retail trade improvement strategy” containing recommendations for actions taken for retail settlement in city centres.