2017 Volume 82 Issue 739 Pages 2351-2359
Nowadays, against the backdrop of decentralization and to promote sustainable urban development, it has become important to realize carefully-crafted land use and the establishment of public facilities through the decision-making of municipalities, and even greater expectations are placed on the District Plan System (DPS) as a tool for achieving this. However, according to a survey of local governments, there are issues regarding the effectiveness of the DPS.
The aim of this study is to figure out legal measures to ensure the effectiveness of the DPS, and then to present ingenious ways to enhance the effectiveness of the DPS by examining the implementation status of the DPS at advanced local governments.
Specifically, we firstly investigated legal measures to ensure the effectiveness of the DPS. The DPS has become a system with legal enforceability through its combination with other security measures such as building certification and development permits, and owing to the details of plans and the enforceability of combined legal measures, differences in the “effectiveness” of each DPS arise. Therefore, we classified the legal measures in the DPS, examined trends at local governments nationwide, and clarified the ways in which local governments are (A) ensuring the execution of notification details and (B) performing cross-sectoral management.
Secondly, we examined the management status in Kobe, Setagaya and Amagasaki, which are advanced local governments in terms of the DPS, from the perspectives of (A) and (B).
Firstly, in regard to (A) ensuring the execution of notification details, procedures that enable execution have been made compulsory through ordinances, and with respect to the process of these procedures, systems to promote conformity with notification of DPS and district development plans have been established. However, each local government uses a different method concerning procedures: Kobe uses guidance based on prior notification, Amagasaki uses prior consultation, and Setagaya uses consultation combined with procedures for district-level plans based on an ordinance.
Next, (B) cross-sectoral management achieves cross-sectoral cooperation among organizations to enable the effective management of the above systems. The methods used are diverse: Kobe ensures cooperation by circulating prior notification notices among relevant departments, and Amagasaki does so by consulting with departments related to business operators. In contrast, Setagaya has enabled cross-sectoral management based on a contact organization in the form of liaison and coordination meetings and a general branch office system.
In conclusion, systems to verify conformity with DPS notification and district development plans have been created, and owing to cross-sectoral cooperation with other departments as well, management that enhances the effectiveness of the DPS has been realized through diverse methods.
