Urban project operators are mobilising to strengthen consultation with citizens and local residents. In Marseille, the Grand Port has been pursuing for several years an innovative and continuous consultation process, initiated by the Marseille Fos Port Development Council, to inform and present to the population of the neighbouring municipalities the current or future projects concerning the port and the territory, which have an impact on daily life or on local economic prospects. The EPA Euroméditerranée makes consultation a key moment for citizen participation in current or future development projects. It includes exchange times in various forms (information meeting, participatory workshop, walking diagnosis, “focus group”…) proposed to all users concerned by an operation, organized in a specific way according to the intervention territory. These moments of encounter allow the inhabitants to express themselves on their experiences, their expectations and their questions.
In Genoa (Italy), the “Festival Zones Portuaires Genova 2019”, combines each year visits and meetings with exhibitions and shows in places normally inaccessible from the Port of Genoa.
In Valencia (Spain): The Marina of Valencia recently hosted the “Placemaking Week Europe 2019” whose objective is to rethink public spaces for and with the citizen. The idea is to put the users of these public spaces back at the heart of the reflection to co-construct with them attractive places where it will be good to walk, have fun, meet each other,… The success of the Valencia Marina and its appropriation by the population and visitors is a good example. And the Valencia Marina has just launched a new competition of ideas to redefine, with the citizens, Tinglado 2 and its public spaces (source: AIVP).
Whatever the areas undergoing remodelling, the aim of citizen consultation is to build a shared vision of the overall development plan for areas, particularly public spaces, and to facilitate their harmonious and sustainable integration into the territory.