Vähittäiskaupan suuryksikön sijoittumissuunnittelu – tapaustutkimus kauppakeskus Myllyn sijoittumisesta Raision Haunisiin

Abstract

Retail business forms a central part of the urban structure. The decentralisation typical of the western urban structure - i.e. the location of people, jobs and services outside city centres - is, also in Finland, clearly visible in the location of retail units. New shopping areas outside the city centres have emerged and will continue to do so. Large-scale retail stores, in particular, seem to have sought out-of-town locations. As the location of large-scale retail units has significant impacts on the urban structure, on the choices consumers make and on the success of retail business, most Western European countries have proceeded to regulate the emergence of large-scale retail units in different ways. In Finland, this regulation is carried out along the lines set by the Land Use and Building Act which took effect in 2000. The new Act increased the decision-making powers of the municipalities, and the Act also made it possi- ble to regulate the location of large-scale retail units more effectively. One of the main objectives of the Act is to make land-use planning processes more communicative. The objective of this study was to describe and analyse first of all the plan- ning and decision-making processes connected with the location of a large- scale retail unit, and secondly the practical work involved. The study focused on the planning and decision-making process as well as on the separate stages that led to the decision to locate Mylly, the biggest shopping centre in South- West Finland, in the Hauninen area in Raisio. The study endeavoured to find out how the planning and location process of a large-scale retail unit proceeds and what kind of critical series of events, i.e. cases, are involved. The topic was approached from two viewpoints which were research-wise inter-connected: the viewpoint expressed in the articles published in three local newspapers, and the views obtained by interviewing the significant actors in the process. The articles collected from the newspapers Turun Sano- mat, Åbo Underrättelser and Rannikkoseutu showed the direction of the research process and they were presumed to represent the information generally known about the subject. On the basis of the description drawn from 273 274 these articles, the turning points of the planning process were identified, which in turn helped to determine the themes for the interviews. The articles also contributed to the selection of the interviewees, i.e. those actors who had played a significant role in the planning and decision-making processes. The organisations with a significant role included the City of Raisio, the City of Turku, the Regional Council of South-West Finland, the TOK Group, Rakennustoimisto A.Puolimatka Oy (a construction company, later NCC Puolimatka Ltd and NCC Construction Ltd), the OP Bank Group Pension Fund, the Evangelical Lutheran parish of Raisio, and the consulting agency Entrecon Ltd. The titles and responsibilities of the actors varied from organisa- tion to organisation, but almost without exception they represented the top managerial level of their respective organisation. Among these significant actors were, for example, mayors, local and regional planners, heads of grocery chains, retail consultants and builders. When the accounts of the interviewees concerning the process were analysed and sorted according to theme and time, it was possible to discover the series of events which were critical for the planning process according to the actors. These series of events are called cases in this study. The study was conducted as an intensive case study, in other words, the study provided a detailed contextual account of the cases. Procedural planning theories provided a framework for the study and for understanding the cases. The planning and decision-making process which this study focuses on commenced in 1988 when the location for the retail unit was found, and it ended at the end of 1998 when the building permit facilitating the building of the unit was granted. Due to the changes perceived in the planning practices, the monitoring of the process was continued until the shopping centre opened in 2001. During the studied planning process, the paradigm has been presumed to have undergone a shift from theories that are based on rational planning ideas to theories labelled argumentative, communicative, participative or interpretative. This shift is called the "communicative turn" (e.g. Healey 1997; Taylor 1998.) The planning and decision-making process researched in this study was unique. It was multidimensional with several stages, and stretched over an exceptionally long period of time. No single planning practice theory intro- duced in the framework was able to explain the planning and decision-making in this particular process. Over the course of time, the planning and decision- making processes changed, and there were differences in the processes even during the same period of time. The study shows that it is impossible, with the help of only one planning process theory, to understand or explain a planning process that stretches over several years. In a case like this, several different theories are needed. Alternation between collecting data and analysing it, as well as identifica- tion of the cases formed the basic structure of the study process. This research proves that case study is well adapted for studying planning and decision- making processes, and it establishes that the cases can be identified from the data during the research process. The cases in the process can occur simulta- neously, or they can be overlapping or consecutive. They do not need to cover the entire length of the planning process. The way the case study was conducted in this particular research meant that the cases contributed to finding those stages of the planning process which the actors considered to be critical for the outcome of the process. The process studied here can be seen to reflect the planning culture of the Turku area during the years in question. The study showed that this planning culture was characterised by the municipalities in the area finding it difficult to cooperate in order to further develop the commercial service network within the area. Among other things, this was due to differing structural views concerning the urban area. Another typical trait was that the planning process tended to centre on certain individuals. The views of the Mayor of Raisio and the Deputy Mayor of Turku, in particular, carried special weight in the planning process. The cases provided a more detailed understanding of the planning culture in this area, but it is obvious that similar patterns can also be recognised in other processes concerning location planning of large-scale retail units. It is highly likely that many other projects concerning large-scale units have been initiated - as is typical of trend-planning - by a few actors in influential positions. Similarly, doing service network surveys is in many areas quite obviously connected with similar problems as in the case presented in this study. These problems primarily arise from the competitive relationship between the actors. The cases in the study can be regarded informative, as they have helped to understand the complicated field of interaction in which the plans and deci- sions concerning the location of large-scale units are made. Furthermore, the cases showed that context had a significant impact on planning and decision-making. The more detailed understanding of the multi- level context the actors participating in the planning and decision-making processes had, the better preconditions for planning and decision-making were provided. Consequently, on the basis of this study, it is possible to claim that the more challenging the target of planning is, and the more actors and partici- pants there are in the project, and the more important the role of interaction is in the planning, the more important it is that everyone involved knows and understands the context of the planning. The study also showed that when the 275 276 planning process is studied within a multi-level context, it becomes easier to understand and explain the actions taken in the process. The planning which preceded the location of the shopping centre in Hauninen was mostly trend-planning at the turn of the 1980's and 1990's and again at the end of the 1990's. Within the framework of a standard local detailed planning procedure it would have been impossible to take sufficiently quick action, which is why it was necessary to work along the lines set by trend-planning in order to facilitate operations and to enter into land-use agreements. With the help of trend-planning, the city was able to secure the location of the large-scale unit at an early stage of planning. At the same time the ideas from the private sector were channelled into the planning system, and the land-use agreements provided financial gain for the city and for the private parties to the agreements. If detailed local planning is considered to represent local interests and views on how to develop an area, it must be said that the large-scale retail unit project in Hauninen meant that local views were pushed aside and the importance of local detailed planning was diminished. In addition to this, another problem in connection with the interactivity of the planning process was that the key issues had already been "decided on" at the publication stage of the project. When the first plans to locate a large-scale retail unit in the centre of Raisio were drawn up in the mid-1990's, representatives of the city initialised the change from trend-planning into interactive planning. In practice, however, several of the actors followed the lines of strategic planning taking care of their own interests. If the development of the centre of Raisio had not included so many disagreements and differences in the contextual knowledge of the different actors, the preconditions for successful cooperation would have been considerably better. Together, the different actors could have focused on finding the most beneficial solutions for everybody instead of only worrying about pressing their own interests. According to the study, genuine coopera- tion in the development of the centre of Raisio was finally achieved at the beginning of the 21st century, at the same time as the shopping centre Mylly was already being built in Hauninen. The cases presented in the study showed that learning the practices of inter- active planning had already started, and the first valuable lessons were learned at the end of the planning process. In other words, there were faint traces indicating that Taylor's (1998) idea of a paradigm shift from theories emphasising rationality to theories focusing on communicativeness was actually taking place. The study showed that when considering the urban structure, as formed by planning processes, trend-planning implies a serious risk of the disintegration of the urban structure as the planning and building processes are carried out one by one. This type of planning excludes taking responsibility for the development of the entire urban structure, while narrowing responsibility down to the project at hand. This study proposes that the theoretical basis and the planning practices of market-oriented planning – e.g. trend-planning – should be further developed and explicit legal framework should be provided.