2 - Lure (Franche-Comté Region - France)

Key challenges Lure June 2010

The city of Lure, 8500 inhabitants, is situated at 80 km from the city of Besançon and 30 km from the city of Belfort. It is under the influence of the urban area of Belfort-Montbéliard-Héricourt-Delle which counts some 300 000 inhabitants.
For 10 years, the city has seen large changes in order to dynamise the different functions of the town-centre: services, shops, public spaces, housing, etc.
The city of Lure made realize a pre-operational study (by the Urban Agency of Belfort Territory) for the requalification of its town-centre, which made emerge Lure development objectives:

        a better accessibility to the town-centre (traffic flow, parking, soft mobility…)

        an homogeneity in the buildings

        an improved urban space (houses' facade, shop windows, street lighting, grounds…)

        the integration of sustainable development

        study and reflect on the improvement of its whole town and not only on its town-centre

        attract small and medium-sized enterprises like franchises, as well as make them stay in Lure.

October 2009 : Set up of a Governance Committee

Since 2009 the city of Lure created a participative process with the local public and private actors in the form of a governance committee. Here are the steps taken by the governance committee between October 2009 and March 2010:

            October 2009: city's SWOT analysis and local diagnosis

            December 2009: strategic plan

            March 2010: commercial wasteland and discussion on the acquisition of a legal status such as an association

The study of the different catchment areas shows that Darfo Boario Terme is a complementary shopping area to the city of Brescia. The major competitor of Darfo Boario Terme’s city-centre is the existing shopping centre.

For Darfo Boario Terme the InnoCité project involves collaboration with the German case study of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, given the similarities of thermal and naturalistic centres of merit. Action is concentrated in the hamlets of Darfo Boario and Corna, and provides redevelopment of the system of trade, craft and central services of the town with regards tourism; the objective being the improvement in the quality of life both for residents and tourists, and “de-seasoning tourist activity”.

Through the project the aim is to improve attractiveness and the quality of life, taking into account all the fundamental functions of an administrative, economic and social nature, reaching the objective via public-private partnerships.

Key challenges Voghera June 2010 

Surveys on pedestrian flows allowed noticing that the city of Voghera is rather a proximity shopping area for daily consumers than a place where people go out for leisure on Saturday afternoon for example.

5 - Garmisch-Partenkirchen City and County (Bavaria - Germany)

Key challenges Garmisch-Partenkirchen June 2010 

Garmisch-Partenkirchen city and surrounding county is situated 90 km south of Munich.
One of their main objectives is the advancement of the cross-linked thinking and acting regarding the regional development in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Therefore it is important to improve the cooperation between the city and county of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Especially in the working field “business development”, a concentration of local and regional power is absolutely essential.
At first has to be analyzed which are possible cooperation fields, where is a need for action, which necessities are seen from the pilot site actors and which are obviously in the context of  the InnoCité Project.

Based on the diagnosis / analysis of the pilot site, the Bavarian partner learned that one main challenge for the pilot site is to position itself as location for businesses (economic hub) and attractive labour market against the agglomeration of Munich, which takes up enterprises as well as employees.

One main problem is the demographic trend of an aging population and, in parallel, a brain drain. At the same time, businesses in Garmisch-Partenkirchen face vacant jobs (and vacant apprenticeship places), which means there seems to be, on the one hand side, a lack between demand and offer of specific skilled persons and, on the other hand side, a mismatch in educational facilities.

A sustainable development, an innovative positioning and last but not least a high quality of life in small and medium sized towns require especially in knowledge societies, good education, lifelong learning environments, interesting jobs and a balanced employee structure (in age and branches).

On 06/11/2009 a first event was held by the Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology in cooperation with the County and City on this topic in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The preliminary analysis was presented to the guests from politics, economics, health, education sectors.

Since early 2010, a survey conducted by the University of Kaiserslautern on "location requirements of training and further education in health and medicine in the pilot site" is running.

Initial results were presented to the policy-makers in the model region on late 2010. Currently, at the request of the City and County, more individual evaluations of potential buyers are led. In addition, a strategic plan was developed on “the future position of the City as a location for training and further education institutions on medicine and healthcare”.

On 30^th June 2011, the final results will be presented to the public in the form of an additional information meeting in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. 75 attendants are expected.

For questions regarding InnoCité please contact Economic developer Matthias Reisinger at City of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

6 - Straßwalchen, Neumarkt am Wallersee, Köstendorf: "Plusregion" (Salzburg - Austria)

Key challenges PlusRegion June 2010 

"Plusregion" is an association, which benefits from a city marketing manager that helps promoting the 3 locations Straßwalchen, Neumarkt am Wallersee and Köstendorf to companies. These small and medium-sized cities are situated 25 kms away from Salzburg. The association is also responsible for animating a participation process between retailers and local councils.

7 - Hollabrunn (Vienna - Lower Austria)

Key challenges Hollabrunn June 2010 

In November 2008, a regional network meeting on Innocité took place in Hollabrunn, where the InnoCité project issues were introduced to small and medium sized towns in all Lower Austria (Network "Improving the performance of inner cities). Hollabrunn presented its activities in city marketing.

The participation process was agreed upon with the Mayor, the administration of the city and the local association "Wir in Hollabrunn".

Between April and September 2009, Hollabrunn launched a local participation process through the founding of two working groups on the following topics:

-          One for “active participation of young people in the development of the town”:  The “Youth” group met frequently and carried out two public events, where young people could participate with their ideas for Hollabrunn. In one of the events of the youth group, a live stream was broadcasted through the local radio station. The radio station of Hollabrunn originates from a school project and programmes are frequently run by young locals. The radio management agreed to train some of the members of the working group (all under age 18) on how to produce a radio show. The next planned activity of the youth group is a video-conference with young people throughout the province of Lower Austria.

-          The other working group is about “improving the competitiveness of the city center”:  Members of this working group are local stakeholders and citizens of all ages, who are interested in the development of their town.

Both working groups had several meetings and worked out a SWOT-Analysis. Strategies are elaborated and a decision process is undergoing by the city council.

8 - Bad Vöslau (Vienna - Lower Austria)

Key challenges Bad Vöslau June 2010 

This is a small city, surrounded by other towns of almost similar size and under the influence of Vienna (about 35 km away). The inner city has many structural problems to deal with.
Analysing activities started thanks to InnoCité. Bad Vöslau founded a local working group for “improving the inner city economy” in January 2009 and SWOT-Analysis workshops are taking place since then.



Public administration, political representatives and shop owners work together in the process such as in a participation process and building up Public/Private Partnerships composed of retail associations/town administration/politics.
In July 2009, a public regional network meeting on Innocité topics took place in Bad Vöslau. Key speaker was Dr. Christian Mikunda, expert in innovative urban conception of city-centre.

The retail space in the city center was analyzed by an expert in spatial planning, i.e. concerning floor space and size of businesses in the city center and in the periphery. The town focused on its strategy to improve the competitiveness of the city, especially for the development of the city center. The strategy was worked out together with the association of entrepreneurs in Bad Vöslau (local stakeholders) and representatives of the city council.

Bad Vöslau is currently working on implementing projects that were discussed during the SWOT-strategic process, such as setting up a local green market. Furthermore, there is a discussion about setting up an integrative Town Centre Management system that involves retail, crafts and tourism.

9 - Koper (Primorska Region - Slovenia)

Key challenges Koper June 2010

End 2008-beginning of 2009, RRC Koper had several meetings with representatives of Koper municipality in order to define the objectives of Koper InnoCité pilot project and the council participation in the InnoCité project.

It held a meeting with representatives of the Chamber of Handicraft and Enterpreneurship of Koper in order to present the Innocite project, its objectives and expected outputs, with special regard to benefits.

The objective of Koper city is to make the city-centre more competitive in a broader cross-border region.

Expected results are:

      a coordinated Koper city-centre spatial development,

      a more attractive city centre for business,

      additional actors involved in the Koper city-centre management.

Between April and September 2009, activities were focused primarily on the preparation of 2 surveys: 

- “Koper in a transnational urban network” to local households regarding the influence of Triest on Koper: As a result, it seemed that the influence of Triest is not as important as thought, as it is competitivenesswise balanced with 2 other coastal towns, Izola and Piran,

- “retail and service activities in Koper town centre” to town-centre shopkeepers regarding the available commercial real estate: as a result, RRC Koper could build a database. RRC Koper obtained data on business premises from the real estate register, which also proved useful for implementing field interviews.

In December 2009 took place a SWOT-seminar with local stakeholders.