Extract of InnoCité movie (français) 

1 - Context 

In the Alpine region, metropolisation has given birth to changes in the urban system and the urban-rural relationships. The dichotomy between small settlements and important metropolitan growth areas (e.g. Lyon, Milan, Munich, Vienna, Triest and other large towns) can be solved through a challenging role of high-potential small and medium-sized Alpine cities and the catching areas around them.


 

2 - Objectives 

InnoCité is a territorial ecosystem approach, which facilitates a complementary positioning of Alpine small/medium-sized towns. It proposes an empowering toolkit to decision-makers, who desire to find a complementary positioning toward large agglomerations.

According to the renewed Lisbon Agenda, the objectives consist in enhancing a sustainable development of these cities by:

Objectives	Examples action fields
implementing sustainable spatial planning to reduce economic and social disparities between large agglomerations and peripheral cities	Parks and vegetalization Terraces actions Accessibility and parking spaces
improving their attractiveness and quality of life by creating a common vision taking into account residential, administrative and economic functions	Customers, shopkeepers surveys and flow countings Territorial marketing Cleanliness Visual identity, heritage buildings, lightings Events and social links
setting transnational models for attracting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to invest in small and medium-sized cities as well as contribute to their infrastructure and identity	Commercial activity types and search for new investors Commercial estate diagnosis Quality of commercial estate

3 - Methodology

A balanced territorial development policy is linked with a necessary reinterpretation of governance.
This objective is to be achieved through the implementation of participatory methods involving various stakeholders (public authorities, politics, specialists of spatial planning, economists, urban planners, local SMEs, local citizens, students, etc) in private/public partnerships, in order to share a common governance culture ensuring sustainability and transferability of the results.

InnoCité project integrates many places of experimentation :

         France (Rhône-Alpes Region): Neuville-sur-Saône; (Franche-Comté Region): Lure

         Germany (Bavaria): Garmisch-Partenkirchen city and county

        Austria (Lower Austria): Hollabrunn and Bad Vöslau; (Salzburg): Köstendorf, Neumarkt am Wallersee, Straßwalchen;

         Italy (Lombardy Region): Voghera and Darfo Boario Terme

         Slovenia (Primorska Region): Koper

Transnational experimentations took place in different towns at the same time, for example on Town Centre Management or on urban planning and design participation processes.