Urban Planning in Umea

The UBC Commission of Urban Planning held their second conference on 15-17 June 2000 in Umea. Over 20 cities, represented by more than 30 architects and city planners, participated in the event. The "burning questions" discussed at the conference were:

• the city centre development
• and best practices in member cities.

The cities of Aarhus, Bergen, Tampere, Riga and Szczecin made very interesting presentations of their problems and strategies of city center renewal.

Another important question at the conference was how to organise the future cooperation in the field of urban planning, between the UBC member cities. The conference decided that the Commission on Urban Planning should prepare an application to Interreg III B for the next three years (2001-2003), which will be further discussed and decided upon at the next conference in November in Helsinki.

Besides an excursion around the city center of Umea, the programme also included a visit to Norrbyskär, an old historical site located on an island in the Gulf of Bothnia.