Urban regeneration of centers

Urban renewal is not a typical topic that only takes place in larger Austrian cities such as Vienna, Linz or Graz, but is also evident in the multiple processes of urban transformation in small and medium-sized towns. Especially alpine regions, such as the province of Salzburg, are characterized by this type and size of settlement structure. Although the spatial structures are comparable, the specific challenges differ in the respective places. These range reaches from general issues such as the creation of housing space and the adaptation of the transportation system to special challenges such as dealing with a historic building structure or the tourist orientation of the specific city. What the sites have in common is that there are no institutionalized procedures at the national level for how the process of urban renewal or urban redevelopment is carried out. In each case, these procedures are organized in Austria at the level of the provinces, which makes differences between Vienna and Salzburg, for example, obvious. The background is that at the federal level there is no legislative power in the field of spatial planning, but only recommendations can be issued. (Gruber et al.2018) Rather, these are individual measures or project ideas of the localities, which are implemented on the basis of the local spatial development concept and possibly based on the resulting development plan. The background to this is that the processes of spatial planning in the sense of strengthening local centers are not regulated by any formally defined processes at the level of the federal states. This means that each municipality, depending on the specific task, deals with the issue individually and develops their own process and solution. If we take the federal state of Salzburg as an example, challenges such as the migration of retail trade, the transformation of the center into a leisure destination or insufficient residential density in the core of the cities are generally common and entail comparable issues. The individual towns can only be compared to a limited extent with regard to the orientation of the town center and measures can be transferred accordingly. The individual small and medium- sized towns are organized very differently and range from places with a supra-regional administrative and school location to tourist centers that accommodate many times the local population during the peak season. The differences lie particularly in how the existing building fabric can be dealt with. In addition to legal and economic reasons, the ability to further develop the floor plan as well as the adaptation of the building’s uses play a role. Many communities have in common that already first measures for the renewal and optimization of the local centers were accomplished. Often, this concerns the design upgrading of public spaces, in the form of level paving, the design of square areas or the creation of other recreational areas. Especially the reduction of through traffic or the creation of meeting zones have contributed to a more positive perception of the centers. There have also been the first initiatives and programs to provide businesses with inexpensive storefronts, although this must be regarded more as an individual measure. In summary, there is a lack of a uniform legal and financial framework for municipalities to deal with the renewal of their centers. The interaction between legislation at the national level and at the level of the federal states, which legally and organizationally control the concrete measures, is necessary.