News

The term “master plan” entered professional use after 2010: the first such document was prepared for Perm. It was seen as an innovative approach to urban development. Today, more than a hundred master plans have been developed for cities, agglomerations, and individual territories, but the concept is still not legally defined at the federal level, and there is no consensus on how master plans relate to other urban planning documents.

Sergey Georgievskii, co-founder of the Strategic Development Agency “CENTER,” helped clarify this issue for the talent pool and the administration team of the “Sirius” ecosystem during the lecture “Master Plan: How and Why” as part of the seminar “The Future of Cities. Building Scientific and Cultural Centers of the Country” at the Sirius Science and Technology University.

“A city or agglomeration master plan is a comprehensive strategic planning document that outlines priorities, goals, and expected results for the socio-economic and spatial development of a territory. The document defines specific actions required to achieve set goals and expected outcomes, the timeline for their implementation, and resource allocation,” emphasized Georgievskii.

He presented examples of master plans developed with the participation of the “CENTER” Agency. Special attention was given to the Chechen Republic, for which three master plans have already been created: for the cities of Grozny and Argun, and for the republic as a whole. Using the examples of Derbent, Yakutsk, and Minusinsk, the “CENTER” director highlighted regional characteristics of master planning. He noted that the preparation of these documents was preceded by comprehensive research conducted by “CENTER” analysts and an in-depth immersion in the local environment.

The discussion also covered the advantages of developing master plans through competitive processes, which allow for multiple professional perspectives. In CENTER’s practice, competitions are held for master plans addressing various tasks: “post-competition” use of the area around Samara-Arena stadium, comprehensive development of the Astrakhan agglomeration, social development of cities where the Siberian Coal Energy Company operates in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, and spatial organization of scientific and technological districts of the federal territory “Sirius.” Such initiatives traditionally attract significant interest from professional communities both in Russia and abroad.

Photo: Andrey Arestov, Alexei Tavix, Sirius Media House, LLC Strategic Development Agency “CENTER”