There will be IZPA's signature in present and future of Izmir

Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Dr. Cemil Tugay stated that the Izmir Planning Agency will be restructured and Prof. Dr. Koray Velibeyoğlu has been appointed as the head of the agency and said, “We will plan the present and future of the city in cooperation with the Izmir Planning Agency. We will also prepare Izmir's 50-year Vision 2074 Framework Document.”  

Before the 31 March Local Elections, Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Dr. Cemil Tugay, who announced that he would manage the municipality with an agile management approach and restructure the Izmir Planning Agency (IZPA), accelerated his steps in this direction. Stating that a new mission has been assigned to the Izmir Planning Agency, Mayor Tugay said that City and Regional Planner Prof. Dr. Koray Velibeyoğlu has been appointed as İZPA President.

“Planning is not only spatial”
Mayor Tugay stated that planning will be done for the whole of Izmir and said, “The subject of planning is everything that comes to mind in Izmir. What we mean by planning is not only spatial planning. It is essentially the planning of the present and the future from many perspectives. We expect it to formulate policies regarding the development and growth of the city and the ways to be followed to solve problems. The Istanbul Planning Agency did successful work in this sense in the last period. I think we should follow the same path now, but look at it in a more disciplined and comprehensive way. So we can say that the planning agency has two functions. The first one is to address concrete problems and produce quick solutions for them. The second is to create a road map for the development of the city in at least a 30-year perspective, especially the 2050 vision, and to ensure that decisions are taken. We will also prepare Izmir's 50-year Vision 2074 Framework Document through a participatory process and together with all elements of the city. We will start with an assessment of the conditions we are in today. In short, let's think of IZPA as the brain. Sometimes it will work on urban transformation, sometimes it will plan new settlements. On the one hand, it will carry out studies on the climate crisis. Under this will be an understanding of cooperation and joint work with many other structures.”

Citizen participation in planning
Stating that there will be structures such as the Sustainability Office and the Citizen Participation Unit within the Izmir Planning Agency, Mayor Tugay said, “For example, we will move the Citizen Participation Unit, which we implemented during my term as Mayor of Karşıyaka Municipality, here. This is a unit to see how people view these works, to get their suggestions, and to involve them in the implementation process. Let's involve citizens too. Let's ask for their opinion, let them come, let's design together. Again, this unit will form citizen juries. It will create participatory design workshops or some similar units. Izmir Planning Agency is the place where we will do these things. Let's develop this ability. We are going to open a Public Bread Kiosk, we decide, right? Let's ask the Izmir Planning Agency. Let them guide us to open them in these places... We can ask in the same way about the smart city technologies we will use. There are issues such as new bus and ferry services, the status and expectations of existing ones, and the evaluation of all these. We can and should ask for the support of the Izmir Planning Agency for the investments we will make in renewable energy, parking lots and anything else you can think of. This is the way to success, it comes from here. Izmir Metropolitan Municipality will be the best municipality in the world. This is exactly our goal. We will be the best municipality in the world. Whatever the conditions,” he said.

Water, food and energy
Referring to the understanding to be carried out in the city with the planning, Mayor Tugay continued his words as follows: “We want each of our companies, our municipality in total, and then our city to be a company, municipality and city that produces more than it consumes. This is our goal. If we are talking about energy, we want to reduce our consumption, but we also want to invest in renewable energy to meet consumption. The same can be applied to water consumption. Food is the same way. Water, food and energy are three important topics. These are the three issues that will make or break us as a civilization in the future.”