Temporalities of Closure in Urban Planning Conflicts

Abstract

To understand temporality and power of citizens in urban planning and development processes, we need to understand how closure is achieved. We define closure as the moment when active contestation against a particular planning decision ends. The temporal and democratic nature of urban planning and development thus give possibilities of using temporal power over closure to the hands of social movements and citizens. To show how these ideas work in practice, the paper presents three literature-based vignettes: in Helsinki, activists were able to deny closure for a decision to construct housing on Malmi Airport for decades, in St. Petersburg, already constructed buildings had to be lowered because citizen activism, and in New York, even if Pennsylvania Station was demolished, legacy of the conflict over its preservation lead to re-writing of the city's historical preservation policies, never allowing the case to be fully closed.