Community planning as a solution for the challenges of the spatial development

Abstract

One of the weakness points of the Hungarian local development practice is that the participants of the
development are not able to recognize the problems of the specific area, the objectives of the community.
One of the methods of the regional development is to involve "external" experts, which has several
disadvantages like the collected information are centralized in one hand and the decisions are made in that
way, so not all of the local actors’ expectations are realized in the final plan. The base of the community
planning is the early participation of the local actors in planning process. Hereby the community interests and
goals are able to integrate into the final plan. The advantage of this type of planning is that all participants
agree on the process and is committed to its implementation. In our research we intended to lit up the
advantages of the planning methods as well as the difficulties during their application. Based on the
information accumulated, it seems that the community planning requires more energy but still, the
development which can be achieved is more successful.