SHORT DESCRIPTION

Initial cue

For many years it had been planned to renovate the showpiece of Augsburg’s inner city, Maximilianstraße, to the highest standards and to apply traffic calming to it. Over and over again, though, the planning process broke down when it came to the question of how to deal with traffic. The city administration had made several attempts to reach a solution. Finally, when it seemed that implementing the winning project from an architectural competition was likely to be stymied, the city administration commissioned a mediation process.

Goal

 

• The mediation process was intended to clear up the long-standing disagreement about Augsburg’s inner city and to achieve a consensus on how best to upgrade Maximilianstraße as regards public space and traffic. 
• Solutions were to be found for the “bones of contention”: traffic in motion, parked vehicles and irritating noise from nocturnal revellers.

Sequence of events

In 2003 a mediation team from citycom brought the conflicting interests together in the Augsburg Inner City Forum (FIA), which met nine times to work out, first, guiding principles for the entire centre of the city, and then specific solutions for the contentious issues.
Workshops and excursions took place alongside the meetings. And lo and behold – in July 2004 the mediation process yielded a consensus on a package for upgrading the street, calming through traffic and improving parking arrangements. Preliminary steps to defuse particularly contentious issues had been agreed even earlier.
The city administration is now implementing the Forum’s recommendations bit by bit. The Forum itself (chaired by citycom) is monitoring progress in implementation and supporting the process.