The Master Programme for Spatial Planning in Luxembourg, known as “Programme directeur d’aménagement du territoire” (PDAT) 2023, is the central element of the country’s spatial planning policy. Serving as a framework for a sustainable development of the national territory and for enhancing the quality of life of all citizens, the PDAT defines an integrated strategy for sectorial policies with a territorial impact and defines guidelines, objectives and measures for the government and municipalities. The newly adopted PDAT (21 June 2023), which was prepared by the Department of Spatial Planning in cooperation with an interministerial working group, builds upon a large public participation process in 2018 and the international consultation “Luxembourg in Transition” in 2020—2022.

Structure and objectives

PDAT 2035 (Source: Département de l’aménagement du territoire (DATer) 2023)

In order to frame the strategy, objectives and measures, the PDAT was developed in accordance with the following four guiding principles:

  • Increasing the resilience of the territory
  • Safeguarding territorial, social and economic cohesion
  • Ensuring a sustainable management of natural resources
  • Accelerating the transition of the territory to carbon neutrality

Based on those guiding principles, three policy objectives and a cross-cutting objective have been identified, addressing the development issues highlighted in the spatial analysis as well as the challenges imposed by climate, environmental, geopolitical and health crises:

1. Concentration of development in the most suitable places: Central to the PDAT’s mission is guiding sector policies and supporting municipalities in locating essential functions and services in the most suitable places. This aims to facilitate access to services, anticipate and reduce mobility needs as well as plan for critical infrastructure.

By guiding future development, the PDAT enables efficient infrastructure planning and a cost-effective implementation of sector policies. The territorial strategy encompasses an urban hierarchy based on Central Places (centres de développement et d’attraction, CDA), which is supposed to steer the spatial distribution of population (i.e. development) and employment growth (i.e. attraction) in a sustainable manner.

2. Reducing land take: The PDAT focuses on limiting the process of converting natural, agricultural or forest land into built-up areas. Decreasing land take offers several benefits, including mitigating the effects of climate change, preserving natural and semi-natural areas, minimising flood risks, protecting biodiversity, and fostering carbon sequestration. The goal is to gradually reduce land take from by 2035 and tend towards no net land take (zéro artificialisation nette du sol) by 2050.

Dynamics of soil artificialisation 2007-2018 (Source: Département de l’aménagement du territoire (DATer) 2023)

To achieve this, the PDAT puts forward a planning culture that promotes urban regeneration, multifunctionality and efficient land management.

3. Cross-border spatial planning: Taking into account the functional linkages between Luxembourg and its cross-border functional region, the PDAT recognises the need for a concerted territorial development in the Greater Region (Grande Région). To address ecological and climate transition challenges, the Master Programme promotes territorial development strategies for cross-border functional areas, consultation with neighbouring regions in the framework of planning processes, and cross-border resource management.

4. Collaborative Governance as a cross-cutting objective: In the PDAT, governance is considered to be a cross-cutting objective, emphasising the coordination required for effective spatial planning. This is meant to happen horizontally across sector policies, vertically between the State and municipalities, as well as through public participation.

Time Horizon

The PDAT2023 is meant to unfold in two phases: 2023-2035 and 2035-2050. The first period until 2035 will act as a transition phase, which contributes to reversing the current development trends. Actions will focus on identifying and adopting instruments for the implementation of the Master Programme as well as initiating pilot projects and stakeholder connections.

The second phase, from 2035 to 2050, will ensure a steady transition and reverse the trends in question by the implementation of the strategies, while monitoring the developments as well as adapting approaches as needed.

Programme directeur d'aménagement du territoire 2023 - Stratégies territoriales - Portail de l'aménagement du territoire - Luxembourg
Vision 2050 in the PDAT (Source: Département de l’aménagement du territoire (DATer) 2023)

Implementation

In order to achieve the above-mentioned policy objectives in the given timeframes, two territorial strategies have been developed at different scales. First, the national territorial development strategy “Leitbild 2050” envisions a carbon-neutral and resilient territory, emphasising green, yellow and blue networks, the concentration of development in accordance with the urban hierarchy, and a sustainable mobility. This national territorial development strategy has also been broken down to so-called action areas (espaces d’action) at a functional-regional level. In this context, territorial visions for the three urban agglomerations have also been developed. Second, the territorial development strategy at the level of the Greater Region promotes cooperation in cross-border action areas, in accordance with the Interreg VI Greater Region programme. This cooperation fosters integrated territorial development in cross-border functional areas, complementing previous approaches by addressing challenges linked to the environment and natural resources. The implementation of strategies will be fostered through the adaptation of existing regulatory instruments and the potential creation of new ones.

Conclusion

The Master Programme for Spatial Planning in Luxembourg sets a forward-looking and ambitious territorial vision. By addressing climate change, resource preservation and sustainable growth, the PDAT paves the way for the ecological transition of the territory. Through clear strategic objectives and cross-sectoral coordination, Luxembourg is taking a further step towards sustainable development and enhancing citizens’ quality of life.

References

Master Programme for Spatial Planning in Luxembourg – “Programme directeur d’aménagement du territoire” (PDAT) 2023 (French): https://amenagement-territoire.public.lu/content/dam/amenagement_territoire/pdat-programme-directeur-damnagement-du-territoire-4072023.pdf

Spatial planning portal (French): https://amenagement-territoire.public.lu/fr/strategies-territoriales/programme-directeur.html

During the first workshop organised by the CIPU office in 2023 and held on the 27th of June, the participants delved into the concept of multifunctionality in the city, focusing on different scales (building/parcel, district, city). They had the opportunity to explore various planning examples and engage in discussions about the obstacles, potentials, and instruments associated with multifunctional urban use.  

Copyright: Melt Studio, 2023

The day started off with an informative guided tour of the hosting location, the 1535° Creative Hub in the city of Differdange. The location symbolises creativity and innovation in Luxembourg. Established in 2013 by the city of Differdange, the Creative Hub got named after the melting temperature of iron at 1535°C, paying homage to the industrial heritage of the site and the whole city. Today it hosts creative and cultural start-ups, small- and medium-sized enterprises, artists, a co-working space as well as e.g. rentable music studios. More than just the physical space, the 1535° Creative Hub follows a community-driven approach, facilitating collaboration and sharing of expertise among its members. It functions as an open platform fostering synergies and networking, connecting actors from the cultural and creative industry and creating an open-minded environment for the sector.

Copyright: Melt Studio, 2023

After discovering the site, the workshop participants received input on functional mix in urban areas and its current relevance in Luxembourg. As a cross-cutting topic in the Master Programme for Spatial Planning 2023 (Programme Directeur de l’Amenagement du Territoire), it is primarily addressed under the objective of reducing soil artificialisation. In addition to that, the topic is considered under the objective of concentrating of different functions through e.g. creating Centres of development and attraction (Centres de développement et d’attraction). Furthermore, two examples developed during the Luxembourg in Transition Process (LiT) were presented, i. e. the densification strategy for the cross-border town Esch-sur-Alzette (LU) and Audun-le-Tiche (FR) as well as the plan for the commercial area Foetz to be transformed into a mixed-use zone. The local input was complemented with several examples from international multifunctional planning processes form Paris, Bern, Linz, Hamburg, Brussels and Anderlecht.

Copyright: Melt Studio, 2023

Finally, the participants delved into discussions on multifunctionality in urban spaces. The focus was on exploring the potential of integrating multiple functions within city structures on different scales (building/parcel, district, city). Through interactive sessions and planning examples, the workshop shed light on the obstacles, potentials, and instruments associated with multifunctional use in various contexts.

Working in groups, the participants explored multifunctionality in three key areas: commerce and services, production and manufacturing, and the creative sector and culture. These discussions considered the different existing scales, including the city, districts, and individual plots. The fourth group addressed the multifunctional use of housing in combination with schools, shopping centres, and industrial sites. These group sessions provided valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities associated with integrating different functions within urban structures. The results were then presented and discussed in plenum. The results of the discussions will be available on the CIPU Website soon.

Copyright: Melt Studio, 2023

By examining multifunctionality at different scales, the workshop encouraged innovative approaches to urban planning and development. The participants considered the potential of multifunctional spaces to (re-)vitalise communities, optimise resource utilisation, and promote sustainable development. The workshop held within the CIPU framework offered a platform for collaboration and knowledge sharing, bringing together diverse perspectives from local and regional/national stakeholders as well as from thematic experts. It highlighted the importance of considering multifunctionality as a crucial aspect of contemporary city planning as well as which challenges need to be addressed by already existing and potential instruments.

Contact

References

How to enable sustainable urban commercial development in inner cities? How to cope with commercial concurrence between city centres and greenfield shopping centres? How to deal with commercial vacancies? What instruments and tools are there that decision-makers can use?

On Friday, 17. September 2021, CIPU organised an excursion to two Luxembourg cities to address these questions. During an afternoon, around 30 planners and experts from various cities and municipalities across the country learned about the approaches, among others of Differdange, the third biggest city of Luxembourg with 26.000 inhabitants.

The second half of the excursion led to Differdange

Differdange is a city built around a steel mill, featuring several centres that are geographically disconnected. The city has doubled in population during the past 15 years. This made it necessary to upscale urban services and to re-design the city centre. Much of the inner-city offer is still influenced by the consumer habits of steel workers: in footfall of the steel mills, restaurants, cafés, and bars dominate the urban environment, only few shops have been established in the inner city. With the steel mill slowly loosing importance for the urban economic activities, a transition of the urban commercial offer is taking place.

Planners in discussion in front of the new shopping centre, called ‘Op Korn’. Source: Zeyen+Baumann.

To support the re-orientation of the urban offer and to link the geographically disconnected centres, a new district has been developed. At the intersection of two major roads on a former landfill of an adjacent steel mill, the new district ‘Plateau Funiculaire’ links the different districts by providing different amenities and new functions.

The new district has been built around a large shopping centre, that has been strategically placed opposite of the still-running steel mill, at a transport axis through the city. With the development, the place presents the new centre of attraction in Differdange, offering shops, offices, and apartments for new and old inhabitants.

The transition of the urban commercial offer has led to an increasing number of commercial vacancies during the last 20 years. Despite the cities’ smaller size, the challenges Differdange faces are of similar nature to those of Esch-sur-Alzette (see Blog post on the first half of the CIPU Excursion). Both cities suffer from a decreasing inner city attractiveness due to high numbers of vacancies.  

Instead of initiating a proprietary instrument, the municipality of Differdange has purchased two shop surfaces in the city centre and leases them to shop owners or new entrepreneurs. In doing so, the city does not rely on pre-definded procedures and rulings. Instead, it asks interested shop owners and entrepreneurs to develop applications, in which business ideas and shop concepts are described. The dossier is submitted to a selection committee. This committee consists of one representative of all political parties (also those that are not involved in municipal government), and of three citizens. A mix in gender, occupation and length of residency is respected.

Showcase offer of the shop selling gifts and goodies founded by a Syrian refugee. Source: Zeyen+Baumann.

The number of applications the municipality received exceeds the number of available shop surfaces. The two best concepts have been chosen, leading to two new shops being created in the municipality. One of them complements the urban commercial landscape with products for babies to young parents and the other sells gifts and goodies. The second shop was found by a Syrian refugee, who has been welcomed in Differdange during 2020. The shops benefit from marketing support of the public city channels.

More commercial surfaces of different kind (shops, bars, restaurants, etc.) will become available in near future. With the experiences collected, the municipality wants to continue efforts to revitalise the city-centre. For this, more commercial surfaces will be purchased in future and more specialised concepts matching concrete citizen requirements will be realised. This will help to address the issue of commercial vacancies with a versatile and pro-active instrument.

The Differdange City Manager explaining the unique approach to combat commercial vacancies. Source: Zeyen+Baumann.

For more information, visit www.diffmix.lu, which is the citizen involvement platform of the municipality (available in English, French and German) and the municipal website of the city of Differdange: www.differdange.lu

For more information or for comments, please contact the author of this article: sebastian.hans@spatialforesight.eu

How to enable sustainable urban commercial development in inner cities? How to cope with commercial concurrence between city centres and greenfield shopping centres? How to deal with commercial vacancies? What instruments and tools are there that decision-makers can use?

On Friday, 17. September 2021, CIPU organised an excursion to two Luxembourg cities to address these questions. During an afternoon, around 30 planners and experts from various cities and municipalities across the country learned about the approaches, of among other the city of Esch-sur-Alzette, the second biggest city of Luxembourg with 35,000 inhabitants.

The first half of the excursion led to Esch-sur-Alzette

In Esch-sur-Alzette, ‘CLAIRE’ is a municipal initiative with the objective to combat commercial vacancies in the city. The city, which has been a historic commercial centre of the Grand Duchy, features the highest level of commercial surfaces per capita in the country. Consequentially, the inner-city commercial surfaces are highly sensitive to newly occurring trends such as greenfield shopping centres and online shopping.

Luxembourg urban planners during the excursion in the shopping street in Esch-sur-Alzette. Source: Zeyen+Baumann.

Esch-sur-Alzette, also known for its steel industry, has experienced several steel crises during the past century. As consequence, many family-owned businesses have closed because of declining turnover as result of the decreasing purchasing power. Additionally, a former steel mill called ‘Belval’, just adjacent to the city centre has been transformed into a new urban district. A large shopping mall offers many of the amenities the city centre can’t and increases the pressure on the inner-city shops even further.

In 2018, a citizen survey has identified commercial vacancies as a priority topic. Since then, municipal decision-makers became active and developed together with a consultancy the project ‘CLAIRE’, which employs 2.5 full time equivalents.

Planners during the excursion in Esch-sur-Alzette. Source: Zeyen+Baumann.

‘CLAIRE’ helps the municipality to act as middle man between property owners and businesses. It brings shops and stores together through the negotiating power of the municipality and allows to bridge and negotiate different interests. This way the city effectively reduces the commercial vacancies. It offers proven solutions in the form of long-term leaseholds but can also make short-term uses possible; an interim use concepts provides surfaces to shops in the form of pop-up spaces or as showcases for publicity. With reducing commercial vacancies, the inner city has become more attractive, according to surveyed citizens.

An important part of ‘CLAIRE’ are pop-up surfaces. In the framework of this short-term use concept, shop owners can rent a flexible size of commercial surfaces for short periods of time. This helps shop owners to test the general demand and new products with marginal financial and organisational commitment. The pop-up surfaces are known to residents and shoppers from outside and have well-integrated into the ever-diversifying commercial offer in Esch-sur-Alzette of today.

Planners inside one of the pop-up stores. Source: Zeyen+Baumann.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and booming online commerce, ‘CLAIRE’ has shown results: in 2021, only 14% of the shop surfaces in Esch-sur-Alzette were vacant. The reduction of commercial vacancies has led to a better perception of the city centre and consequentially to a better image of the city as place to live and place to visit.

Still not all challenges can be solved. So for deadlocks regarding rent expectations of property owners, which sometimes exceed what businesses can pay for. However, rent for commercial surfaces can in most cases be successfully mediated through political support from the council of aldermen.

A more detailed description of the concept in English is provided in a CIPU project sheet, that you may find here: https://site.cipu.lu/images/2019_10_Factsheets/_Claire_final.pdf  

The project has also a website, that you can access here (German and French language): https://claire.esch.lu/

For more information or for comments, please contact the author of this article: sebastian.hans@spatialforesight.eu

Urban retailers face increasing competition through changing consumer behaviour including online shopping and greenfield shopping centres. This leads to vacant retail areas within cities, as customer footfall is channelled away from the centres.

This trend affects the commercial landscape in Luxembourg. Nevertheless, there is almost no data being collected that could help to provide a deeper understanding of the trend and how it can be counteracted. So, the General Directorate for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises of the Luxembourgish Ministry of Economy, the Chamber of Commerce and the Luxembourg Confederation for Commerce (CLC) initiated the ‘Pakt PRO Commerce’.

The pact will help leverage the economic situation of retailers. A key part of the instrument is the Commercial Observation Register, a new tool to document and categorise businesses across the country. It can be used to analyse the commercial landscape and to inform decision-makers on where there is a large range of retailers and hence centrality as well as potential locations for additional retailers.

Rationale for action

The retailing sector is just one of the many sectors affected by digitalisation as more and more sales volume is generated online. In Luxembourg, between 80% and 90% of the population regularly shops online while only 10% of Luxembourg based shops offer products via the internet. In addition, many greenfield developments for large retailing centres are currently underway, probably decreasing customer footfall in city centres.

These trends threaten the survival of small urban retailers, as their customer base declines. Therefore, more and more retailing space risks being left vacant, which decreases the retail supply and the attractivity of city centers.

Objective

Increasing the understanding of ‘Why?’ and ‘How?’ these processes happen is the main objective of the Commercial Observation Register. This is a nation-wide database of retailers and their characteristics, enabling analysis of the commercial landscape in a city or municipality.

With the aid of data, the Commercial Observation Register can help answer critical questions for developing the urban commercial landscape, such as; ‘What trends shape and form a city’s commercial landscape?’, ‘How does the commercial landscape of a city look?’, ‘Where are the best locations for retailers currently?’ and ‘Where are ideal locations for new retailers?’. The answers assist decision making on urban development.

Time frame

‘Pakt PRO Commerce’, which includes the Commercial Observation Register, was launched in 2016. Collecting information on urban retailers in Luxembourg was completed in February 2019.

Key players

‘Pakt PRO Commerce’ was launched by three partners; the General Directorate for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises of the Ministry of Economy, the Chamber of Commerce and the Luxembourg Confederation of Commerce (CLC). During the test phase, the Commercial Observation Register has been implemented and managed by the latter organisation.

Users of the Commercial Observation Register are municipal or national policy makers looking to make decisions that could impact the retail landscape.

Based on information from the Commercial Observation Register, the location and typology of shops could be mapped to identify the inner city area of the City of Dudelange. Source: CLC, 2018.

Implementation steps and processes

The Commercial Observation Register is a national database regrouping information on the locations and types of retailers. The CLC, in charge of implementation during the pilot phase, started designing the analysis tool in 2016. Since then, information about each retailer in the country has been surveyed, including address, name, type, size of retail space, business model and type of distribution. These results are fed into a central Geographic Information System (GIS) and can be used for further processing and analysis.

For first-hand analysis, the GIS database can provide information on all retailers in a given location at any time. For more in-depth analysis, the GIS database can be complemented with market analysis, i.e. purchasing power, location analysis and turnover forecasts.

Required resources

The first pilot phase of the Commercial Observation Register has been finalised in 2018. It is planned to make the tool accessible to decision-makers during 2021. However, information on required resources are not available. How the different municipalities and policy makers will be able to benefit from the Commercial Observation Register will be determined after first projects will be finalised, using information from the Register.

Results

With the Commercial Observation Register, municipalities and policy makers can access a versatile tool supporting decision-making. It enables appropriate strategic decisions shaping future commercial landscapes in cities and municipalities. The tool enables definitions of commercial centres, decisions on locating new retailers and understanding impacts of trends, such as digitalisation, on the urban retailing environment.

To elaborate additional benefits and applications of the Commercial Observation Register, the instrument will be tested in five cities. This will enable additional conclusions on specialised applications as well as the data and analysis required to react to specific issues, such as shop vacancy, parking and accessibility, trends in the retailing sector and more. Testing the tool will also provide insights as to when the information can be used best to shape local decision making. This helps to create tailor-made and result-oriented applications for the various retail sector players in Luxembourg.

Potential use of the Commercial Observation Register can be illustrated through development of the new district ‘am Duerf’ by the municipality of Dudelange within the city centre. This new district helped to bridge a commercially deserted area between the two main commercial centres. The number of businesses has increased from 167 to 215 (2018) in just three years, increasing the attraction of the city centre. Also, two commercial hotspots which were formerly separated could be transformed by the ‘am Duerf’ development into a single, continuous retail district (see Map).

The pilot of the Commercial Observation Register has been extended in 2019 on the cities of Esch-sur-Alzette, Diekirch, Remich and Bertrange, addressing different challenges to urban retailers throughout the country.

Map of the commercial situation before and after development of the ‘am Duerf’ district. Source: CLC, 2018.

Experiences, success factors, risks

In the future, the Commercial Observation Register will become a powerful tool to assist policy makers in shaping development of the retailing sector. Not only location, but also decisions on retail space needs can be influenced by the tool. However, the Commercial Observation Register relies on an extensive data collection procedure. Only if data is collected regularly in every municipality can there be reliable observations on trends. This might reflect on the operational costs of the tool for its stakeholders.

Conclusions

The Commercial Observation Register is an instrument with a lot of potential applications to shape retailing functions in Luxembourg’s cities and municipalities. It informs policy makers about the retailing landscape, type and development of supply so they can make decisions considering changing consumer behaviour. Even though such an instrument is not new to the set of tools available to urban planners, it is the first of its kind in Luxembourg. More initiatives like the Commercial Observation Register supporting domestic retailers and shop owners, such as the online platform “Letzshop”, have been implemented recently.

Contact

General contact address of the Luxembourg Confederation of Commerce: info@clc.lu

References

Pact PRO Commerce, 2018 (in French and German): https://www.procity.lu/fr/2018/07/16/quelle-valeur-ajoutee-le-nouveau-cadastre-du-commerce-offre-t-il/

Luxembourg Confederation for Commerce, 2018: The new Commercial observation register for Luxembourg. What’s the added-value? (in German): https://www.procity.lu/2018/07/16/das-neue-cadastre-du-commerce-welchen-mehrwert-bietet-es/

Wort, 2020: Le cadastre commercial fait attendre (in French): https://www.wort.lu/fr/luxembourg/le-cadastre-commercial-se-fait-attendre-5e4417feda2cc1784e3560fe