Strategic Planning in the Framework of Metropolitan Areas in Romania: Going beyond the Requirements of the Law and Transforming it into an Effective Planning Tool

This paper strives to discuss the role played by the newly created metropolitan areas around the seven growth poles from the perspective of the cooperation between the urban centers on the one hand and the neighboring rural communities on the other. It looks at the governance mechanisms in place at the level of the metropolitan areas and tries to assess if the cities and the neighboring communities are equal partners in these cooperation schemes. The paper also looks at one of the most important functions of these metropolitan areas - strategic planning in the form of drafting the integrated plans for urban development (IPUDs). We look at this function also from the perspective of the relations between the cities and their hinterlands. The paper has the following structure: section two briefly examines the concept of growth poles and their creation in Romania; section three looks at strategic planning as a tool for the implementation of the growth pole policy; section four presents the methodology of the study; section five details the main findings of the research, while section six briefly presents the recommendations and the conclusions. The empirical research for the study consisted in interviews with public servants working for the communities that are part of the metropolitan areas formed around the growth poles. As for the conclusions, the authors wish to emphasize that metropolitan areas should be understood in the broader context of the territorial reform.