Participants and procedures

It is assumed that the pan-Westfjords regional planning co-operation committee, which was set up in 2008 under national planning and building law number 73/1993, will oversee the creation of the utilisation plan. The co-operation committee is built on the foundation of a resolution made at the 51st Westfjords regional conference in 2006. With this, the administrative approach of the municipalities was set in a certain direction which fits well; as it is necessary to work across local government boundaries. It is proposed that a member of the Icelandic National Planning Agency should take a seat on the committee, just as law dictates they should on regional planning committees. That way the national authorities will have a direct influence on this work. It is nonetheless prudent to reiterate that the project is run at the initiative of local people and it is up to them to make it succeed. The rôle of the co-operation committee is particularly to set out guidelines for jobs and to develop the procedures to be applied. The committee will also discuss and ratify, for its part, the final utilisation plan.

 

Part of the work involved in the project will be developing the appropriate set of methods for planning coastal regions in Iceland. In this regard partnership with residents, other stakeholders, municipalities, specialists, ministries and agencies will be pivotal – as it is one of the cornerstones of sustainable environmental and resource management. By actively participating, these parties all have the opportunity to have a direct effect on the future of the coast of Arnarfjörður. A stakeholder group will be set up to look into the uses of the Arnarfjörður coast and make recommendations for the future utilisation plan. The group will work under a predefined set of procedures which will be decided upon and presented at the beginning of its work, see description below. In support of the project managers there is a group of specialist agents/agencies working in the background, whose rôle is to provide necessary data and specialist knowledge which may prove useful to the project.

 

Once the utilisation plan for Arnarfjörður has been compiled, other areas of the Westfjords will be looked at in the same manner. The planning groups will be made up of stakeholders, residents and representatives of the municipality in question in each case. The job of each group is to make a utilisation plan for their area. It is recommended that three groups be formed, each to work on one area:

• South: Reykhólahreppur, Tálknafjarðarhreppur and Vesturbyggð 
• North: Ísafjarðarbær, Bolungarvíkurkaupstaður and Súðavíkurhreppur 
• East: Árneshreppur, Kaldrananeshreppur, Strandabyggð and Bæjarhreppur.

It is planned to use all tools available in our planning legislation. Among other things, the utilisation plan will be environmentally evaluated in accordance with the law on environmental planning number 105/2006. The plan will also be sent to agencies for consultation, as with other zoning plans. Emphasis will be placed on good information flow whereby data / material will be available in several places, including the Association of Municipalities of the Westfjords‟ website. In addition to this, there will be meetings and conventions for the public where the project will be introduced more fully. A lot of work has already gone into the presentation of the project with open meetings, municipality meetings and meetings with stakeholders.

 

It is assumed that the utilisation plan will be ratified by municipal councils, as is the case with land use zoning plans. Specialist opinions will be sought throughout; both in the compilation of research data and the formation and execution of the planning work itself.

 

The Association of Municipalities of the Westfjords has, in association with Teiknistofan Eik and the University Centre of the Westfjords, been preparing this project over the past year. Teiknistofan Eik and the University Centre of the Westfjords have been specialising themselves in this field and the methodology in use. Support is also identified from the Ísafjörður land use master plan 2008-2020 which was passed in March 2010 and the Bolungarvík land use master plan currently awaiting confirmation by the Minister for the Environment. It should also be pointed out that foreign teachers and students in the University Centre of the Westfjords master‟s programme in Coastal and Marine Management have been working on the preparation of this project. Further co-operation in this field is assumed.

 

Environmental assessment

The environmental assessment is meant to ensure that points-of-view on environmental protection and sustainable development are properly taken into account and that the plan‟s, and the proposed developments‟, effects on the environment are properly assessed as part of the triple bottom line: nature, society and economy. It is proposed that the environmental effects of the utilisation plan be assessed in the same manner as for legal land-based utilisation plans; in other words with a master plan, a local plan and a zone plan, under environmental impact planning law 105/2006. The law states that the master plan programme must assess the master plan‟s expected impact on the natural, social and economic environments. The impacts are individually assessed for each of the possible options the plan may use to reach its goals: are they positive, neutral, negligible or negative for each of the three sectors? Policy and planning guidelines are based on the results of this evaluation. The environmental assessment will be worked on alongside the overall plan.

 

Presentation and dispatch

The project‟s working methods must be open and transparent, because that is the best way of encouraging the public and stakeholders to get involved; and that involvement is itself a premise to achieving good results. A planning group will be set up to discuss the uses of the area in question. The group will comprise representatives of all the main stakeholder groups, as well as representatives of neighbouring municipalities. The group‟s job will be to make recommendations for the area‟s utilisation plan.

 

The Association of Municipalities of the Westfjords will set up a homepage about the project. The page will contain a general introduction to the project, and will also serve as a place for the provision of data and documents to participants. Representatives in the public and stakeholders planning group are expected to consult their contemporaries and associates outside the group and work to represent their best interests.

Introductory meetings will be held as and when required and it will be possible to send comments and queries to the project managers by email or other direct means.

 

Before the utilisation plan is formally endorsed, it will be sent to relevant agencies for consultation and then be advertised in newspapers as an opportunity for public consultation. The councils of neighbouring municipalities (in this case Vesturbyggð, Tálknafjörður and Ísafjarðarbær) will debate the plan and vote on it in a similar manner to other regional plans.