2025 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"

The experience conducted with the Participatory Tables of the Strategic Territorial Plan (STP) 2030 consisted of presenting the TERRITORIAL MODEL developed by the STP office to the neighbors for discussion. In a second round, the model was further explored with elements from the Territorial Order Code (TOC). It is important to note that this was a participatory stage before the approval of the ordinance.

Both its virtual and in-person modalities were successful in citizen participation and an extraordinary contribution to the development of the Codes, Programs, and Projects of the STP.

The need for a new STP was raised, whose main axes and organizers are:

• Guarantee the protection of the NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
• Regulate URBAN GROWTH
• Strengthen and consolidate AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION
• Promote urban SOCIAL INTEGRATION and the right to the city
• Develop ROAD AND TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE
• Sustain the process of establishing INDUSTRIES AND PRODUCTIVE VENTURES
• Transformation of the ENERGY, SANITARY, AND WASTE MANAGEMENT MATRIX
• Strengthen MUNICIPAL CAPACITY FOR TERRITORIAL PLANNING MANAGEMENT

From this experience, we can summarize some of the concerns raised by neighbors, which were addressed in the proposed urban regulations by the STP office:

• Environmental Issues: A cross-cutting theme across all tables, the need to protect the Islands and Wetlands, halt the advance of urbanization, preserve rural areas, public and private greenery, preserve streams, and maintain their banks, create new environmental reserves and protect existing ones.
• Urban Issues: Lack of services in subdivisions far from central areas, connection between Route 25 and Route 26, sanitary infrastructure works, traffic conflicts, new open subdivisions that deny the surrounding urban fabric and create a parceling system that generates multiple issues.
• Land Use: Industrial zoning to create job sources, preserve the exclusivity of residential use by prohibiting other uses in certain areas, preserve rural areas for horticultural production in small farms and greenhouses.
• Right to the City: Availability of urbanized plots for low-income sectors, socio-urban integration of popular neighborhoods.

For more information: https://www.escobar.gob.ar/plan-estrategico-territorial/ (External link)

• Plan Estratégico Territorial (PDF) (External link)
• video (External link)