The city council’s ambition is to preserve, restore and better highlight the rich history that is visible thanks to its valuable heritage. OMGEVING drew up a policy framework ‘quality of life plan’ for Veurne city centre to support the city council in the first important step towards achieving this.
The document includes the vision, the lines of force and the principles by which Veurne will combine the preservation of its identity with new dynamics and contemporary ambitions. The balance between conservation and development is pursued by focusing on area-oriented and qualitative core reinforcement. The quality of life plan indicates how Veurne will deal with contemporary issues such as ‘core reinforcement’, ‘climate adaptation’, ‘liveability’, ‘preservation of open space’, ‘proximity and interwovenness’, etc. in the coming years. The document sets out the lines and formulates the ambitions but keeps the necessary flexibility to respond to future trends and evolutions.
The quality of life plan starts with an analysis of the existing spatial and policy situation. This is followed by an appreciation of the existing situation in which the DNA of Veurne centre is determined and indicated on a map. In parallel, the coherent wholes are delineated. These are city districts with similar historical history and/or morphological characteristics. The vision shows how a core-strengthening policy can take shape in the city, in which a balance between renewal and preservation is crucial. Various elaborations make the vision applicable by showing rules of play, design principles and development possibilities. Finally, a number of strategic locations receive an additional in-depth design study.
