The two-day National Summer School on “Spatial Planning as a Territory Development Tool” started in Odesa on 21 June. The event is organised by the Odesa Local Government Development Centre, established with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme and MinRegion.

The All-Ukrainian event, which involves more than 150 representatives from 20 oblasts (including the Odesa one), is devoted to the issues of territory development and urban planning, land issues and strategic planning, etc.

The participants of the school, held on 21-22 June, include land managers, architects, heads of AHs, and independent experts. On the first day, 21 June, they work in the format of panel discussions and master classes. On 22 June, the participants will make four study visits: to the Avanhardivska and Bilyayevska AHs, as well as the cities of Yuzhne and Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, where they will get acquainted with the achievements of local self-government in the field of urban planning, spatial planning, territory management and urban planning cadastre creation.

Yuliya Molodozhen, Director of the Odesa Local Government Development Centre, Serhiy Khrustovskyi, Head of the Odesa Regional Branch of the All-Ukrainian Association of Village and Settlement Councils, Avanhard settlement head, and Nadiya Belenko, Head of the Department of Urban Development and Architecture of the Odesa Oblast State Administration, took part in the opening of the school.

“Today, in the process of decentralisation, development planning, forecasting and rational use of land are important for AHs. Therefore, we, as the Odesa LGDC, decided to hold such an event for the architects and land managers of amalgamated hromadas from all over Ukraine, as well as for the chief architects of the rayons. During panel discussions, the school participants discussed the issues of land transfer to AHs (for example, more than 10 hromadas of the Odesa Oblast have already received land outside settlements), cooperation with the StateGeoCadastre, spatial planning, etc.,” said Yuliya Molodozhen, Director of the Odesa LGDC.

The National Summer School on Spatial Planning is being held for the first time on the initiative of the Odesa Local Government Development Centre.