Urbanisation and Restructuring Procedures Proposed by Cluj-Napoca's General Urban Plan: Observations and Discussion

This study analyses Cluj-Napoca's urban territory, the municipal built-up area to be more precise, which has been set by the General Urban Plan. The article examines the content of urbanisation and restructuring procedures of municipal areas, as they appear in the General Urban Plan of Cluj-Napoca, pending for approval. The territorial indication of such areas within the city, their main spatial characteristics, and the urban organization approach are being presented. The main purpose of this paper, however, is the evaluation of t he content of these necessary, commendable, and beneficial efforts of urban construction and reconstruction. There is also a strong emphasis on aspects regarding the actual application of these procedures which, once the Plan is approved, become local laws. Based on a case study, we established the necessity of the "urbanisation" procedure for the area surrounding Câmpului Street. In order to do so, we used data from cartographic and topographic sources, from the General Urban Plan itself, from legislation and from different scientific references. The obtained results indicate that these procedures, extremely valuable for the future development of the city, must be backed by a clear and coherent legislation at central level, by future actions in order to clarify steps within them, and by a more efficient collaboration between local authorities and citizens. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]