Action Plan for Paramaribo, Suriname

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1. INTRODUCTION To tackle housing deprivation challenges on the short term the Action Plan proposes a public incentive to encourage home-owners to renew their houses instead of leaving their property for a new house on a remote allotment. Especially the lower middle income and higher middle income households are the ones moving outside the city. Figures not only show a rural – urban drift but also indicate a suburbanisation process. More and more households are moving towards the fringes as land is cheap and spacious plots can be purchased for prices that are way below prices within the city. Furthermore is the contracting market of Suriname rather oriented towards the construction of new houses than renewal. Most renewal activities are done by home-owners themselves. Often they lack of technical and architectural knowledge to achieve qualitative and attractive renewal or expansion projects. So although there is a great renewal potential within the urban city of Paramaribo, only few initiatives focus on the urban renewal. There are two renewal initiatives that are both successful: LISP and building subsidies. Unfortunately these initiatives were only accessible for a specific lower income group within society. Hence, an urban renewal project that supports middle income groups financially and technically to renew the houses of home-owners but also to support landlords to improve their rental estates. A technical study is required to develop a urban renewal project within PMNA and the suburban perimeter. The study has two working levels: the city level and the neighbourhood level. On the broad level, the preconditions for an urban renewal grant has to be worked out on a technical, financial, institutional and practical level. On the neighbourhood level, the grant can be used to stimulate integrated neighbourhood redevelopment, using neighbourhood contracts. The technical study concerning the housing issues in Paramaribo, links to the Baseline Study regarding "Land use planning, shaping the compact city". The Action Plan focuses on the densification of the compact city as well as on the reprogramming of the sub-urban perimeter. Research has shown that housing, together with the retail and infrastructural developments, are drivers for urban sprawl in Paramaribo (Heirman, 2019). Where retailers mainly cause ribbon


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