Między policentrycznością a hierarchią: planowanie lokalnych centrów w zintegrowanych strategiach rozwoju gmin suburbialnych Warszawskiego Obszaru Funkcjonalnego
Between polycentricity and hierarchy: Planning local centres in integrated development strategies of suburban municipalities in the Warsaw Functional Area

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is to determine whether and to what extent the concept of polycentricity – understood as a means of achieving a more balanced spatial structure in chaotically urbanised suburban municipalities – is being implemented through new tools of integrated development planning. A study of municipalities within the Warsaw Functional Area reveals a growing emphasis in their development policies on the creation of local centres and spaces for social integration. However, this trend does not necessarily equate to the development of a truly polycentric structure. In the context of implementing the polycentricity concept, the regional (voivodeship) scale appears to be the most appropriate, as it is only at this level that a meaningful decentralisation of functions and strengthening of inter-centre complementarity can occur; to a lesser extent, this also applies to the supra-local scale. At the level of individual municipalities, due to the limited population potential and insufficient multifunctionality of local centres, a hierarchical system of local centres – dominated by social functions and with marginal economic components, particularly at lower levels of the hierarchy – proves to be more viable. In the suburban municipalities of the Warsaw Functional Area, new tools of integrated development planning, such as the functional – spatial structure model and municipal strategic intervention areas, are being used to support local centres, but only to a limited extent. This is mainly because structuring space around a system of local centres is not treated as a priority in the process of municipal development strategy formation, and instead serves a secondary, supportive role to other policy objectives.

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