Karampour, Katayoun; (2018) Municipal funding mechanism and development process: a case study of Tehran. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

In the late 1980s, Tehran municipality became financially independent from central government. As a result, the municipality utilised innovative tools to finance the city, such as granting excess construction density to developers, which enabled them to construct taller buildings in exchange for a fee. This financing tool has generated a significant amount of money for the municipality and boosted the housing construction sector but it was the first step towards relaxing planning regulations and giving power to developers to pursue their agendas. The aim of this research is to investigate the impacts of municipal fiscal decentralisation on the development process and planning system of Tehran. The general orientation of this research is qualitative strategy. Primary data was collected by conducting 47 semi-structured interviews with housing developers and planners within both the public and private sectors in Tehran. In order to understand the interest and strategies of housing developers, interviews were conducted with developers working as individual developers or as construction companies. To collect data on various aspects of planning and financing the city, interviews were carried out with key informants who are, or used to be, members or officers of relevant departments in the government or other institutions. By careful analysis of the collected data on the behind the scenes of development and planning process in Tehran, this study argues that the financial dependence of Tehran Municipality on incomes generated from construction density charges, payable by housing construction developers, has resulted in the occurrence of a certain type of market-led growth in specific areas of the city. Although attempts have been made to harness this market-led growth by introducing a new plan for the city this has led to massive alterations and interventions intended to secure the benefit of developers and the municipality’s income. Without providing an alternative source of income for the Tehran Municipality it is unlikely to have much success in planning for Tehran.

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