Between polycentricity and hierarchy: Planning local centres in integrated development strategies of suburban municipalities in the Warsaw Functional Area

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.