Case Studies   Vilnius Old Town: Užupis – Paupys Area Case study

3.3. Vilnius Old Town Renewal and Community Capacity Building Programs

Regular upgrade of Užupis area was started in 1998 when Vilnius Old Town Renewal Programme was worked out by OTRA and approved by City Council. There were app. 9,8 Million Litas (USD 3,2 M) invested by the Municipality to renewal of the streets and lightening, exteriors of buildings, improvement of public spaces and pedestrian paths in 1998 – 2002. Municipal investments planned for the year 2003 through the VOTRP will little exceed 4 Million Litas. It is counted that nearly four times more was invested by private sector mainly to the renovation of interiors of houses. These public investments radically (if compare to previous economic climate in the area) stimulated growth of prices of real estate in the area as well as arrival of small businesses: shops, galleries, coffee bars and restaurants. The area became a famous destination point for both local and international tourists since 2001.

Vilnius Old Town Renewal Program (VOTRP) in 1998 – 1999 was aimed to upgrade and renew main streets, squares and facades of the buildings in the historic core of the city. First of all two bridges connecting Užupis with the Old Town and Vilnia riverbank were restored and renewed. Parallelly number of facades of buildings were renovated following the VOTRP approved by Vilnius City Board. Starting from the year 2000 the VOTRP was revealed by a new part of the Program – “Community Capacity Building” (CCB) created to financially stimulate and support initiatives of the Old Town residents seeking to repair / restore exteriors and improve environment of their buildings. Main priorities for getting financial support for renovation of the buildings according to the CCB were following:

Financing
Financing is the weakest part of the VOTR project. Current economic and financial planning are of those experiences and general principles, which were inherited from the former Soviet political system. The annual budget of the program simply depends on political conjuncture. Immediately after the political conflicts appeared between parties who had an honour approve VOTRS and those who are leading political party currently having majority at the national government, the VOTRP financing was significantly diminished. In another hand planning and use of the allocated money in the municipal department of economics mostly depends on political relationships at the municipal level. Political and strategic planning priorities still changes almost as often as political powers’ balance.

Then, finally, direct use of the state or municipal money remains not transparent and therefore with great losses and lesser effectiveness. Hence, in this sphere, again, still some time is needed to achieve a proper level and quality of public money management. Finances allocated from the municipal budget for VOTR Program implementation in 1998-2002 were used basically for the only purpose - upgrade of the physical environment. Less than 8% of the budget 2003 were allotted for the CCB part of the VOTRP, according to which direct co-financing of renovation projects is planned to be implemented. There was no Litas allotted for the public awareness rising/ consulting activities of the OTRA information centre, which succeed to secure funding through various international funds and programs.

Courtyard in Užupis

The CCB program was met with an interest from the resident. However, it became clear that only the very few of them are financially capable to invest in renovation of exteriors of their properties. Being inhabited mainly by architects, artists and other mid/lower social class residents Užupis-Paupys today remains the area of limited financial potentiality. Therefore according the VOTRP 2000 – 2002 approved by the city Board, it is planned to continue upgrade of main streets and engineer infrastructure, two squares and banks of Vilnia River. Developing the CCB program it was envisaged to allocate limited financial resources to finance repair exteriors of buildings in a critical sate. This work would further ensure growth of quality living environment of the area and would attract relevant private investments. Cooperation with residents and private sector of Užupis-Paupys remains a major task given by the Municipality to OTRA. In the years 2001 and 2002 OTRA experienced to conclude agreements with Homeowners associations (HOA) of two major residential houses and successfully accomplish their exterior repair. Those were effective and fruitful public – private co-operation cases, which resulted with many folder positive consequences:

1. HOA have an opportunity to discuss priorities, extent, budget and work methods of the repair works;

2. owners have an opportunity to observe and comment quality of works;

3. sense of responsibility for proper maintenance and supervision of the property was raised and transferred to each of the apartment owner/ property shareholder. This impact is evaluated as the fundamental one changing communities perception towards responsibilities and respect of shared private property.

Although residents of other parts of Vilnius Old Town are more active and financially capable to take part in the CCB program, OTRA continues to discuss new ways and methods of co-operated renovation of buildings with Užupis and Paupys communities and plan to further stimulate their initiatives by means of technical advise, discussion, financial support. It is obvious, that the CCB Program is a long term process and although Užupis community is the most vital and socially active in the Old Town, more substantial results of the CCB program will appear later together with growth of welfare and mentality change of the community. Basic goals of the VOTRP 1999 - 2002 are started partly to be achieved:

1. private investments compared to the public ones are nearly four times higher (goal - to attract private investors)

2. image of the revived city, growing tourism industry and number of visitors (- to make better image of the city/ country)

3. public participation through the CCB part of the VOTR Program is gradually growing (to rise public involvement)

Indeed, the success criteria can not be interpreted one way only and only according to the currently sufficient criteria. Compare to the ENTRUST partner cities efforts and the results achieved in developing PPP and neighbourhood partnerships, we recognise comparatively low or just initial level of our advance, what opens very wide prospective for further growth and fulfilling need of much more sophisticated means. At least we recognise that the success achieved in Vilnius through the CCB program should be further perfected by the growing number of instruments, quality of management and extensiveness of implementation of VOTRP.

In the context of the ENTRUST project Vilnius is among the partner cities having a very initial experience in PPP and facilitation of the relevant transsectorial partnership intercourse. It is necessary to note at this end that Vilnius is the only city representing in the ENTRUST the EU pre-access country of the transitional politics and economy. Hence, CCB program according to Vilnius team opinion should be regarded as a kind of presumption in stimulating and developing PP partnerships. In a course of the last two years of implementation of CCB programme through facilitation of direct financial co-operation some practice of negotiating and defining common interests between public and private sectors the has achieved following move ahead:

1. number of residents interested and approaching the CCB program is growing accordingly with maturity of free market economy;

2. according to the priorities of the CCB mainly residents are target group for support seeking to sustain number of them in the Old Town; though there are negotiations with the small business units started, seeking to channel their investments towards properly qualitative and professional conservation and upgrade of the properties and their environment as well as to make these investments community/ neighbourhood friendly;

3. it is expected to augment CCB programme through co-financed regeneration of public spaces, squares, pedestrian and bicycle paths by co-ordinating interests and investments public and private ones.

OTRA continues to organise regular meetings with residents, representatives of homeowners associations and local communities explaining principles and priorities of the financial support and discussing its prospective with various property shareholders. The basic objective of the CCB program is to make residents aware about wider opportunities of PPP and to engage them in the Old Town renewal process. It is expected that residents should become dominant vehicle of the process of the Old Town historic properties preservation and regeneration, which is currently stimulated by OTRA.

3.2. Studies on regeneration    3.4. Interviews with local residents and stakeholders