New Planning Tools in Rural Areas: Village Design Framework, Village Design Guide and Action Projects

The importance of rural planning in Turkey for the politicians and planners has increased considerably since the announcement of the Metropolitan Law in 2012. According to this law, the borders and authorities of local governments have been enlarged including districts and villages. Local governments have become responsible to bring all urban services and conduct planning activites in all the places within its borders. Local governments in Turkey whose lack of experience on rural planning are unquestinable have embraced Village Design Guides as a sole planning tool to manage the planning issues in rural areas. However Village Design Guides can not be enough to manage the development of the rural areas unless it is relationally developed with the other planning tools. This article aims to contribute to rural plannning literature and practice in Turkey as it introduces new planning tools in rural planning by focusing on the Erdek Yukariyapici Village Design Guide Project. The first part of the article introduces new discussions within rural planning literature, different rural planning tools and experiences in other countries In the light of the discussions in the first part, the design principles, approach, methodology and the content of the project, have been defined for the Erdek Yukariyapici village in the second part. Socio-spatial analysis of the village takes place in the second part too. Following part is about proposed planning tools which are called Village Design Framework, Village Design Guide and Action Projects respectively In this part the content of these tools are explained in detail. The last part a discussion takes place on the potentials of the proposed planning tools for further rural planning practices in Turkey.