DELAYS IN URBAN PLANNING TOOLS IN THE GROWTH DYNAMICS OF MEDIUM-SIZED CHILEAN CITIES

Abstract

Urban planning seems to be behind the rapid urbanization processes, especially in recent years, considering the strong impacts of the pandemic and the economic slowdown on the location and migration patterns of the population. The current Territorial Planning Instruments (IPT) that operate in the urban space, particularly the Municipal Regulatory Plans (PRC), of a binding nature, have not been able to guide, direct, or confront, at any of the urban scales - neither metropolitan nor of mid-sized or small cities -, the urban development process nor its negative effects. Based on a review of IPT files, specifically of regulatory plans approved in Chilean cities, and a critical reading of market and socio-spatial dynamics, we analyze the impact of these plans and some complementary instruments on the current growth dynamics and projections of Chilean cities, with special emphasis on mediumsized cities. Despite the existence of strategic instruments of great potential, such as the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), the results allow us to foresee a rapid process of global urbanization and the consolidation of a larger phenomenon that could be called the Urban Anthropocene, in which medium-sized cities will play a very relevant role.