Redeveloping to Achieve, Redeveloping to Avoid: A Case Study in the Şentepe Squatter Neighbourhood of Ankara

Abstract

Transformation of informal housing settlements into legal housing by urban redevelopment has become one of the major tasks of Turkish urban policy in recent decades. However, in some cases, redevelopment has not been implemented despite prepared plans, and in many transformed settlements, challenges such as reduced physical quality, gentrification, or resident dislocation have not been avoided. This study uses an empirical case from the Şentepe Neighbourhood in Ankara, hypothesising that local and central authorities and planning institutions can employ fiscal and non-fiscal policy tools, based on their political and regulatory capacity, to overcome these bottlenecks. Findings show that the problems of disinvestment and low transformation levels were dramatically addressed by a new project launched by the local authority in 2005, nearly twenty years after the first redevelopment plans. The Şentepe Transformation Project also appears to have successfully avoided common negative social outcomes of redevelopment, such as displacement or lack of integration between original and new residents.