Scientific Website on Urban Improvement Districts
Urban Improvement Districts:
Business, Housing and Neighbourhood Improvement Districts
This is a website of the HafenCity University Hamburg (Department of Urban Planning) on Urban Improvement Districts (BID, HID, NID) for scientific use.
The website is online since June 2007. 390 links to projects, statutories and publications in Germany and worldwide are available at the moment and the number is steadily growing.
2.200 visitors per month and almost 4.000 page impressions per month on average demonstrate the large and growing interest in our website and the issue of Urban Improvement Districts, especially in Germany.
The initially North-American model of Urban Improvement Districts is a fairly new instrument for urban development in Europe and Germany. Today you will find BID-legislation and projects only in the UK, the Republic of Ireland and six of the 16 German states (Bundeslander): Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, North Rhine Westphalia, Saarland, Schleswig-Holstein.
The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, one of the 16 German states, was first to introduce a BID-legislation in Germany in 2005.
And since December 2007 Hamburg has the first legislation for Housing or Neighbourhood Improvement Districts (HID or NID), too. They are called "Innovation Neighbourhoods" in Hamburg. This is the first transfer of the legislative BID-model to residential neighbourhoods in Europe.
A presentation in English with more information on the experience with Business and Housing/Neighbourhood Improvement Districts in Hamburg is available here.
An updated presentation on the Urban Improvement District Model in Hamburg and the pilot project for a NID in Steilshoop from May 2009 is available here.
A presentation on the German experience with Urban Improvement Districts from a BID Conference in Stockholm in October 2009 is available here.
A presentation on joint proprietor activities and Private Initiatives in Urban Development from informal to legalised models from April 2010 is available here.
An overview over BID developments in Germany is available in a publication of the German Federation of Chambers DIHK.
The publication is available here.
An article on the planned BID Nikolaiquartier in the City Centre of Hamburg is available here.
A first scientific publication in English on this issue from Stefan Kreutz / HCU (The Model of NID in Hamburg - New strategies for private sector involvement in area development) is available for a download here.
The Article "Neighbourhood Improvement Districts in Germany - A new Form of Urban Governance for the Improvement of Residential Areas" from Frank Friesecke and Silja Lockemann can be found here.
The Article Urban Improvement Districts in Germany: New legal instruments for joint proprietor activities in area development from Stefan Kreutz in the Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal Volume 2, Issue 4 (April 2009) is not available for a download.
Our research at HCU on the practical experience with Urban Improvement Districts in Hamburg and Germany is part of the transnational project
Making Places Profitable - Public and Private Open Spaces (MP4),
funded by the European Union via Interreg IVB Northsearegion (NSR).
A case study report from the MP4 project on the Hamburg BID experience is avaiable for download here.
Overview over the structure of the website
For many links in English on the international experience with the BID-model in many countries worldwide (projects, publications and statutories) please click here and use the pull-down menu for further navigation.
You will find several scientific publications in English on different relevant issues of the BID-concept, too.
German Information about BID models and projects in Germany is available here.
Publications about and discussion on the new model of Housing or Neighbourhood Improvement Districts and the first pilot-project for a HID in the estate of Steilshoop in Hamburg can be found here.
All publications and presentations on Urban Improvement Districts from our research team at the HarbourCity University are available here.
We would be happy to receive any comments on our website and helpful hints to further available online information regarding Urban Improvement Districts.
If you are interested in further information about our research and the situation in Germany, please get in touch with us via e-mail.