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Urbanization as a process could be defined as one of the key components for the smooth society modernization. However, the Lithuanian urbanization pathway has significantly changed during the early independence period. This article is aimed to showcase how the national housing, urban and regional planning policies were implemented during 1987-1997 within the context of the urbanization model development in modern Lithuania. The changes in urban and regional planning and housing policy centralized during the Soviet period and decentralized under market economy and their relation with the development of urbanization ideals are researched in the article by applying the document analysis. It revealed that the responsibilities of institutional agents were based on a decentralization process, the official role of urban dwellers has changed from passive state welfare recipients to active private consumers in the housing sector, and the coordination of privatization and restitution programs has become a challenge to the public administration institutions, in order to search for the best means to reconcile different interests among different urban dweller groups during the transitional period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to review the urban processes which took place in Šiauliai city in 1991-2013, to reveal the characteristic traits and the problems of development of these processes, to note the possible reasons and to provide recommendations to solve these problems. The urban development of Šiauliai city can be divided into three stages, identified by the changes in the planning law, the formation of planning structures and other criteria. The facts gleaned from the researched period are provided in the article and the experience gained by participating directly in the processes is analyzed and evaluated using a comparative method. Analysis and evaluation were executed employing a certain method: the main participants of urban processes were pointed out, the planning and designing task, the devices used in the processes examined, and the professional qualities and works of the participants were analyzed. The consequences of the processes - the positive or negative impact on the quality of the results of the whole urbanistic process as opposed to just the contents of the process were evaluated. The entity of factors which produced quality results of the certain processes and stimulated positive changes were evaluated as positive. The table depicts graphic valuation degrees - neutral, positive and negative. The breaking points noted in the places of change in the valuation degree - positive or negative change. This way, the negative tendencies in the changes of processes are identified in the table. The evident decline in the quality of urban processes was noted. The profit seeking local businesses are winning against the decisions that are important to the public interest. The prevalent feature of these problems is the lack of competence in all the stages and parts of the urban process. The development of the city is influenced mostly by the changes in the policies and means of managing and administrating the urban processes and also by the changing and rather unclear laws concerning urban processes. The problem of local politicians' and public servants' lack of competence could be solved by changing the policies of administrating the urban processes. Therefore, the choosing of the building company according to the lowest price, concentrating on procedures only while ignoring the question of the quality of urban solutions and the removal of architects-urban planners from the process of city planning are the consequences of persistent systematic problems. This could be solved only by acknowledging on a government level the crisis of urbanistic discourse and by changing the development of urban processes in essence, on all levels, starting with education and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the ESPON (The European Spatial Planning Observation Network) assessment, Vilnius, together with Riga and Tallinn, are assigned to the MEGA (Metropolitan European Growth Areas) centres of weak development category. Considering the metropolitan future of the Lithuanian Republic (LR) capital, attention is drawn to some important, but unfulfilled goals (which are relevant to other major cities of the country - Kaunas, Klaipeda, Šiauliai), which together with Vilnius City form the countries urban theme, and also face similar problems. These problems are: (a) a given value to the structural unit at regional level (NUTS 2) for the assessment of EU countries development and the associated LR regional structure proofing (district reform) for faster development importance, taking into account the post-industrial development specifics, scale of depopulation, the significantly growing importance of the port, the scattered suburban sprawl and its unpredictable consequences on others factors; (b) the 2002 LR district planning scheme's (the territory master plan) correction of the urban design part and capital including other cities and metropolitan areas validation according to the MEGA definition. The metropolitan centre and the surrounding metropolitan district are considered as the general EU urban structure unit; (c) the future urban structure model of Vilnius city, which would illustrate and reflect the coordinated capital and the metropolitan area's social, economic and urban development including transport conditions and the most important EU MEGA centres' development strategy; (d) urban ideas, not the 'plot politics' and territorial expansion is based on the modernization of the inner city of Vilnius. The particular examples and recommendations are provided that form the MEGA structures of the cities of Riga, Stockholm and Warsaw. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supplements and amendments to the Law on Territory Planning of the Republic of Lithuania of 2004 and 2005 with regard to the adequacy of declared goals, conceptions and provisions relating to cultural and structural approach to urban development is analyzed. The shortcomings of the Law are revealed concerning its structure and planning methodology that have an influence on the quality of urban formation in the country, including the coception, fixed in the Law, of urban goals in the urban comprehensive and detailed planning with regard to both land-use and country management. The conception is analogous to that approved in planning of regional and rural territories. Possibilities for the Law improvement are defined, when the presented terminology and methodology will be revised in order to determine goals for territory planning and urban design by including necessary planning norms into the Law amendments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]