Assessing the regional governance capacities of spatial planning: the case of the canton of Zurich

Many countries use spatial planning instruments to coordinate interests in land use and influence land-use change. In Switzerland, the cantonal structure plan (kantonale Richtplan) serves as the main spatial planning instrument at the cantonal level. Coordinating land-use interests and influencing land-use change requires ‘regional governance capacities’. This paper presents an analytical concept of regional governance capacities in spatial planning using the policy arrangement approach and drawing from the spatial planning implementation and evaluation literature. The canton of Zurich, with its embedded cases on the regional and local levels, serves as the case study for testing the analytical concept. Empirical evidence from qualitative interviews, observations and document analyses reveals a coexistence of various regional governance capacities within the canton of Zurich. Whereas regional governance capacities regarding the promotion of inner development in urban areas emerge as high, the results unveil mixed regional governance capacities when it comes to coordinating transport and land-use planning. To make judgements about regional governance capacities in spatial planning, it is essential to observe various spatial challenges, spatial scales and local examples.