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The Shibuya Station Environs Development Guide Plan 21, launched by the Shibuya Ward authorities in July 2001 to explore ideas for the future development of the area around Shibuya Station, deserves credit for actively encouraging community involvement in the planning stages of development right from the start via a series of initiatives including symposiums and public meetings, in keeping with the current high level of public interest in urban development issues.
It must also be said however that discussion in these forums has been forced into too narrow a framework, in two ways. The first concerns the future configuration of basic transport amenities, a prerequisite for any discussion on Shibuya Station. That is, looking at the ideas examined to date by the committee set up by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of City Planning to study the transport infrastructure of Shibuya Station and its environs, while the building of subway line No. 13 and its direct interconnectivity with the Toyoko Line have been made conditions of any plan, the proposal to make Meiji Dori an underpass has not been explained to residents, due to its status as a long term development concept. Likewise, the idea of converting Route 246 to an overpass currently under scrutiny by a committee set up by the Kanto bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to examine the use of road space in the Shibuya area was placed virtually out of the bounds of discussion. The second way in which discussion has been restricted involves the planning technique employed in the draft reorganization of the core district of Shibuya (Shibuya Station, station precincts, surrounding area) submitted by the ward. This turned out to be no more than a repeat of the station front redevelopment plans of the high growth years of the '60s and '70s, and the "bubble" era of the '80s and early '90s, i.e. featuring a massive station building, public transport plaza, and pedestrian decks and underground shopping areas.
So having consulted with a variety of people including residents attending the public meetings, we decided to present here a number of concepts for the reorganization of this core area, and how each would relate to the Shibuya district. The idea above all is to do away with the overly narrow framework for discussion mentioned here, and inject some creativity and vigor into discussions concerning our Shibuya, and our Shibuya Station, and their proposed future. |
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