Planejamento urbano e atividades econômicas: balanço das experiências na cidade de São Paulo

Abstract

This thesis aims to investigate the role of urban planning tools in promoting economic activities in the city of São Paulo. Based on a review of urban plans and state and municipal zoning laws proposed for the city from the mid-twentieth century to the present, as well as on a research on the territoriality of commercial, service and industrial use in the urban space, we identified four types of strategies undertaken by the State, through urban planning tools, to guide the location of economic activities in the city. First, restricting economic uses to preserve other urban functions, such as high income residential use and environmentally sensitive areas; second, guaranteeing land reserves, through zoning, in order to maintain or attract manufacturing plants; third, defining strategic public investments, whether in infrastructure or specific projects, in master plans; and, fourth, using fiscal and urban incentives to draw new commercial, services, and manufacturing firms to areas with fewer employment opportunities. The thesis presents a comprehensive and critical assessment of strategies chosen (or, sometimes, only proposed), supported by specific case studies, and reflects on the context and constraints of creating and applying these tools and their actual (or potential) impact on the location of economic activities. Thus, we seek to contribute to the debate on the history, scope and limits of urban planning tools in São Paulo.

Critical Analysis of the Development Pole Strategy Extension to São Paulo's City North Zone

“…On the other hand, we acknowledge that a significant part of the works in this field highlights regional and urban economy or territorial planning, and few of them pay attention to the relationships between them and, more specifically, to the possibilities and limits of promoting territorial and urban development through the use of tax and urban planning instruments on a local scale. Two noteworthy exception are the works of Natasha Mincoff Menegon (2008), which discusses the possibilities of public intervention in areas of urban transformation, characterized by industrial tradition, and Giselle Kristina Mendonça Abreu (2017), that focus on the connections among urban and city planning and instruments of manufacturing promotion.…”