FALTAS PERSONALES

Urban renewal proposals in Barbaros-Bey neighborhood has active since April 2013. The Seyhan district municipality is in charge of urban renewal implementation and the renewal agenda is based on Renewal Act I. Based on the preliminary plans for urban renewal, declarations of government officials, planning documents and master plan, the urban renewal in the area consists of demolition of the existing buildings, redesigning the physical layout of the neighborhood and increasing the physical and population density in the area by development of new buildings. According to the zoning codes, the proposed redevelopment in the area consists of residential use only.

5.2.1 Neighborhood Context

Barbaros and Bey are two neighborhoods adjacent to each other located at the southern fringe of the Adana city center. The southern boundaries of the Barbaros and Bey neighborhoods are surrounded by agricultural land. The first settlement in the area was started by former seasonal agricultural workers. Agricultural workers employed in the farmlands of south Adana used to go back to their villages once they were unemployed at the end of the season. In the 1960s and 1970s, these temporary workers started settling down near their seasonal agricultural jobs rather than going back to their villages. These villagers started the earlier settlements on cheap agricultural land at the fringes of the city. These settlements started without construction permits, title deeds and ignored the zoning regulations. Most of the residents were immigrants from southeast Turkey.⁴² People started forming settlements based on those in their hometowns and ethnic identities. This is the background of how these isolated, disintegrated and substandard neighborhoods of the southern Adana started in the first place.

Figure 5.2. View from a street in designated renewal area in Barbaros neighborhood (above) and a house in Bey Neighborhood (below)

The built environment in the whole neighborhood, including the designated renewal area is of very low quality. There are no high-rises in the neighborhood; the majority of the buildings have one- two stories and very few buildings have three or four stories. The built environment in the neighborhood is predominantly former squatter settlements. These structures were initially single story units and over the years, residents have built additional floors to meet their needs as their families grew larger through marriages and family expansions. Some of the street-levels have been converted to commercial units, mainly small shops and groceries. There are a lot of incomplete buildings, left in bricks with no coating. According to the elected neighborhood representative (mukhtar), the problem of this area is not only the substandard buildings but also the poor infrastructure. Streets are too narrow; pavements are inadequate and the sewage system is not well-functioning. In case of an emergency, the streets are too narrow for an ambulance or

Barbaros-Bey Neighborhoods are located in the most ethnically diverse parts of the city of Adana. Barbaros is home to the highest concentration of Kurdish population in the whole city (Keser 2008, p.202). And the neighborhood to the north of this area is home to the city’s Arab population. Two migratory waves⁴³ shaped the diverse population composition. There are existing residents who have lived in the area over 40 years and there are some others who have been living in the neighborhood for two decades. The ethnic minorities and the areas they live are often associated with organized crime and drug trafficking⁴⁴ in the city (Gunaydin 2014).

District municipality officials suggest that the narrow streets with no proper street lighting provide a suitable physical environment for criminal activities. The underinvested physical environment combined with marginalized and deprived community with no proper access to social services produces a strong stigma on the neighborhood. Municipal officials are voicing a common sentiment that Barbaros-Bey Neighborhoods are areas of crime, blight and decay (Interviews 2014).

5.2.2 Designated Renewal Area

Figure 5.3 shows the boundaries of the designated renewal area in the Barbaros and Bey neighborhoods. The majority of the renewal area is a part of Barbaros neighborhood and only a small part of the renewal area is a part of Bey Neighborhood. These satellite views are from 2006 and 2014, covering the period of the urban renewal program starting from the enactment of the Renewal Act I in 2005 up until the two years after the enactment of Renewal Act II. A rough comparison of these images suggests that there has been little change in the area during this period. The density in southern parts of the designated renewal area has increased and the agricultural plot in the middle of the area basically became a vacant plot and lost its agricultural function. In the close vicinity of the neighborhood, land-uses have changed. But these are not radical changes.

43 In 1960s rural-to-urban migration and settlement of the agricultural workers and in 1990s forced migration due to the armed conflict in the Southeast Turkey.

Figure 5.3. Designated “urban renewal area” in Barbaros and Bey Neighborhoods and its change over the eight years. (October 2006 and June 2014) (Source: Google Earth)

A significant part of the Barbaros and Bey neighborhoods is outside the designated renewal area as seen in Figure 5.3. In terms of physical characteristics, there is no observable difference between the area designated as a renewal site and the area that is outside the designated renewal area. In terms of the built environment, social and physical composition in the neighborhood, there is no visible change as one crosses the street to leave the designated urban renewal area. Thus, it is hard to tell where the renewal area starts and where it ends without tracking the boundaries from a map. However, there are some intangible differences across the renewal area and the area that is outside the renewal zone. In the last six years, the northern edge has appreciated in market value significantly faster compared to the rest of the renewal area (Seyhan District Municipality 2015).

There is a severe discrepancy between the municipality’s formal plans and the actual built environment in Barbaros-Bey neighborhoods designated renewal area. In particular, the northern section of the renewal area in Barbaros Neighborhood contradicts with the blocks, streets and zoning codes depicted in the city plan. Figure 5.4 is a section from the Seyhan District’s master plan for the northern blocks of the renewal area. The yellow shaded regions represent the residential area according to the master plan overlaying the satellite view from the area. The current layout of the streets, blocks and buildings is completely different from the master plan. This discrepancy between the actual layout and master plan is apparent in the southern sections of the renewal area.

Figure 5.4. North parcels of designated renewal area in Barbaros Neighborhood taken from the Seyhan District’s master plan (Source: Seyhan District Municipality Master Plan)

5.2.3 Urban Renewal Actors

The Council of Ministers announced the renewal area in Barbaros and Bey Neighborhoods in April 2013. This decision is approved based on the Renewal Act I; recall, that according to this act, conducting urban renewal is a part of local government’s responsibility. Thus, upon this announcement, the central government authorized the District Municipality to implement urban

renewal program in Barbaros and Bey Neighborhood.⁴⁵ During former leadership⁴⁶, the district municipality contracted with a state-owned enterprise, GEDAS to proceed with urban renewal project in the designated area. GEDAS came up with a preliminary project for the area and this was also shared with the public. This project lays out the proposed urban design, density, building heights, and number of units to be produced through the renewal. It does not show which units are offered to the property owners in the area, how many units will be offered to market or at what rate. In other words, the preliminary plan shows how the district municipality envisions the neighborhood in the aftermath of the renewal.

Figure 5.5 Proposed renewal project for Barbaros-Bey neighborhoods at preliminary planning stage by Seyhan District Municipality in partnership with GEDAS (Source: Seyhan District Municipality).

The proposed renewal for the Barbaros-Bey neighborhood area has not made any progress beyond these preliminary plans.⁴⁷ This is partly because of the change in the local government leadership after the municipal elections in March 2014. For the previous leadership, urban renewal in Barbaros-Bey neighborhood was a campaign promise they used for the

45 According to the Renewal Act I, authorization of the district municipalities needs approval of the Metropolitan Municipality. In the case of Adana, Metropolitan Municipality supports district municipality’s urban renewal agendas.

46 In March 2014, municipal leadership changed as a result of the local elections.

47 In March 2016, the Seyhan District Municipality has announced an updated project for the Barbaros-Bey neighborhoods. The architectural project is almost the same as the previous leadership’s project. Plans are approved by the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning, meaning that to physically start the project, the next stage is to negotiate with the property owners in the area. This recent development suggests that the urban renewal project of the previous leadership is pursued by the new leadership in the municipal government, with the support of the central government bodies. TOKI will develop the project, meaning that the local construction business will not be involved with the project delivery. In the press meeting, the Seyhan mayor introduced the renewal project for Barbaros-Bey area as a part of the effort to fight the youth substance abuse and terrorism.

Framing urban renewal projects as a part of fight against terrorism is new in the development policy discourse of the government. It is interesting to see that there is a conceptual link emerging between the support for urban renewal projects and prioritization of neighborhoods that are somehow associated with anti-government terrorist

municipal elections. The new leadership in the mayor’s office does not disown or oppose the proposed renewal project in the area, but the changes in the leadership disrupted the implementation process. Figure 5.5 are actually from the former municipal government and GEDAS’s proposed renewal project.

The Seyhan district municipality’s current leadership prioritizes renewal in Barbaros-Bey Neighborhoods over the other designated renewal areas. Municipal officials publicly announce the municipality’s efforts in starting urban renewal physically in the short run. The Deputy Mayor of Seyhan, who is also responsible of urban renewal program in the district, asserts that these neighborhoods are the most deprived areas in the whole city and because they are very central, redevelopment is urgent in this designated renewal area (Interview with Aydin).

However, the municipal officials are concerned with the ownership structure in these neighborhoods. Land ownership in the area is very fragmented because of the conditions under which the settlement in the neighborhood started in the first place. Many residents own very small plots, on which they gradually built their own units. The majority of the buildings are of very low standards in terms of the construction quality, with one to two stories. This makes the area very dense horizontally while vertical density is very low. All these factors combined increase the number of people who have legal claims to existing property in the renewal area but each rightful owner has very small shares in terms of market value. Thus, monetary compensation they are entitled to is very low because of the low exchange value of their property. Municipal officials consider this as a potential source of conflict over the reconciliation with the existing residents for urban renewal.

In conflict with the municipality’s statements, Bey Neighborhood’s mukhtar believes that their neighborhood is not prioritized for renewal and he does not take the urban renewal talks seriously. He thinks that urban renewal is not happening anytime soon simply because of the city plans. According to the mukhtar’s statement, their neighborhood is still designated as an agricultural zone in land use plans. The majority of the neighborhood is not formally a recognized as a residential area in city plans:

“Technically, they cannot implement urban renewal in our neighborhoods because our

renewal, they first need to revise city plans, convert the agricultural land for residential use to plan for urban renewal. Almost all of the buildings in this neighborhood are illegal;

constructions without permits.” (Interview, July 2014)

Mukhtar personally supports urban renewal because he thinks renewal is the only way to improve the substandard physical environment in the area. However, the residents living in the area are divided in their opinions on urban renewal in their neighborhood. Residents in general agree that built environment quality is poor; there is no strong opposition with the idea that urban renewal is necessary for the neighborhood in principle. Some of the existing residents consider a policy intervention comprehensive enough like urban renewal as the only way out for resolving the severe infrastructural problems. Opponents of urban renewal associate renewal as the government’s excuse to restructure the residents’ profile in the neighborhood by replacing them with the more affluent residents. According to the mukhtar, opponents of urban renewal have emotional reasons. They do not want to give up on their family homes and memories. They do not want their homes to be demolished and replaced by new constructions.

5.2.4 Summary

In summary, the district municipality’s stated objective for urban renewal in Barbaros- Bey Neighborhoods is to improve the physical structure and infrastructure in the area. Their assumption is that, an improved built environment will help to create a safe and healthy living environment. There is a strong emphasis on the physical geography of the renewal, yet the human geography of renewal is rarely addressed. In other words, for whom this proposed physical improvement is for is not clear. The district municipality uses a sweeping statement like “erasing the blight” and reduces the problems of the neighborhood to the substandard built environment since former squatter settlements developed into substandard multi-story buildings with inadequate infrastructure. Basically, zoning regulations are not enforced in the neighborhood. For the time being, current residents in the area do not oppose to the idea of renewal in the area. However, there is miscommunication between the authorized actors in implementing the program and the existing residents living in the area. Both the former and the current district municipality leadership prioritize the renewal in the area and both seem willing to contract with the central government’s housing administration, TOKI, to pursue their urban

cause any change in the urban renewal agenda in the case of Barbaros-Bey Neighborhoods.

However, the existing residents do not take the short term urban renewal goals seriously and do not think the municipality will achieve their redevelopment objectives soon. Residents’

perceptions of urban renewal in terms of the implementation contradict with the municipality’s agenda.

5.3 Renewal Area a21: Urban Renewal Program in Ismetpasa Neighborhood