1.3.2.1 The Ward’s Initial Proposal to Close Motomachi Park
Motomachi Park became a center of an argument over preservation or closure when Bunkyo Ward first announced an initial proposal to its Ward Council (assembly) on March 6, 2006 (Tatemono Ouendan Various timelime 2006). The initial proposal included replacement of the park to the north side location of the closed Motomachi Elementary School (Kano 2007). The Ward has three goals after the closure of the park.
1. To create a larger lot by clearing both the park and the elementary school.
2. To construct a high rise building following the proposal of a private company.
3. To use a part of the existing building for a new public gymnasium and other municipal facilities for residents’ wellness. An old gymnasium in another district needed to be replaced (Tatemono ouendan). Kano sees the city planning of the ward “on the basic idea, public land where 500 % of a floor-area ratio, should be heavily utilized the commercially other than as a park” (Kano 2007).
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City Planning Procedure, Events and Movement
Fig. 3.4 The decision-making process of city planning of the closure of Motomachi Park. The right column of the left frame is the simplified city planning decision-making procedure. The left column of the left frame shows the critical events in the process. The right frame shows the essence of events and citizen movement (Bunkyo Ward: Tonuma 2007: tatemono ouendan http://www. toshima. ne. jp/~tatemono/page047.html) |
People concerned about Motomachi Park took actions. Accordingly the preservation movement started, and it was resolved when Bunkyo Ward City Planning Council decided not to endorse the final proposal.
