City Hall, an Arena for Citizen Participation

In the last decades of the twentieth century, criticisms of top-down planning in developed countries, changed the attitude towards planning in ways that increase the role of citizens in decision-making process, decision taking, implementation and monitoring of urban plans. Today, techniques such as City Development Strategies (CDS) that focus on citizen participation are very popular. This change in attitude has been accepted in developing countries, such as Iran, with relatively long delay. City Hall is an unfamiliar and lost concept for citizens and city managers in Iran. The main goal of this paper is studying on necessity of creation of town hall as the area increases citizen participation. For this purpose, after the introduction of some important City Hall and their features and also their role in encouraging citizens to participate in the public areas, the functions of some Tehran municipal buildings will be reviewed. Finally, some strategies which can improve the quality of this important public area will be presented

Keywords:

Citizen , City , City Hall , Participation