Riyadh City Centre Redevelopment Plans

Undergoing the rapid economic development due to the growth of oil-based income, Riyadh became much larger and more prosperous. However, it could not escape the impact of the urban deterioration in the city centre. Since 1980, the authorities of Riyadh began to focus on the revitalisation of the area. The first development occurred a few years later and lasted till 1998 involving three main phases (the first two there dominated by the public investment, whereas the third phase focused on the private sector development (Alskait 1999). In 2013, the High Commission for the Development of Arriyadh adopted the Riyadh Downtown Development Program and Plan in order to make Riyadh City Centre a national historical, administrative and cultural centre. One of the key objectives of the Plan is to tackle the major issues affecting the City Centre in order to make the area attractive to visitors, residents, and businesses. The involvement of local community in the revitalisation of the historic city centre is becoming increasingly important and influential (Yung & Chan 2015). Although the Development Authority aims to attract the residents and visitors back to the Central area, there has been no “clear” public consultation and participation in the design process of the Master Plan to obtain their needs. The Development Authority, however, depends on the small group of representatives in addition to municipal council members rather than provides the opportunities to the public to share their views. In other words, the main task is to make sure whether or not the parties involved in the development planning are the representatives of the individuals directly affected by the project (Nicholas et al. 2009). Therefore, the question of participation and involvement becomes one of the central issues of the revitalisation management in Riyadh (Al-Hathloul 2004). Hence, the Redevelopment Plan tends to be the government driven idea since there has been no big call of public consultation.