Mechanisms of Planning and Management of the Neoliberal Urban Regime in Medellin: Urban Treatments

Abstract

The recent structuring of urban planning in Colombia has involved a diversification of urban planning, management, and financing mechanisms as a neoliberal strategy to compensate for the withdrawal of the State. The regulatory frameworks at the polygon scale are analyzed: the urban treatments in Medellín and their implications in the building activity regarding the number of property units, the value per treatment and the participation in the different socioeconomic strata. The results show that, despite the instrumental diversification, the main urban transformations of the last two decades have occurred under the traditional private Í€œproperty-to-propertyÍ€ management model with a regulatory framework that favors redensification processes in middle- and high-income sectors, while policies to promote self-construction are reduced and renovation processes are promoted in popular sectors with impacts on the distribution of urban income and socio-spatial organization.