Investment in City Development: Planning and Evaluation Criteria

The process of cities' development and renewal applies to changing needs of local communities and individuals. Its' general aim is sustainable city development. The subject of research is the process of planning and evaluation criteria of investments, which are an integral part of the development and management of modern city. The public sector initiates or carries out these investments while the private sector is still an important partner, participant in the decision-making process, and finally also the recipient. The nature of these investments is hybrid. There are social investments with commercial aspects and commercial investment with social aspects. Therefore, the investment is justified both by financial and non-financial factors. The starting point to make a breakthrough in the methodology of investment projects evaluation is accurate and complete identification of the benefits associated with the project. Therefore, the ultimate objective of the research is to design planning stages of mentioned investments with the evaluation criteria of such 'hybrid' investments in terms of their rationality. In the first part, I will characterize a new model of rationality. Then, I will propose the planning steps. Finally, I will determine the criteria for the investment projects evaluation in urban development and renewal with respect to the type of the investment. I assume that the rationalization of investment decisions in the management of urban development requires improvement of planning process, including and investment evaluation criteria. The research is based on literature review and case studies, as confrontation of theory with practice.