Green Corridor of Santiago de Cali

The Green Corridor strategy aims to transform Cali’s community by creating a new development axis in the city. The Green Corridor aims to reconnect 22.3 kilometres of green areas along an abandoned railway lane, covering 49.7 square kilometres and benefiting 108 neighbourhoods. With these actions, the project aims to: 1. re-establish an urban ecological network between the hills and the river; 2. socially and spatially integrate the city; 3. balance connectivity with a clean public transport corridor; 4. Renewing the city with strategic projects that detonate transformation processes from the central strip. This Corridor intends to connect the city and its strategic pieces as well as marginalised areas and to improve the access to urban services for all inhabitants. The Green Corridor is sub-divided into 7 different sections to be intervened. .

Overview

Type of instrument:

Legislative, regulatory and strategic instruments›Urban planning mechanisms

Challenges addressed

Ecologic connectivity
Green space management (e.g. accessibility)
Watershed restoration/water quality
Social cohesion
Social equity
Reconnection to the biosphere / environmental education

Consideration of nature-based solutions:

The plan intents to create new green spaces the corridor by increasing parks, green spaces and individual green elements throughout the different sections of the corridor. The Green Corridor also seeks to ecologically connect the public green space with the private green areas, for instance by an urban forest.

Targeted (peri-)urban areas:

Parks and (semi)natural urban green areas

Blue areas

Urban green space connected to grey infrastructure

Good practice characteristics:

Sustainable in the long-term

Locally appropriate

Potential to be replicated / upscaled

Innovative

Governance

Government body/bodies

Initiating body:

Alcaldía de Santiago the Cali

Instrument design:

Details about how the instrument was designed:

The plan for the Green Corridor of Cali was developed by OPUS Colombia and Espacio Colectivo arquitectos, as a result of a public contest promoted by the Municipality of Cali in 2016 and subsequent development of architectural, urban and landscape design at the preliminary level.

Instrument implementation:

Type of involvement:

During this research no details regarding the public´s involvement in the instrument implemetation

Type of non-governmental actors involved:

Unknown

Targeted actors:

Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)

Private: household, real estate developer, business , financial

Citizens or community groups (CBOs), NGOs

Financing

Sources of funding:

Public local authority’s budget

Budget:

Above 10 000 000€

Details about instrument financing:

In total, the plan has a budget of 1.8 trillion Colombian pesos (USD 544 million). *The estimated amount was found in journalistic source: ArchDaily but the official sources could not be identified during the course of this research.

Monitoring, evaluation and impacts

Achieved outcomes and impacts:

The project is still ongoing. Step-by-step, the Green Corridor aims to operationalize the concept of transit-oriented development. In a first phase, the project focused on retrofitting a bicycle lane along a 5km east-center section. This section will also see the redevelopment of an old brewery into apartment buildings to help address the city’s housing shortage. Subsequent phases focus on the creation of public spaces along the corridor and riverfront and the development of a light rail mass transit system.

Success factors and lessons learned:

- Mobility plays a leading role by giving access to goods and services (mass transit systems, bicycle infrastructure, pedestrian netowrks – intermodality). - Land use policies and regulations that promote housing developments in areas with access to mass transit and services (jobs, public facilities, public spaces) are necessary for a successful implementation. - Create incentives to engage the private sector. Public investments and the private initiative must be guided in the same direction.

Sources and further information

References

List of references:

Alcaldía de Santiago the Cali (2022). Corredor Verde. https://www.cali.gov.co/documentos/2990/corredor-verde/ (accessed: 10 July 2022). Alcaldía de Santiago the Cali (2018). PROYECTOS ESTRATÉGICOS CORREDOR VERDE. Cali, pp. 437. ArchDaily: Espacio Colectivo + Opus diseñarán la segunda fase del Corredor Verde de Cali. https://www.archdaily.co/co/779273/espacio-colectivo-plus-opus-disenaran-la-segunda-fase-del-corredor-verde-de-cali (accessed: 10 July 2022). Mobilize Santiago: The Land Use Plan and The Green Corridor in Cali, An Urban Transformation Opportunity. https://fdocuments.net/document/the-land-use-plan-and-the-green-corridor-in-cali-the-green-corridor-in-cali-an-urban.html?page=1 (accessed: 10 July 2022). OPUS (2021). Corredor verde de Cali, https://www.opusestudio.com/tercorredor-verde-cali (accessed: 10 July 2022). World Resource Institute (2016). Cali’s Mayor Puts Transit-Oriented Development on Center Stage. https://wrirosscities.org/news/cali%E2%80%99s-mayor-puts-transit-oriented-development-center-stage (accessed: 10 July 2022).

Photos

@ Reg Natarajan