City of Tartu

The city and its environment

Tartu is the oldest and second largest Estonian city, located in the south of the country. The old town with its outstanding, classical inner city that dates back to the early 19th century is the home of the second oldest northern European university, currently attended by approximately 10,000 students. The city is the administrative and cultural centre of a large, rural region, but also contains some industry. A bus factory survived the economic transition after independence. The trade and service sectors are developing rapidly and a modern, export-oriented timber industry for prefabricated, single-family homes was established on the grounds of an old panel factory.

The city has a comparatively small Russian-speaking minority, currently approximately 26 percent of the population and composed mostly of ethnic Russians. This group has been increasingly integrated into local society, but the process continues to be difficult. After a large military air base (Raadi Lennuväli) in the northern part of the city was abandoned at the end of the cold war, severe environmental pollution was discovered. The city’s population doubled between 1950 and 1985, but has decreased more than 10 per cent since 1992, primarily due to the remigration of Russian military personnel and, later, to a decreasing birth rate and migration. The city has well-established international partnerships, especially with Scandinavian cities that have been providing assistance with environmental projects.

Housing situation and large housing estates

The urban structure includes remarkable, late 19th century wooden tenement buildings and a great number of high-quality ‘modernist’ homes from the inter-war period. Other ‘green’ housing areas have developed from summer cottage districts and are soon expected to receive planning approval as legal, permanent housing. While the inner city is being rapidly refurbished, there are obvious maintenance backlogs in the majority of buildings. Tartu has three major housing areas from the state’s socialist period; Ülejöe – which was formerly dominated by the military – is located adjacent to Annelinn, the largest such estate. Although the quantitative targets for the new estates were never reached, their completion is unlikely; a large space to the north of the city centre that has been cleared of war ruins is taking priority in order to link the old and new districts. During the course of privatisation, 295 small owner co-operatives have emerged.

Problems and areas requiring action

• repair and maintenance of all types of housing and infrastructure; an overwhelming task for private owners, owner associations, and city government; priorities and strategies need to be identified
• land allocation to owners of privatised buildings as a basis for long-term financing
• participation in management of atomised ownership structures
• lack of technical expertise and of process-oriented planning experience
• encouragement of visible results of social and physical self-help and self-management; need for public support and management to relieve the city from its dominant role

Actors and activities

The city is actively supporting the organisation of owner associations but continues to serve as the collector of service costs and manager of customer relations between individual owners and service providers. It is attempting to support owners’ associations in individual buildings and the emergence of self-organised management for groups of buildings. Many of these activities are based on outsourcing from the city’s housing management.

Finding environmental and cost-effective solutions for the large housing estates is complicated by the fact that there has been considerable, post-independence investment through the IMF into the modernisation of large-scale technologies. This limits future opportunities for alternatives on a smaller scale (heat provision, long distance pipelines).

The owners’ associations and new as well as restructured co-operatives are starting to organise a market-oriented and – frequently – socially aware partnership with the city, albeit with severe financial problems.

‘Annelinn Micro-rayon’ Estate

The estate is located approximately one kilometre from the city centre. It occupies an under-utilised area and was originally intended to form an independent extension of the city centre. The estate was constructed from the early 1970s into the 1990s, following an elaborate plan of ‘micro rayons’ which was, however, never completed. As the estate was never finished, approximately one third of the estate’s spaces is empty, in theory providing opportunities for new housing. Annelinn is adjacent to an older quarter, colloquially called ‘China Town’, which is primarily occupied by Russian-speaking, former military families. The quality of the earlier houses is reminiscent of the Scandinavian models of the 1960s, using small blocks and brick in a traditional way, and oriented at local building traditions (sections of ‘fire-walls’). Later, large panels of a different type and quality were introduced. While most of the landscaping of the early parts has matured, the later parts often have only bare grassland. The area has been criticised as consisting of ‘pure homes without any culture’.

Physical and ecological situation

• roofs in need of extensive repairs; fresh water pipes and sewage treatment causing environmental damage
• public space neglected in and around many buildings; some inhabitants taking great care of the houses and the environment, but lacking funds and sometimes unity and organisation; good maintenance of public space apparently coinciding with the degree of organisation (associations, co-operatives)
• long distances to centre and work places causing heavy traffic; public transportation very time-consuming
• no separate garbage collection

Problems

• severe maintenance backlogs (roofs, heating, façades, entrances, water supply with 20 percent losses); rapidly increasing cost of repairs threatening the economic future of the buildings and devaluing the estate
• poor design of common areas (staircases, entrances) endangering the acceptance of the well-designed flats
• high degree of segregation of some buildings and small areas; potential social and ethnic problems; concern that a ‘lower class’ may be emerging
• lacking sense of responsibility with regard to the technical maintenance and quality of the common areas; many staircases never renovated; windows broken
• approximately one third of the residents dependent on social and/or housing benefits, primarily senior citizens; placing heavy drain on public finances; demonstrating the limited funds of the estate’s population

Strategies

• support for local social development through community-oriented social and health work
• public support for the owners’ associations and co-operatives by the housing department
• integrated approach to strategic planning for the estate’s sustainable future (local Agenda 21)
• planned international, especially EU, co-operation in partnership with Scandinavian cities and Berlin

Source: EA.UE: A future for large housing estates, Berlin 1998

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