Agreements and divergences on territorial occupation: An analysis of stakeholders towards the creation of Bogota – Cundinamarca Metropolitan Region

Bogota's metropolitan context has experienced rapid growth in recent decades regarding population and urban footprint; land occupation has been dispersed with significant territorial imbalance. It has been identified that one of the main barriers to the harmonization of territorial planning processes lies in the difficulty of reaching agreements that are convenient for most of the agents involved in the decisions. Regarding the recently created Metropolitan Region of Bogota Cundinamarca, in this study we analyze the agreements and divergences in the visions of the stakeholder on some strategic alternatives associated with three relevant metropolitan issues: land planning, mobility and the provision of public services. We concluded that although there is agreement on the need to generate institutional arrangements to manage supra-municipal issues, there is still fear of losing municipal autonomy. Land planning decisions could change the balance of local power and hinder the capture of land rents in favor of private agents who benefit from the concentrated, conurbation, and dispersed model in the Sabana de Bogotá area. The analysis provides clues for understanding the divergent visions of actors in the framework of metropolitan governance arrangements.