Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• samaneh jalilisadrabad ¹
• Seyed Saeed Sadat Mousavi ²
• Mostafa Behzadfar ³

¹ IUST

² School of Urban Planning, IUST

³ School of architecture an Urban Planning. IUST

Abstract

Providing urban services in large-scale lands is not simply a financial or physical issue, but rather depends on how the relationships between land ownership, decision-making institutions, investors, development criteria, public access, and spatial justice are regulated. In Tehran’s reserve lands, institutional fragmentation, legal and ownership ambiguities, limited public resources, differences in economic attractiveness of areas, and the risk of profitability prevailing over public interest have challenged the use of public-private partnerships. The aim of the research was to identify appropriate models and tools for public-private partnerships, explain the main risks, and extract the conditions for its success in providing urban services in large-scale lands in Tehran. The research is applied-developmental in terms of its purpose and qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive-analytical in nature. Data were collected through document review and semi-structured interviews with 45 urban managers, lawyers, investors, owners, local community representatives, and experts. Snowball sampling was conducted in a purposive and theoretical manner, and the data were analyzed by open, axial and selective coding, thematic analysis, comparison of stakeholders' perspectives, scenario analysis and participant review. The findings revealed seven main themes including weak integrated governance, legal and ownership uncertainty, conditional financial feasibility, the need for spatial regulation, transparent and justice-oriented participation, spatial justice and public trust, and differences in zones. The institutional-managerial barrier ranked first, and the BOT and BLT models were assessed as more suitable for basic services, provided that public control is maintained. The research results show that public-private partnerships should be designed as "public interest contracts" and include proportionate risk sharing, information disclosure, performance indicators, tariff caps, spatial justice annex and public monitoring; to ensure sustainability and justice of services. Findings indicate that critical risks extend beyond financial and technical domains to include legal-institutional uncertainties, governance and accountability deficits, and spatial justice concerns. Conversely, recurring success conditions emphasize regulatory and oversight capacity, transparency and accountability mechanisms, clearly defined minimum service standards, lifecycle financial sustainability, adaptability and dispute resolution mechanisms, and active stakeholder participation. Based on these insights, the article proposes a conceptual framework linking the historical evolution of private sector roles to governance model selection, risk structures, control levers, and public interest outcomes. This framework offers a basis for policy design and evaluation of large-scale urban development projects, particularly in contexts such as Iran.

Keywords

• Public-private partnership
• urban services
• large-scale lands
• reserve lands
• spatial justice
• urban governance
• Tehran

Main Subjects

• Urban Planning