De la planificación urbana normativa a la planificación comunicativa. El caso del Plan de Desarrollo Urbano Local del Municipio El Hatillo, Caracas-Venezuela. La gestión urbana silenciada

The article analyzes the experience of the Local Urban Development Plan (LUDP) project in “El Hatillo” (2009-2011), Caracas-Venezuela, which was rejected by the local legislative authorities in 2011. Our interest has been motivated by the fact that specialist of the Simon Bolivar University developed the LUDP project, and carried out innovative participatory processes that should have contributed to building the viability of the project or at least have facilitated its formal approval by the local legislative body. The analysis is done from the perspective of the theory of communicative urban planning; it deals with both, the specific aspects of participatory methodologies implemented and general issues such as the relationship between planning and politics. The paper suggests that the challenge of urban planning does not necessarily fall within the technical dimension, but rather in building consensus about urban problems and their possible solutions. To this effect, the paper makes concrete suggestions.