Parks as Public Spheres: Social Impact Assessment of the Construction of Saadaat Park in Region 12, Tehran

The city management of the 12th district of Tehran’s municipality plans to build a boostan, fruit and vegetable field and Food- court as the three suggested options for the 2012 square-meter space in the Darvazeh Shemiran neighborhood. This article tries to assess the feasibility of building each project in terms of social and cultural outcomes, while assessing the needs of the residents of the neighborhood. To reach this goal, a survey of 387 people was conducted and an interview has been conducted with 11 local and regional directors, according to the population of 33297 residents using the Cochran formula. For the Need evaluation and feasibility evaluation of the projects, the theoretical framework of sustainable urban development was used based on the concept of the public sphere. After review, the result was that considering the importance of the public sphere and the urgent need of the Darvazeh Shemiran neighborhood, the construction of the boostan at the intended place should be prioritized to the other two options, the fruit field and the Food court. The other result is that considering the division of Tehran into different neighborhoods and the policy of the central neighborhood in Tehran’s urban management, providing urban services is based on the neighborhood while it seems that the “neighborhood” criterion for providing urban services should be changed to the “distance” and “population” criteria. In the end, for better use of the boostan and its definition as a public sphere, suggestions such as the construction of a historic museum in the place of Boostan and the revitalization of the Vali mill in the neighborhood have been presented.