In the Alps, the strategies of commercial development on the municipal level have been to react to single cases in the short term. A coordinated and concerted strategy using the regional and local potentials is missing. COMUNIS aims at developing a well-defined integrative and cooperative strategy for Commercial Location Development (CLD) and enhancing inter-municipal and intra-territorial cooperation to overcome individualistic attempts of problems solution on the level of single municipalities. COMUNIS will provide broadly adaptable guidelines to apply this strategy and practical instruments for the assessment of the local and regional demand for and the steering of commercial development with particular focus on diversification and efficiency of economic activities, environmental and social concerns, human and cultural capital. Furthermore the project will result in a transnational knowledge management and establish sustainable structures for managing CLD in the pilot regions.

After having launched the project by initiating essential administrative measures and a strong communication procedure, we entered the content-related phase of the project. Rich of expectations towards work in the pilot areas, we encountered difficulties what brought us to reevaluate our instruments of data collection. Doing so required an important investment in time as did the reinforcement of collaboration between the project partners and observers. After having been approved, these instruments were mobilized for data collection. By now, and on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of the economic structure and business locations, it will be possible to derive strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats of the pilot areas.

In COMUNIS, the aim is to analyze the existing systems and framework conditions for intermunicipal Commercial Location Development. The meeting held in Lyon was decisive for choosing the tool for this analysis. The chosen tool is now implemented in each pilot area to examine the preconditions and underlying structures for inter‐municipal Commercial Location Development. Interviews with public and private stakeholders of each pilot area about their municipality’s status quo with regard to the three core themes (location profile, inter-municipal cooperation, land use management) have been conducted and assessed. At the same time, the project team is gathering examples of best practices in the Alps concerning inter‐municipal Commercial Location Development. This work is central to all subsequent activities which aim at establishing a concerted strategy for Commercial Location Development that will be applied in all pilot areas.

A next important step is to conceive both a strategy for Commercial Location Development and the associated tools for cost‐benefit analyses, while taking into account possible environmental consequences. Initially, the main components of Commercial Location Development will be identified. Using the collected practice examples of inter-municipal Commercial Location Development, solutions will be designed. Resting on these assets, we will be able to specify concrete objectives of implementation.