Starter Kit. Idea 387 of 500. Cluster 19
Galle Fort as a managed heritage site, run with the residents
The mechanism, from the book
Eight World Heritage Sites and 2,300 years of records, and the country's story is told to the world by other people.
The first step
Knock on the doors of 20 households still living in Galle Fort and ask three questions: would they support a cap on tourist lets, a levy on visitors and a residents' body to run both. Write up the answers with the count for and against. A majority in favour, and a handful willing to sit on a committee, is the proof that residents can run it.
- Who pays first
- The resident households of the Fort, who would pay a small membership to a body that protects their homes from being bought out for holiday lets.
- What leaves today
- Heritage value now flows to outside owners of holiday lets while residents leave; a resident-run site keeps the income with the people who live there.
Ask first
- Urban Development Authority. Ask what planning rules already apply inside Galle Fort.
- Department of Archaeology. Ask how the Fort's protected status shapes what residents can decide.
Check before you spend
Which rules already govern the Fort, who could lawfully set a cap or a levy, and how a residents' body would be formed and registered.
Find out these three numbers
- How many households support a cap on tourist lets?
- How many support a levy on visitors?
- How many residents will sit on a committee?
A comparison from the book
Venice. Chapter Five
"a licence and a limit on holiday rentals inside the old towns"
The tools exist and can be used straight away; residents running them is what keeps residents in.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.