Spatial Plan Making Process in Indonesian Small Cities : Why Local Governments Opted for Flexible and Rigid Plan

District spatial plans in Indonesia can be classified into two types-rigid and flexible. Two regencies with a different plan are Tegal Regency and Jepara Regency, two small regions in Central Java Province. This paper examines why both regencies chose their type of plan by describing the dynamics of the planmaking process. The scholarly literature states that economic context is the primary consideration for choosing a flexible plan, and local leaders play a determining role over local governments’ policies in the decentralized system. However, in contrast to those studies, this study finds that the technical staff’s personal preferences became the most influential determinant in both regencies. This study argues that such an occurrence transpired because the economy was concentrated in big cities when the plan was in the making, causing the regents to ignore the issue. The situation changed after firms fled from Jakarta Metropolitan Areas due to soaring workers’ wages and land prices. The spatial plan was then adjusted, and economic factors became the primary consideration in the spatial plan revision process.