From fragmentation to facilitation? Governing port-led metropolitan growth in West Java through Metropolitan by Design

Ports increasingly shape metropolitan development, yet governments often struggle to coordinate land use, infrastructure, and investment decisions related to port expansion. Fragmented authority and overlapping mandates limit planning authorities’ ability to coordinate development and align port expansion with supporting transport and industrial systems. Although strategic spatial planning has been promoted as a way of working within fragmented environments, its influence remains contingent on governance arrangements. Less is known about the roles strategic spatial planning perform in port-led metropolitan development across contexts. This study explains how different governance arrangements condition the roles of strategic spatial planning in port-led metropolitan development. Drawing on 11 semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and forum observation, we compare the Jakarta Metropolitan Area (JMA) and the Rebana Metropolitan Area (Rebana) in Indonesia across 4 dimensions: institutional coordination, infrastructure and connectivity alignment, land-market governance, and the relationship between strategic visions and implementation. The comparison reveals two forms of incomplete metropolitan governance: “ governance without integration ” in JMA and “ integration without governance ” in Rebana. The study shows that strategic spatial planning mainly shapes port-led metropolitan development through facilitation and legitimation unless governance arrangements provide binding capacity over land use and infrastructure investment.