The comparative study examines 63 cases of modernist-neighborhood urban renewals from the perspective of their spatial adjustment. Spatial tools that were used in the individual urban-renewal cases are identified and compared across countries. Individual cases are selected among West-European countries since they have several decades of lasting experience in the process and thus can serve as a ‘living laboratory’ in some way. The main question of the study is what spatial adjustments were used addressing improvement of decaying, shrinking or just less attractive Modernist estates, and if individual countries favor certain spatial tools. To understand the particular circumstances of each country, the emphasis is put on the study of the country specifics – taking this context into account allows isolating partial tools and describe their role in the process. The cross-analysis is also performed – regarding the development potential of each case and its relationship to the tools' selection. The findings of the research so far show the identical use of spatial tools across most of the examined countries. The paper aims to introduce the structure of the research and formulate achieved findings related to three typical development situations – urban shrinkage, balanced development potential and the densification of the area.