Prague: Preparations of new land use plan ends, works on Metropolitan plan to start
New management of the city of Prague will halt preparations of new land use plan in Prague and will start to work on the new so-called Metropolitan plan. According to Deputy Mayor Tomáš Hudeček (TOP…
New management of the city of Prague will halt preparations of new land use plan in Prague and will start to work on the new so-called Metropolitan plan. According to Deputy Mayor Tomáš Hudeček (TOP 09), this plan will be simpler and more stable, it will protect areas which should not be built-up and limit spreading of the city wider. Mr Hudeček intends to create an advisory body called Ozvučná deska (Sounding Board) which will discuss development of Prague. “The current land use plan is not a concept for city development but a rigid description of each plot where the whole picture is lost. Making changes in a plan which is unclear for everybody gives space to corruption and the original plan to create rules for capital´s sustainable development has dissolved,“ Mr Hudeček stated.
The city of Prague started to prepare a new land use plan years ago. Its concept has been completed, however, it will not be presented to the City Assembly. According to Mr Hudeček, this planning document gives space to corruption similarly to the currently valid land use plan. Therefore all applicable information from the completed concept will be used the new Metropolitan plan. The approved changes in the current land use plan will remain valid. The new plan should be simpler, its aim is to limit the number of discussed changes to the land use plan. Metropolitan plan will set maximum possible load on the land and it should thus affect overall structure of the given location. For example, an area used for housing today can be used for recreation and sport, which don´t have so much impact, without a change in the land use plan.
The aim of the Metropolitan plan will also be to use abandoned industrial areas, so-called brownfields, preventing widespread of the city, protection of areas which should not be built-up and returning housing into the city centre. Mr Hudeček assumes that he will succeed in preparing Metropolitan plan by 2015, as required by the Building Act. The new Metropolitan plan will be drawn at a scale of 1:25 000, the current plan elaborates the capital in 1:10 000 scale. “The new plan will not look at each plot, but it will look at the city´s character as a whole,” architect Roman Koucký, who participates in the new city development concept, told journalists. According to him, the plan will not look in detail at the stabilized locations, on the other hand, it will look into problematic and unfinished locations in more detailed scale.
The advisory body Ozvučná deska will comprise of architects, urban planners, conservationists but also political scientists and representatives of civic associations. Its aim will be to provide feedback to the political leadership. Its members will present their own ideas too. The group will have a maximum of 60 members and it will meet four times a year. A third of its members will be exchanged once a year.