Brno has a proposal for a new zoning plan, which will be discussed in April

Brno – The Office of the Architect of the City of Brno (KAM) has completed the draft of the new zoning plan for the city. It should come into effect by the end of 2022 at the latest, as mandated by law. A public discussion is planned for April, after which it will be possible to provide feedback. After incorporating the feedback, a second public discussion is expected in 2021, said KAM spokesperson Jana Běhalová today. The draft is currently not publicly available. The city is still using the plan from 1994 with many updates. Experts describe the new zoning plan as a necessity for the city's further development.

Twenty people worked on the draft, creating over 2800 pages of text and 20 large-format drawings. "The most complicated and longest part of the entire process will be the phase of discussing the draft and addressing all the feedback. It will be necessary to approve the new plan, which will not be simple in Brno. The larger the city, the more complicated it becomes. Our task is to discuss the document in such a way that the resulting draft is acceptable to everyone. Brno really needs a new zoning plan," said KAM director Michal Sedláček.

In developing the new zoning plan, Brno built on a previously drafted plan, the preparation of which was halted. The city issued over 2000 guidelines for its transformation and completion. In the past, the city also prepared a large update of the zoning plan, but it was annulled by the court in 2015.

The new zoning plan is expected to delineate new areas for housing, some of which are still designated as industrial zones. A new feature will be that instead of a floor area index, the plan will determine the maximum height of buildings in a given area. This is expected to eliminate disputes with developers.

Due to the creation of the new zoning plan, Brno has also divided a package of changes. The simpler ones will still be processed in advance as updates to the current plan and should be valid next year. More complex changes will be included only in the new plan, primarily concerning flood control measures.