Some mayors in Brno have objections to the zoning plan, the city is having assessments done

Brno - Brno is having assessments made for the proposed new urban plan, which could be approved by the councilors in June. The reason is the criticisms from eight mayors out of the total 29 municipal districts of Brno. In a letter sent to Mayor Markéta Vaňková, which ČTK has, they mention concerns about increased building density and insufficient protection of green spaces. According to Vaňková, the assessments should alleviate these concerns. The councilor responsible for urban planning, Filip Chvátal, told ČTK that he stands behind the document and does not understand why the city is trying to question its priority strategic document after four years of preparation. Brno has an urban plan from 1994, and its form no longer meets current needs.

The current urban plan will cease to be valid in 2028. Originally, it was supposed to become invalid this year, and therefore, after the elections in 2018, the new coalition of ODS, KDU-ČSL, Pirates, and ČSSD designated the new urban plan as a priority and began working on its development. However, during the election period, the deadline has been pushed back.

The mayors express concerns about the development of Brno in their letter. "One of the main reasons for our concerns is that the new urban plan allows for significantly higher building density, even in built-up areas of the city, than is permitted by the currently valid urban plan," the mayors write in the letter. They had already sent comments on the proposal earlier, but according to them, the city council did not accommodate most of them.

The city therefore commissioned three analyses. Two are related to the mayors' criticisms and, according to Chvátal, are finished, while the third is a comprehensive assessment of the urban plan and, according to Vaňková, will be completed at the beginning of June. "No significant risks have emerged from the analyses so far that would suggest we should not approve the plan. It has been prepared in accordance with all rules. We have discussed it extensively. We take certain concerns seriously and will try to alleviate them," said Chvátal.

Vaňková stated that if the analyses alleviate the doubts, it would be possible to vote on the urban plan in June from her perspective. Her deputy, Tomáš Koláčný (Pirates), mentioned that if the document had defects that would undermine it, approval would be postponed to the next electoral term. He himself hopes that this will not happen. Elections are this September.

However, Chvátal does not understand the argumentation of his coalition colleagues. "It is based on the idea that we need to reassure ourselves about something. We are at the stage where we either stand behind it or we do not. I don’t understand why the city is trying to question a priority strategic document after four years of preparation," Chvátal said. He added that the whole matter may be related to the upcoming elections.

In the past, courts annulled both the update of the current urban plan of Brno and the previous principles of territorial development of the South Moravian Region. Regarding the annulment of the update, the court pointed out the unreviewability of some decisions.