<p>I am glad that the people of Olomouc take the land use plan seriously, says the mayor.</p>

The first phase of preparing the urban plan for the city of Olomouc is nearing its end. The amended draft assignment, which citizens could comment on for two months, will be submitted by the Department of Concepts and Development for approval to the council in February. The city leadership appreciates the considerable involvement of citizens in the preparation of this document.

Olomouc residents could send comments on the draft assignment of the urban plan from October until the end of last year. A total of around one hundred and fifty submissions were received, many of which contained several remarks. According to the city leadership, this is a significant success. “I would like to thank everyone who participated in the preparation of this strategic document, whether by sending their comments on the assignment or expressing their opinions during public discussions,” said the Mayor of Olomouc, Martin Novotný. “I also appreciate that citizens did not focus only on their own interests, but their remarks had a broader scope. It is clear that they are thinking about how to make our city a pleasant place to live. I am glad that the residents of the city take the preparation of the urban plan seriously,” the mayor added, stating that many comments are indeed insightful and that the city hall will try to incorporate the majority of them into the urban plan.    

The biggest and most pleasant surprise for the staff of the Department of Concepts and Development was that, with a few minor exceptions, all comments truly related to the urban plan. “I can say that those that were completely off-topic were really only a fraction. The issue of the urban plan is indeed complex, which is why we are pleasantly surprised that Olomouc residents understood it and we can evaluate their suggestions as relevant in the vast majority of cases,” remarked Radek Dosoudil, head of the Department of Concepts and Development. He and his colleagues carefully and thoroughly addressed each comment and formulated an evaluation for each of them.

While not all comments can be implemented at this moment, they will certainly not go unnoticed. By far the most suggestions fall into the category of those that could not be incorporated into the general text of the draft assignment due to their excessive detail and specificity. However, this does not mean that these suggestions will be ignored. “These comments will be considered during the preparation of the concept. Individual suggestions will be forwarded to the processor for verification and possible incorporation into the urban plan,” explained Dosoudil. According to him, these mainly concerned specific proposals for changes in the functional use of individual locations or buildings. “Often, these requests are already included in general terms in the draft assignment, but specific solutions to individual problems will be up to the urban plan processor. When preparing the so-called concept, they will take these comments into account,” added Dosoudil.

The second part of the comments addressed areas already included in the draft assignment of the urban plan. Over forty additional suggestions will be incorporated into its wording. “The draft assignment is created by experts on the given issue, but naturally, they cannot cover all topics completely. Therefore, we are happy that citizens pointed them out to us,” stated Dosoudil. The last and smallest part of the comments exceeded the possibilities of the urban plan in terms of their detailed content, or were entirely unrelated to this issue. “Even so, we tried to carefully evaluate these comments and, where possible, forward them to the competent authorities for resolution,” assured the department head.

The draft assignment, amended based on the received comments and requests from the relevant authorities, will be submitted for approval to the council, which meets on February 23. If approved, this document, along with the comments and their evaluations, will be published on the official bulletin board of the city hall and on the city’s website www.olomouc.eu.

Those who did not manage to submit a comment on the assignment need not despair. They will have the opportunity next year when the so-called concept of the urban plan will be discussed. This will be much more detailed, and it will also include graphic documents with solutions for individual locations. According to the city hall management, this phase will be crucial for the preparation of the urban plan, and they believe that citizens will participate with their suggestions even more substantially. “Open communication has evidently proven effective – we wanted to let fellow citizens know that this issue concerns all of us, and they apparently understand this and want to cooperate. We definitely want to continue in this trend in the coming years of preparing the urban plan, as well as in other topics,” concluded Mayor Martin Novotný.