Liberec will approve the zoning plan around the end of 2021

Liberec – The new zoning plan for Liberec will likely be approved by the city council towards the end of next year. However, before that, the city hall must organize a repeated public hearing. The mayor of Liberec, Jaroslav Zámečník (Mayors for the Liberec Region), expects this to take place at the end of April or the beginning of May. "After that, we will address the final objections that come after this repeated hearing. And around the summer, work could begin on the so-called clean version of the zoning plan," said the mayor.

The validity of the current zoning plan for Liberec will expire in 2022. The city hall has been working on creating a new plan that should address the development of the fifth largest city in the country over the next 20 to 30 years since 2007. The anticipated date for approval has already been postponed several times by the city; the original timeline was back in 2015. The current proposal has been criticized by the opposition, claiming that in many cases it goes against what citizens demand. An example is the establishment of an industrial zone next to the airport in Ostašov or the conversion of so-called mixed-use areas into industrial areas, which will affect the neighborhoods of Vesec and Doubí.

According to Zámečník, however, the city leadership is only refining the proposal created by their predecessors. "We have tried, more or less, not to change the previous state because we inherited the zoning plan with the vision of approving it as is. And in only a few cases, we have developed strategic changes that are not in the proposed new zoning plan," said the mayor. According to him, these include the construction of a new headquarters for the rescue service or a senior citizens' home on Krejčího Street.

The city hall has received approximately 3,300 objections to the proposed new zoning plan so far. About 600 of these were received after the last public hearing in June 2018. According to the mayor, they have addressed about 30 objections, but these do not have any significant impact. "In the overwhelming majority, we did not address them precisely because they would either delay the adoption of the zoning plan or create a precedent where we would accommodate one party but not another. We cannot afford that," Zámečník said. At the repeated public hearing, according to him, they will only present the changed parts. "If objections arise regarding unchanged parts afterward, they will be rejected solely on principle," the mayor of Liberec added.