Liberec has approved a new zoning plan, the preparation of which took nearly 15 years

Liberec – Liberec has a new zoning plan, which was unanimously approved by the council today. The preparation took nearly 15 years, during which the municipality received approximately 3,300 objections and comments. The newly created zoning plan is expected to regulate the development of the fifth largest city in the country over the next 20 to 30 years. The opposition has long criticized the way it was prepared, successfully addressing many of their concerns.

"Over the years, many problematic plans were successfully removed from the draft zoning plan, including the cancellation of plans for an industrial zone on arable land in Machnín and the limitation of the industrial zone in Ostašov. There were changes to the routes of several roads, primarily the so-called collector ring road under Ještěd, but not only that," said opposition councilor Jaromír Baxa (LOL) today to ČTK.

According to him, the zoning plan has safeguarded gardens that were originally supposed to be relocated to residential areas, which risked gradually disappearing. "On the other hand, we were unable to prevent the city's expansion into the countryside, and the zoning plan also allows for the development of some industrial areas in the middle of residential neighborhoods. Many issues can be addressed with future updates," Baxa said. However, he fears that this will not be possible in all cases.

At the initiative of the opposition, the council also approved a set of measures today that define how the city should proceed with planned construction in certain locations. "They are intended to strengthen the city's position in negotiating building permits or for measuring air quality around industrial areas in residential zones," Baxa added.

The zoning plan envisions that Liberec should have a projected population of 110,000, currently having about 6,000 fewer. The new zoning plan will allow the construction of up to 10,500 apartments, including family homes. "I consider it important, among other things, that within the new zoning plan, each individual parcel has a designated coefficient indicating to what extent it can be built upon and how much greenery must remain," previously stated the mayor Jaroslav Zámečník (Starostové pro Liberecký kraj). The preparation of the new zoning plan for Liberec cost over 40 million crowns, and the complete documentation weighs more than a quarter of a ton.