The Liberec Region plans a parking garage adjacent to its headquarters

Liberec - The Liberec Region plans to build a parking garage next to its headquarters. This should address the shortage of parking spaces around the office. Capacity is expected to increase by about half to 300 spaces. The construction costs are estimated at 70 million crowns. The construction of a parking garage was already planned during the renovation of the building more than 16 years ago, but there was no funding for it. The need for parking spaces around the office is growing, said the deputy governor Marek Pieter (Mayors for the Liberec Region) to ČTK today. The regional office employs 385 people.

The intention was criticized today by opposition councilors of Change for the Liberec Region. Zuzana Kocumová lacked alternative solutions for parking around the office and criticized the high costs for a single parking space. “There are more variants and options. There is also a large building next to the regional office, where there used to be machine shops on the lower level, and there are large unused spaces, and we don't know if anyone has considered that these spaces could also theoretically be used for parking,” Kocumová said at the meeting.

Despite the objections, the regional councilors approved the release of one million crowns for the preparation of the project. According to Pieter, this will make it possible to conduct geological surveys and assess the statics. This should indicate whether it will be possible to build a five-story parking garage for 183 cars above the parking lot next to the office. However, the decision on any potential construction of the building will be made by the newly elected regional council, so it is not yet certain that it will actually be built.

The Liberec Region is located in the building of the former State Textile Research Institute, which this year celebrated its 40th anniversary. The twenty-one-story glass and concrete building is the tallest structure in Liberec. It was built from 1966 to 1976 according to a design by architect Zdeněk Plesník. Between 1999 and 2000, it underwent a renovation costing 231 million crowns. Only the load-bearing structure and the original air conditioning solution were preserved; the rest of the building is practically new. In subsequent years, the office expanded into the adjacent building, and the total cost of the region's headquarters has amounted to nearly half a billion crowns.

The year before last, the Liberec Region also purchased the remaining buildings and land in its vicinity from VÚTS (formerly the Research Institute of Textile Machines) for 125 million crowns. The former administrative building is now being converted into a European House for 93 million crowns, and a renovation of the former workshop building and revitalization of the surrounding land is also being prepared. Part of the concrete area of the parking lot aims to be transformed into a green oasis, and parking along the river Nisa is to be eliminated. According to Pieter, the canceled parking spaces should be replaced by the parking garage.