A competition will be announced for the land use plan of Hradec Králové

Hradec Králové - The city hall of the hundred-thousand inhabitants Hradec Králové has begun to prepare a new urban plan, which is the basic document for the city's development. The costs for its preparation are estimated at nearly 30 million crowns. The plan should be completed no later than 2015. This was stated today by the city hall deputy Josef Malíř. So far, the city and investors are following the urban plan from 2000.
    According to Malíř, every city in the Czech Republic must have a new urban plan developed by the end of 2015 or must revise the current one. "This follows from the new building law," he said, adding that Hradec decided to create a new plan.
    According to the city council's proposal, an ideational study of the urban plan should first be developed, through an international architectural competition. The costs for this are estimated at up to eight million crowns. Only then would the actual development of the urban plan take place, which could cost 15 to 20 million crowns.
    If the procedure proposed by the city council is approved by the representatives, the ideational competition could be announced in the second half of this year. It would be completed in 2010. "Based on the competition, the creation of the actual urban plan would then be commissioned, which would be approved by the next council," said Malíř.
    According to him, the ideational study should, for example, state whether the city should develop towards the future highway D11, to the south towards nearby Pardubice, or whether it should develop into the countryside at all. The study should also indicate whether a classical industrial zone should be created in Hradec. This is not included in the current urban plan. So far, the city's development is directed southwest towards the future highway and further north towards the ČKD area.