The Metropolitan Plan draft submitted for review

Yesterday, the first phase of the preparation of the new zoning plan for the capital city - the Metropolitan Plan - was completed. The Institute of Planning and Development of the Capital City of Prague submitted its draft for review to the developer, the Department of Urban Development of the Prague City Hall, which should start discussions in spring 2016.
“The Metropolitan Plan will no longer focus as much as the current zoning plan does on activities within individual buildings, but rather on what is happening between the buildings - how new constructions will influence streets, squares, and parks, and how they should behave in relation to their surroundings. The Metropolitan Plan will determine the city's structure rather than the possible functional use of individual plots. What happens between the walls of a house changes more often than the walls themselves. It is important how activities within buildings affect their environment.” says Petr Hlaváček, Director of the Institute of Planning and Development of the Capital City of Prague (IPR).
The Metropolitan Plan will thus introduce a citywide height regulation of buildings, which has been sorely lacking in Prague. High-rise buildings will no longer be able to arise as random solitary structures. The plan will allow the construction of high-rise buildings only in a few suitable areas.
Another innovation of the plan will be the division into almost eight hundred locations. Each of them has its specific character. The plan will describe individual locations using the prevailing type of development, public spaces, and usage, as well as through local names (such as “Letná Parks” or “Colony in the Ponds”).
For each location, experts from IPR also prescribed rules for further development: to what extent construction is allowed or prohibited, which type of buildings may appear, and what are the values that need to be protected. This way, the Metropolitan Plan will prevent several-story apartment buildings from being built in residential neighborhoods of family homes. A similar tool has proven very effective, for example, in Munich.
“The plan must also be understandable. Excessive complexity has been one of the biggest problems of the current zoning plan – only experts or people who devoted enormous amounts of energy to it understood it,” points out the Director of IPR Prague, Petr Hlaváček. “Therefore, the Metropolitan Plan is fully digital. On the web interface, everyone will be able to click on the place they are interested in, and all regulations will be presented clearly,” adds Hlaváček.
The Institute of Planning and Development of Prague prepared the plan for a total of three years, making it the fastest prepared plan in Prague's history. The following approximately three months will involve a review process by the developer. After incorporating the feedback resulting from the review, IPR will submit the Metropolitan Plan, and the City Hall of the Capital City of Prague will begin to properly discuss it with institutions, city districts, and the general public.

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