The expert assessment criticized the draft of the Metropolitan Plan

Prague - Experts have criticized the so-called Metropolitan Plan, which is set to determine the rules for development in Prague from 2023. A ten-page evaluation of the plan was prepared at the request of the city hall by academics from the Czech University of Life Sciences (ČZU) under the leadership of Vojtěch Novotný. According to them, the plan does not establish sufficiently strict rules. This was stated today by Deputy Mayor for Urban Development Petra Kolínská (Greens/Trojkoalice) to journalists. The Institute of Planning and Development (IPR), which prepared the plan, rejected the criticism.

"The main goals of the evaluation were primarily to ensure compliance with the assignment and the applicability of the plan," said Novotný. The assignment was approved by the council in the previous term, and public commenting on the document will begin on Wednesday.

The draft plan, prepared by the IPR team led by Roman Koucký, according to the assessment, does not establish sufficient rules for construction, public spaces, greenery, or civic amenities. "It allows the city to develop according to the assigned guidelines, but it does not guarantee it," said Novotný.

According to him, the creators of the plan decided not to specify the exact use of locations, so anything can emerge in them as long as it is mutually compatible. "By doing this, they essentially made it impossible to propose civic amenities. Because if you don't know how many people live where, you can't know how many school places are needed, for example," he added. The assessment mentions issues such as the buildability of parks, height regulation, protection of garden colonies, and insufficient identification of places for civic amenities.

Deputy Kolínská, who is responsible for the preparation of the plan, agrees with the findings of the ČZU team. According to her, the draft resembles plans from the socialist period rather than from the First Republic. In the event of approval of the plan in its current form, the final decision would again be transferred to building authorities, thereby operating outside of public oversight, she stated.

IPR spokesperson Marek Vácha rejected this. "The principles of the Metropolitan Plan are, on the contrary, very reflective of the First Republic, and the rules for buildability are stricter than in the current plan," he stated.

One point of criticism is the buildability of parks, which are classified in the terminology of the Metropolitan Plan as unbuildable blocks in buildable areas. According to Kolínská, this is confusing and risky, however, Vácha claims that it is merely a terminological issue. "According to the assignment, we divided the city into buildable and unbuildable, essentially the city and the landscape. Within the buildable, there are many parks, squares, or garden colonies, which are designated as non-building blocks according to the terminology based on Prague's building regulations. If someone wanted to build there, they would have to change the zoning plan just like today. It will actually be even harder," he said.

According to Kolínská, the conclusions of the assessment correspond to the comments that city parts are preparing regarding the proposal. The roughly one-month deadline for submitting these comments will begin this Wednesday. In addition to city halls, individuals, companies, or other institutions can comment on the plan.

In the past, there were disputes surrounding the new plan, which led to the dismissal of Petr Hlaváček from the position of the head of the IPR and temporarily also of the main author of the new plan Roman Koucký. Ultimately, he returned to the head of the team preparing the plan after winning the selection procedure. However, the preparation experienced delays. It was originally supposed to be effective from 2020, but lawmakers extended the deadline by three years.