Prague will prepare a territorial study of the heritage reserve

Prague - Prague will commission a spatial study for the Prague Heritage Reserve for three million crowns. The city council made this decision today. According to the mayor's deputy Petr Hlaváček (for TOP 09), this step also responds to the requests of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Ministry of Culture. The study is to be the first step toward detailed regulation of the historical center, which will also address, for example, the debated issue of high-rise construction and the protection of Prague's skyline. The document should be completed by the end of September next year.

Representatives from UNESCO were in Prague on an observation mission in the spring of 2019. Their final report includes a set of recommendations, which include the development of a so-called regulatory plan for the heritage reserve. This includes all of Prague 1, most of Prague 2, and smaller parts of Prague 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. The spatial study is to be the first step toward stricter regulation with the help of regulatory plans, which have binding characteristics and can set more detailed requirements for urbanism and the appearance of buildings than the generally conceived spatial plan.

The study will aim to delineate and describe individual parts of the historical center and recommend selected areas for subsequent more detailed documentation, whether in the form of regulatory plans or additional spatial studies. "It is a material from which further tasks for appropriate urban regulation of the Prague heritage reserve should arise," Hlaváček said. He added that it should also address controversial topics such as high-rise construction.

According to the document approved by the councilors, similar attempts to regulate the entire historical center have appeared in the past but have failed mainly due to the size of the area and the number of stakeholders that needed to be included in the discussions. Currently, there is only one valid regulatory plan for the Anenská quarter within the Prague Heritage Reserve, which, according to city information, covers only 18 hectares of the total 895 hectares of the reserve.