Praha accelerated the discussion of changes to the zoning plan from 981 days to 270

Prague - The Prague City Hall has accelerated the discussion of changes to the zoning plan. The average time has reduced from the original 981 days to 270 days. The necessary documents have been simplified and will be further improved in the future, said Deputy Mayor Petr Hlaváček (for TOP 09) to journalists today. The City Hall processes an average of 6,980 changes annually. The zoning plan determines what can be built where. The city is currently preparing a new metropolitan plan, which will be completed in 2022.

In the past, the document was with the councilor for urban development for 564 days. "Now it is 133 days, which is quite a lot on the other hand," said Hlaváček. The phases of assignment and proposal of changes have also been shortened.

According to Hlaváček, the documents were previously extensive and lacked a standardized format. "Each had a completely independent and unique artistic and textual structure, and the authorities had a terrible lot of work with it. Now the confusion is eliminated," he said.

Newly, so-called cover sheets have been created, summarizing all important information about the change on one page, including maps or statements from the relevant city district. The statements of individual authorities are indicated in colors like those on a traffic light. The sheets are presented to, for example, councilors, making it easier for them to get acquainted with them.

However, the creation of cover sheets is not yet fully completed. Hlaváček stated that while creating them, too much data still needs to be entered manually. This is intended to change in the future.

Prague has also started an inventory of all changes to the zoning plan that the City Hall records. "There were many changes just sitting there (at the City Hall), with which anyone was afraid to do anything. We stopped most of them; there were changes interrupted by the council from 2004 to 2010 that were just gathering dust in the drawer. It was quite an archaeology," Hlaváček said.