The Prague councillors have halted the preparation of the land use plan and will prepare another one

Prague - Prague councilors have halted the preparation of a new zoning plan for the second time and have initiated preparation of another, so-called metropolitan plan. Tereza Králová from the press department of the magistrate told ČTK. The material will be discussed by the council on Thursday. The council dealt with the proposals a month ago, but due to disputes within the ODS club, it only approved the intention to end the current plan and prepare a new one.
The goal of the metropolitan plan is to limit the number of changes to the zoning plan to be discussed, which, according to Deputy Mayor Tomáš Hudeček (TOP 09), provide room for corruption. The document is to be simpler and more stable, only establishing the maximum burden on the territory.
"Zoning planning needs to be cleansed. I'm glad the council supported my project. We have three and a half years ahead of us to complete it," Hudeček told reporters. Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda (ODS) described today's decision as fundamental and strategic, the largest in the area of zoning planning in recent years.
According to Hudeček, the city discussed 2077 changes to the current zoning plan, the processing of which cost Prague about 140 million crowns. "The planned new zoning plan would carry the necessity of continuous changes in the future, thus becoming more expensive. The decision to stop work on it also has economic justification," Hudeček stated.
The new metropolitan plan will be processed at a scale of 1:25000, while the current plan elaborates the territory of the capital city at a scale of 1:10000. The plan will not deal in detail with stabilized areas. However, it will elaborate on problematic or unresolved places in more detail.
Among other things, the goal of the metropolitan plan will be to limit the urban sprawl, protect non-buildable areas, and bring housing back to the city center.
The council also agreed today to start preparing a change to the zoning plan that would allow the reconstruction of the railway station in Bubny. A condition for the approval of the change will be the preparation of a territorial study and an assessment of the environmental impact of the change. The neglected area in Holešovice is in the hands of private owners, and the study, according to Hudeček, should find a compromise between the various interests of developers. "The city no longer has any such additional development area in the center. Prague should take care of all types of uses, including modern architecture," Hudeček added. According to earlier information, a concert hall, which Prague lacks, could be created in the area.
The discussion about the change has been interrupted in the past. The construction in Bubny, worth tens of billions of crowns, has long been planned by the Orco Property Group, which has faced high debts in recent years. An office, residential, and commercial complex was supposed to arise on the unutilized railway land.