The councilor prioritizes the completion of the urban plan for Brno by 2022

Brno - Urban planning in Brno is in crisis and the city has lost too much time in debates. CTK was told by Filip Chvátal (KDU-ČSL), who after the weekend will become the new Brno councilor responsible for urban planning. His goal for the four-year term is to create a new urban plan for Brno. The current one was created in 1994 and will expire after 2022. By then, Brno must have a new plan.

The draft urban plan is to be prepared by the Office of the Architect of the City of Brno based on the guidelines approved this year, which were derived from a several-year-old concept of the new urban plan. The draft should be completed in a year, after which it will be discussed with the city districts and the public and incorporate feedback. "It is possible to complete it by the end of 2022. It is my biggest priority for this electoral term. However, it will be a very difficult task. In my opinion, urban planning is in crisis. The complexity of the discussions is at the edge of tolerability," said Chvátal.

According to him, Brno has lost an enormous amount of time debating what exactly will be done. "It is a question of whether the city should have filed a cassation complaint against the canceled update of the urban plan. The city got into conflict with the region and contested its procedure regarding the approval of the principles of territorial development and refused to make a decision until the principles were approved. Then there was a long decision-making process on whether to prepare a new urban plan or to work on the existing concept," listed Chvátal.

In 2014, the court canceled a major update of the urban plan of Brno at the instigation of activists and associations, but after the elections and leadership change, the city hall stopped legal disputes. The city also waited for the principles of territorial development to be completed as a regional urban plan. Some politicians argued that the city could not work on its plan without this, while others insisted that a new plan could be created in cooperation with the region.

Chvátal does not admit that the urban plan would not be completed by the end of 2022. "I will do everything to ensure that this does not happen. For the entire project to be successful, we need to involve experts, including those from abroad. I see discussions with the public and city districts and associations as crucial to avoid thousands of comments. The legal side will be absolutely fundamental. We can draw a good plan, but it must withstand any lawsuits," Chvátal stated. In the past, the court canceled not only the update of the urban plan of Brno but also in 2012 the principles of regional development that the region had to rework. In addition to the work on the new plan, Chvátal wants to complete some changes to the current plan that need to be approved. "There are a large number of important changes. For those non-conflicting ones, I would prefer an expedited process. We are capable of approving such a change within nine months," added Chvátal.

So far, urban planning has been managed by the Greens, who were in a coalition with ANO, Žít Brno with the Pirates, KDU-ČSL, and TOP 09. However, the People's Party expressed dissatisfaction with the work of the Greens before the elections. Now, Brno will be governed by a coalition of ODS, KDU-ČSL, Pirates, and ČSSD.