The risk of preparing the zoning plan for Brno lies in the amount of comments

Brno - The new Brno councilor Filip Chvátal (KDU-ČSL) sees the largest risk in preparing the land use plan as the number of comments, their conflicts, and the time for discussion with ministries and city districts. The more comments there are and the more conflicting they are, the longer their resolution will take, and the more the issuance of the new land use plan will be delayed, he said in an interview with ČTK. His predecessor Martin Ander (SZ) anticipated that the plan could be issued at the beginning of 2022, and Chvátal believes that it can indeed be completed on time.

"I will do everything to ensure that the plan is completed by the end of 2022. If that is not possible, we must look for ways to continuously address the situation and work intensively to complete and issue it," said Chvátal. The current land use plan can be valid by law only until the end of 2022. Additionally, not only developers are waiting for the new planning document; they have been saying for several years that there is no place to build new apartments. It will replace the current one from 1994 and is meant to enable the development of the city not only in terms of housing construction but also in the construction of new necessary roads.

Two more potential threats to the land use plan are comments on the process itself, on which the so-called major update of the land use plan failed in 2014. "We will work to minimize these potential comments," said Chvátal. The final question is whether the emerging team for creating the land use plan at the Office of the City Architect of Brno (KAMB), which was tasked with the preparation in August by a council resolution, and the capacity of the Department of Urban Planning and Development will be sufficient for the large task.

The previous city leadership ultimately decided not to create a new land use plan but to use the drafted concept that had been abandoned nearly ten years ago. "I think it was a good step, although some things need to be updated because the perspective on them has changed over the years. I would also like to open a discussion about the concept, what we can realistically still include in it and what we cannot," Chvátal believes.

He would also like some areas not to be defined as strictly as in the past but to allow greater flexibility for the future. "We never know for certain what needs the city will have in ten years. I would also very much like to involve other more experienced urbanists in the creative team. We are still discussing this with the director of the Office of the City Architect," Chvátal said.

The new land use plan will introduce a new method for regulating building height. Instead of the floor area index, a precisely defined maximum building height will be established.

Simultaneously with the creation of the new plan, the team is working on changes to the current plan. If one large package can be completed, it could unblock some locations for residential construction even before the issuance of the new land use plan. "We would ideally like to incorporate changes into it," said Chvátal.