The coalition at the Prague city hall wants to remove some construction bans

Prague - The coalition at the Prague City Hall is striving to lift some construction bans. Currently, there are about 30 of these bans in Prague, all of which were declared during previous electoral terms. Construction should be permitted primarily in the city center, rather than expanding the city to its outskirts. An example is the freight station in Žižkov. This was stated today by the chairman of the commission for changes to the zoning plan and chairman of the Green Party, Matěj Stropnický, at a meeting with journalists.

According to him, the Green Party, which is responsible for the zoning plan and housing construction in the capital, is certainly not hindering construction. It only directs investors not to build apartments on the edges of the city.

"The situation is such that developers are pressing the city to make changes to the zoning plan. They buy non-construction plots, most often on the outskirts of the city, which are four to six times cheaper than construction plots. They then ask the city to change the purchased land into a construction plot, which significantly increases its value," Stropnický said. According to him, this brings costs to the city, which is why it does not want to take such steps.

However, the director of the Association of Developers, Tomáš Kadeřábek, argues that only a minority of current projects are planned on greenfield sites in the city's outskirts. "The current situation, where there has truly been an absolute halt to the development of the metropolis, is mainly due to the absurdly complicated, non-transparent construction approval process and the instability of the legislative environment," he stated.

According to Stropnický, the zoning plan from 1999 approved approximately 2500 hectares of land designated for construction, of which only about half is being utilized. Among the largest and most notorious of the 30 construction bans are Bubny - Zátory, the Žižkov freight station, and Bohdalec. "All of them were declared during previous electoral terms. This coalition has not declared a single one. On the contrary, we are working to ensure that we can lift some of those bans before the end of this electoral term. And to allow what is expected. That is, construction primarily in the city center," the deputy mayor said.

"There are indeed a lot of plots in Prague at first glance. However, very few of them are suitable for construction," responded Marcela Fialková, spokesperson for Central Group, to Stropnický's words. According to her, many plots are burdened with various encumbrances, such as engineering networks or ecological burdens. Necessary investments for decontamination often reach into the tens of millions of crowns. "In some cases, the costs for decontamination are so high that even if the land were completely free, construction would not be economically viable," she added.

The low number of new apartment constructions started this year, which developers are complaining about, is according to Stropnický largely due to the fact that they were waiting until the new Prague building regulations came into effect. According to him, these are more favorable for developers in some respects. "So it was worth waiting, which most investors did. The number of issued building permits has increased year-on-year by the end of October, while the number of started constructions has decreased. But given that the new regulations have been in effect since September, we can expect that the number of started apartments will rise again next year," Stropnický added.

"I do not agree with the statement that investors are tactically waiting for the new Prague building regulations," Kadeřábek told ČTK. He stated that the approval process in places where the zoning plan allows for construction takes eight years. "Relying on a change in the zoning plan would be, given the current length of the process, complete gambling," he added.