You must speak and listen, advise world urbanists to Prague

photo: www.adrianakrnacova.cz

Prague - You must talk and listen to each other, advise world urbanists to Prague regarding the metropolitan plan. According to them, discussions between representatives of the city, its districts, residents, business people, and other stakeholders should precede the proposal for a new zoning plan. This was noted in a discussion at a conference on urban development planning, which was hosted today by the mayor's residence.

"In my opinion, urbanism is 90 percent communication," said Jiří Klokočka, who works as an architect and urbanist in the Belgian city of Kortrijk and teaches at architecture faculties in Prague and Liberec. According to him, it is essential to be able to explain your proposals to the public.

According to American landscape architect Mark Johnson, who works in Denver, the reason why construction is currently stalled in Prague is clear. "There is no tradition of democratic debate about the future here," he stated in the discussion.

According to Mayor Adriana Krnáčová (ANO), society is still not ready for a democratic discussion. "Twenty-seven years after a certain change is unfortunately a short time for us to be broadly capable of discussing democratically and transforming critical voices into different opinions," she noted in the discussion in response to the urbanists' views.

According to architect Roman Koucký, who led the team preparing the metropolitan plan, the Czech legal environment states that a proposal should be processed first and then discussed democratically. However, Johnson believes that the city should not let itself be dictated on when it can discuss the plan.

Explaining a good plan to the public is crucial, according to participants in today’s discussion. "If the plan is supported and people stand behind it, then it doesn't matter much when there's a change in the coalition," said architect Klokočka.

The metropolitan plan is a strategic document that determines where and what can be built. It is set to replace the outdated zoning plan currently in effect by 2020. The preparation has already cost the capital about 50 million crowns, but it is falling behind schedule. Public discussions about the plan were supposed to begin in the fall.

Experts and the city hall also claim that the proposal is not in accordance with the building law. The director of the section responsible for the zoning plan at the city's Institute of Planning and Development (IPR), Koucký, was dismissed by the director in mid-June. The selection committee recommended in late November that he should lead the team to complete the plan again. The opposition has repeatedly proposed the dismissal of Deputy Mayor Petra Kolínská (SZ/Trojkoalice), who has been in charge of urban development since this year. Before her, the current chairman of the Green Party, Matěj Stropnický, was the deputy for urban development. However, he was dismissed by the council following disputes over Prague's building regulations.