Prague approved the agreement on the land exchange in the South City

photo: Packa, Wikimedia Commons

Prague – The leadership of Prague will sign an agreement on the exchange of land in Jižní Město together with Prague 11 and private landowners, including the development group Finep. The councilors made this decision on Monday. The exchanges aim to consolidate currently fragmented lands to enable local governments to build public infrastructure and private developers to undertake construction in the Na Jelenách area of Opatov. The memorandum has already been approved by Prague 11, which was criticized by the local opposition.

According to Prague councilor Jan Chabr (TOP 09), disputes over land in Jižní Město are due to restitution issues and have been ongoing for years. He stated that reaching an agreement took hundreds of hours of negotiations. The memorandum precisely defines which plots will be exchanged for which and what the next steps will be. The magistrate and Prague 11 will also save money, which they currently pay landowners for renting parcels. Over ten years, this will amount to 60 million crowns, the document states.

The exchange primarily concerns the area around the Opatov metro station and the Na Jelenách locality, where Finep, along with other owners, plans a development project. In return, the city will acquire, for example, plots in the Hviezdoslavova street area, where further development is planned, according to Chabr. Based on the memorandum, expert valuations of the land prices will now be conducted, followed by a contract on a future contract and subsequently the actual exchange agreement. Both contracts will need to be approved by the councils of Prague and Prague 11.

Currently, the Na Jelenách area, defined by the streets Roztylská, Na Jelenách, and the D1 highway, is one of the largest undeveloped areas in Jižní Město; the magistrate has commissioned a territorial study to determine the parameters for future construction.

The land exchanges were criticized by the local opposition at a recent meeting of the Prague 11 councilors, which argued that this would deprive the city district and the city of strategic land and lose the ability to directly determine what will be built in those areas. Councilor Šárka Zdeňková (HPP 11) described the memorandum as "a deal with municipal land."