Praha will stop the preparation of the new territorial plan and prepare a different one

Prague - The new leadership of the capital will halt the preparation of the new urban plan for Prague and will begin working on a new so-called metropolitan plan. According to Deputy Mayor Tomáš Hudeček (TOP 09), this plan will be simpler and more stable, protecting unbuildable areas and limiting the city's horizontal expansion. Hudeček also told reporters that an advisory body called the Resonance Board will be created to discuss the development of Prague.
    "The current urban plan is not a concept for the development of the city, but a rigid description of individual plots, where the whole completely disappears. Making changes to a plan that no one understands opens the door to corrupt practices, and the original intention, which was to create rules for sustainable development of the capital city of Prague, has been lost," stated Hudeček.
    Prague began preparing a new urban plan years ago. The concept is complete, but according to Hudeček, it will no longer be presented to the city council. Hudeček explained that the planned document opens up significant room for corrupt practices, just like the current urban plan, which is still in effect.
    Therefore, all usable information from the concept will be incorporated into the new metropolitan plan. Approved changes in the current urban plan will remain valid. The new plan should be simpler, with the aim of limiting the number of amendments to the urban plan being discussed. The metropolitan plan will set a maximum load for the area and should thereby influence the overall structure of development in the given locality. For example, in an area currently designated for housing, there could be simultaneously, without changing the urban plan, areas for recreation and sports, which would not burden the area as much.
    According to Hudeček, the aim of the metropolitan plan will also be the utilization of abandoned industrial sites, so-called brownfields, limiting the city's horizontal expansion, protecting unbuildable areas, and returning housing to the city center. Hudeček anticipates that he will manage to prepare the metropolitan urban plan by 2015, as required by the applicable building law.
    The new metropolitan plan will be processed at a scale of 1:25,000, while the current plan examines the areas of the capital at a scale of 1:10,000. "The new plan will not look at each plot, but at the character of the city," said architect Roman Koucký, who is involved in the preparation of the new development concept. According to him, the plan will not address in detail the areas that are stabilized. However, it will elaborate problematic or unresolved locations in more detail.
    The advisory body Resonance Board will include architects, urban planners, conservationists, as well as political scientists and representatives from civic associations, among others. The task of this body will be to provide feedback to the political leadership. Members will also present their own proposals. The group will have a maximum of 60 members, meeting four times a year. Once a year, Prague will rotate a third of its members.