The land use plan for South Moravia will not resolve key roads in Brno and the surrounding area

Brno - The South Moravian Region wants to approve the Principles of Territorial Development (ZÚR) before the elections next year in the autumn in such a form that it will not be clear how the territory of the Brno metropolitan area will deal with the long-postponed solution to key road constructions. It will only define corridors of possible routes in several variants, which will serve as territorial reserves until a final decision is made on a single variant, which emerged today from a working meeting of the region's leadership with the contractors of ZÚR and the mayors of Brno's city districts.
    "The region chose the form of document approval that postpones the solution to the most pressing problems until after the elections. Only after the approval of the ZÚR does the region intend to commission a study that will thoroughly assess the impacts of new transport constructions in the wider Brno agglomeration," said Martin Ander (Green Party), the deputy mayor of Brno, to ČTK. The absence of a study that would comprehensively describe the impact on the environment was precisely one of the reasons why the previous ZÚR was annulled by the Supreme Administrative Court in 2012.
    South Moravian Councilor Antonín Tesařík (KDU-ČSL) reiterated that the region included all possible existing studies related to the development of transportation constructions in the region in the preparation of ZÚR. "We want to discuss the leadership of new constructions and the final form of ZÚR as much as possible with representatives of municipalities and citizens and explain as much as possible so that everyone is informed. The ZÚR will not provide answers on the final routing of all roads or railways. That is why we want to commission studies that will comprehensively assess the impacts and only then decide," Tesařík stated.
    In the ZÚR, the region is postponing the solution to highway R43, which will connect the D1 motorway with areas north of Brno and continue through Boskovice to Moravská Třebová. Other problematic constructions include a tangential connection to the south of Brno. The region has not given up on the idea of a southwestern tangent from the D1 intersection and the planned R43 towards the current R52. This would mean the encirclement of Bosonohy or Ostopovice by highways. Furthermore, there is a proposal for a southern tangent connecting R52 and D2 south of D1, as well as a southeastern tangent planned as a second-class road from D2 south of Chrlice to the east.
    The authors of the ZÚR, Urban Planning Center Brno and Atelier T-plan, presented four ZÚR variants with various transportation concepts in the region, but in terms of transport models, they prefer the variant with the most massive development of transport constructions in Brno and its immediate surroundings. It assumes that transit traffic from D1, D2, R52, and R43 will converge in Brno. "It is clear from the proposal that other variants are just for show," noted Ander.
    According to him, the problem of territorial planning at the regional level lies in the fact that the authors overlook the fact that there are people living in the region, and they only care about having as many cars as possible on the roads. "It is necessary to seek a balance in transport solutions that does not prioritize transport functions," said Ander. He also emphasized that planners must adhere to the law, which states that no other transport construction can be placed in areas where hygiene standards are not observed.
    For Brno, the ZÚR is also crucial because without their approval, the city cannot prepare a new territorial plan. It still uses the old one from 1994, which has already been amended multiple times.
    Regional councilors want to present the ZÚR proposal on March 12, to which citizens and associations will also be able to comment. The ZÚR addresses not only roads but also railway constructions, energy networks, flood protection measures, etc. South Moravia is the only region that does not have a valid planning document.