The court annulled the change in the zoning plan in Brno for the construction of an Amazon warehouse

Brno - The Regional Court in Brno annulled the changes to the regulations of Brno's zoning plan for the industrial zone of Černovická terasa, which was voted on by the previous city council in May 2014, according to the court's decision. The changes were made specifically for the arrival of the online retailer Amazon, which planned to build a nearly ten-hectare warehouse in Brno. The city does not want to comment on the ruling for now and will wait for the reasoning, spokesperson Filip Poňuchálek told ČTK.

The change in regulations came a few weeks after the investor withdrew the plan because city councilors failed to agree for several months on whether they wanted Amazon in Brno or not.

The association Čisté Tuřany succeeded in its lawsuit against the city, aiming to ensure that the industrial zone continued to serve its purpose, namely light industry, rather than logistics centers, which the regulations did not permit. "We are satisfied. We did not want another congestion of traffic in the area. The arrival of Amazon would mean dozens of trucks daily in an already overloaded area in the southeast of Brno," said Hana Kašpaříková, the association's director, to ČTK.

Although the ruling coalition consisted of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) and the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), the change to the zoning plan was supported only by ČSSD, whereas ODS opposed it. Former mayor Roman Onderka (ČSSD) fought for Amazon's arrival for several months, and the zoning plan was changed by a very narrow majority of 29 out of 55 votes. The Christian Democrats and TOP 09 were in favor, while the Green Party and Communists opposed it.

At that time, the developer CTP Invest was preparing for Amazon's arrival, owning part of the land and planning to buy part from Brno if the arrival of Amazon was finalized. Today, the land remains unused, and Amazon has not revived its plans in Brno. The South Moravian director of CTP, Tomáš Budař, has not yet commented on the implications of the decision. "We need to study the decision; moreover, we were not a participant in the proceedings," he told ČTK.

Opponents of Amazon argued primarily about the critical increase in freight traffic, which was to be addressed by a long-promised new highway exit directly into the industrial zone. For instance, Onderka mentioned back then that it was not a problem for the exit to be completed by 2017. He also stated that he was convinced that the city councilors voted for the change in regulations in accordance with the law. A representative from the Ministry of Transport even came to convince councilors about the construction of the exit two years ago, but to date, construction has not started.