Prague will see a new Metropolitan Plan, hundreds of thousands of new flats could gradually arise.
A new Metropolitan plan, which will replace the original zoning documentation in Prague and simplify the development planning of the capital city, has been launched. The Prague City Development and Planning Institute anticipates that this will create space for up to 350,000 new homes.
The new plan, which took about 12 years to prepare, aims to streamline land use planning and speed up construction in the metropolis. Compared to the current document, it includes height regulation or division into specified localities and their protection, also foreseeing the creation of new quarters on current brownfields.
"We want to protect the values of the city while at the same time enabling new modern development in appropriate places,"
Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda explained for CTK. According to him, the current plan, which dates back to 1999, is already outdated.
Will the capital see massive construction?
The new plan should bring fairer conditions for developers with involvement in financing public facilities with the help of so-called planning agreements and introduce a new calculation of gross floor area. Thanks to this, builders should know better how intensively they can build.
"It anchors all the state's and city's investment actions. Thus, the metropolitan plan will allow for fast and massive construction, including guaranteeing sufficient public facilities,"
the deputy for territorial and strategic development, Petr Hlaváček, wrote to the editorial office.
The Association of Developers, for example, gratefully acknowledged the aforementioned assumption, which identified the publication of the updated version of the plan as a significant step in the long-term effort towards modern and predictable planning of the capital's development.
"At this moment, we are just getting acquainted with the textual and graphic representation of the plan, so we cannot provide a detailed comment yet. However, we believe that after many years of preparation the Metropolitan plan will become an important milestone in solving the long-term problem of insufficient construction in Prague and will fulfill expectations in the form of increasing the capacity for residential and commercial construction,"
said Zdeněk Soudný, the general secretary of the association, for LP-Life, adding that he hopes that the final document will be understandable for its users and will not be burdened with exaggerated regulation that would complicate its practical use.
Political games
Some politicians, however, criticize the height limits that the document contains. They would rather have more high-rise construction.
"I think here that Prague is more papal than the Pope, and for me, that is untenable in the long run – the idea that one could not build higher in hilly Prague seems truly absurd,"
stated in a press release for example, the chairman of the ANO representative club, Patrik Nacher.
According to the director of the Institute of Planning and Development Ondřej Boháč, the new plan represents the maximum possible agreement on the future of Prague. As he claims, it takes into account countless conflicting interests and views. However, in order for the plan to really start fulfilling its role, it is essential that construction authorities and the entire building permit system function effectively. And not only in Prague, but also elsewhere.
ANO, SPD and Motorists, who should form the new government, agree on the issue of accelerating the licensing process, and therefore construction. All three parties, for example, agree on the use of neglected and abandoned land, i.e. brownfields. ANO wants to unlock apartment construction on them, set new rules and remove some obstacles. SPD sees the situation similarly. The Motorists then want to introduce a centralized register of brownfields and speed up the permitting procedure for these areas. At the same time, they would like to introduce legislative exceptions for brownfields, where there would be priority permitting and reduced requirements for technical infrastructure.
The disagreement between the parties, however, is in their approach to the Ministry of Local Development. While ANO would abolish it, under certain conditions, the Motorists could also imagine this, SPD would rather keep the office and reform it.
Digitalization
This is also closely connected with the issue of digitalization of building regulations. In this regard, ANO wants to prepare a new system based on analysis and select the most suitable model. However, all this only after the original proposal of the Building Act is adopted. The system should be introduced in stages, thoroughly tested, and user-friendly, according to the SPD. The completion date for digitalizing the building regulations announced by the current government for January 1, 2028, is considered unlikely by the movement. The Motorists stated in their program that they will complete the digitalization of the building regulations with an emphasis on simplicity and functionality for citizens, companies, and local governments. However, they did not specify how they precisely envisage this.
The capital is currently planning to present the Metropolitan Plan proposal. A whole series of accompanying events for the public and expert discussions will take place during November, as well as two public hearings. Land owners or city districts can submit comments online through the Portal of Prague's Inhabitants.
Approval of the plan for the capital is undoubtedly good news for both real estate investors and builders, as well as for those seeking new housing. Reality will show, however, whether good intentions will turn into a final benefit. In recent years, a lot of different promises and statements have indeed been made.
Sources: author's article, own questioning, Capital city of Prague, Czech News Agency
