Take a look at the plots where Prague will start building apartments. There are a thousand more of them a year
Since 1989, Prague has actually used the only way to dispose of the land it wanted to evaluate in some way – it sold it to a private owner, who had already built what he considered appropriate in accordance with the zoning plan. No one has quantified it exactly yet, but Prague and its city districts have thus lost at least a few hundred hectares of building plots since the revolution.
Now, however, Prague’s strategy is changing and the city is preparing to try what has been working west of us for years and actually worked in Prague years ago.
At that time, for example, when in the first third of the 20th century there was a massive construction in Vinohrady, the city architects themselves designed what would happen where, and only then did the individual plots of the city be sold to the builders. is that Vinohrady is today the most sought after neighborhood in the city rated.
And this is exactly what one of the tasks of the Prague city developer should be – to directly determine how it will be built in Prague.
However, it is difficult to follow a hundred-year-old or foreign tradition. “Of course, it would be ideal if we could turn around a magic ring, define the territory, decide on plans and quickly build, for example, two thousand flats. We took a quarter of them for the city and everyone would be satisfied, “says Petr Hlaváček, Deputy for Territorial Development (TOP 09).
The problem, however, is that for the last thirty years, construction in Prague has been firmly in the hands of private developers, and the city has not designed any apartment buildings, let alone built them, and in fact it cannot. “It’s not like there’s a file somewhere in a closet with a clear procedure,” says Hlaváček. That is why Prague wants to try the whole process first. “The goal is to obtain a zoning decision for some two to three projects within two years, something between about 300 and 500 apartments,” adds the deputy.
There are several options for building in the finals
In the beginning, the new city company was given to manage eleven plots of land, on which it should try to prepare housing projects and catch them before the process of obtaining a building permit. However, what will happen to them is not clear at all and there are several options.
The first is that the project is a zoning decision for the average developer, at a much higher price than selling the land without him. The developer will complete the project and part of the apartments that the city will keep for its own needs may be part of the business.
The second option, which has become increasingly common in recent months, is cooperative housing. In short, this should work so that Prague leases land to the housing cooperative, and we build an apartment building on our own. “Construction will be cheaper for the cooperative, because the price of the land usually accounts for up to twenty percent of the total cost of the housing project,” explained housing councilor Hana Kordová Marvanová. According to her, the flats will go straight to the people of Prague, without the developer having to play a mediator.
However, the Prague coalition has been agreeing for several months on how cooperative construction should work and what conditions it should have. At the last meeting of the council, Councilor Marvanová withdrew her project and will probably try to push it through with the help of the opposition in the council.
The so-called baugruppe is counted on smaller plots. It is a method of construction that is popular especially in the west of the Czech Republic, when several inhabitants come together and build their own apartment building according to their ideas together with an architect.
Finally, the last possibility is that after the city developer has done his job, the municipal investment department will take the initiative and the city will build an apartment building for itself with the help of construction companies. “Even where we are furthest with the preparation of projects, this decision explains how it will do so, he explains at least another year,” Hlaváček said.
Eleven plots
Of the eleven plots on which the developer is now focusing, the largest is the preparation of those in Černý Most and Dolní Počernice. The previous management of the town hall had the apartment house projects made for them. However, both are stopped by the new coalition, saying that they are obsolete and overpriced, and both are now being rebuilt by the city. With the rest of the plots, the developer must start from scratch.
The list also includes developing areas, such as in Nové Dvůr. This is a large location where the D metro station is to be built in the coming years. “It is more complicated there. But while an agreement will be sought throughout the territory, it is possible to prepare one or two projects at least in its part, “says Hlaváček. The developer should similarly intervene in Palmovka.
Originally, the Institute of Planning and Development selected more than five hundred plots of land on which to build. So I anticipate that more land will be added to the list for urban developers, if he succeeds. However, there will probably be even more work on other plots.
“There is a lot of land, but then you get to it, it needs a four-lane parking lot on the edge of a housing estate, such as Jižní Město or the Modřany housing estate. Normally, of course, an apartment building would go there and the parking lot would be hidden underground or ground floor. But we know how it relates to construction in housing estates, so for now we are concentrating elsewhere, “says the deputy.
The city promises up to a thousand apartments a year
Despite its slow beginnings, however, the Prague developer wants to compete once with those who already operate, for example, in Munich or Hamburg. Around eight to ten thousand flats are built in these cities every year, and about twenty percent of them are the fault of the city itself.
“In the future, our city developer could generate some one thousand to fifteen hundred apartments a year in various ways. Prague is the capital of the entire Central European region and in the next fifty years it will constantly absorb new inhabitants, both from the rest of Europe and from other parts. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen any tool that would somehow bridge the housing deficit, “adds Hlaváček.
According to him, in addition to the preparation of housing projects, the city company will probably also be in charge of negotiating with ordinary developers about their own projects. “We will say that the developer will have a plot of land near the metro, where only four floors will be built according to regulations. The city may say that it will allow the construction of eight floors there, but it will take some of the apartments built for itself, ”the architect describes another way the city can come to new apartments.
In such a case, it would be the city developer who should expertly assess whether something like this is in Prague’s interest. “The final decision, of course, would be up to the city authorities,” concludes Hlaváček.