Developers’ contributions are intended to build transport infrastructure, schools or parks. According to Deputy Mayor Petr Hlaváček (TOP 09), the city started to create a methodology and fund due to lack of funds.

The creation of infrastructure is necessary for the functioning of the new districts, but these cities do not have enough money to finance the projects themselves in the coming decades. “The goal is to support housing, city development and the transparent functioning of public space, objectification and adequacy of agreements (with developers),” said Hlaváček.

The conclusion of the contract will be voluntary. The money that the investor provides to the city will be earmarked for the equipment or modification of public infrastructure or for the construction of recreational equipment and apartments. If the developer throws the land in accordance with the zoning plan and the given restrictions, I will pay 700 crowns per square meter of gross floor area. If he requests a change in the zoning plan to increase the project, he will pay 2,300 crowns for each meter beyond the original scope.

There will be clear rules for cooperation with developers

The fund will be responsible for, among other things, evidence of concluded development contracts and amounts provided. It will regularly evaluate and propose adjustments to the cooperation methodology.

The methodology is to set the rules according to which the city will cooperate with the development. The aim is to cooperate and coordinate the actions of all participants, ie the municipality, the city district and the developer, and to set the level of participation. “(Methodology) emphasizes the coordination and resolution of possible ambiguities, conflicting or inconsistent attitudes of the parties concerned already in the phase before the change of the zoning plan,” the methodology states. Although the agreement is voluntary, Hlaváček is not afraid that investors will boycott it.

The opposition asked for more time to familiarize themselves with the document

Opposition and representatives of some boroughs are calling for this item to be moved to the next meeting. The reason given was, among other things, the lack of time that he could get acquainted with the document. Letňan Mayor Zdeněk Kučera (YES) said that the money from the developers should be given exclusively to the city districts where the project is to be created. There was no exclusive transfer of money to the town halls in the proposal submitted by the council.

In the past, the municipality and the city districts concluded extraordinary contracts with the developers, in which the processor undertook to meet the city’s requirements beyond its obligations. This happened, for example, with the planned project Masaryk Center at Masaryk Railway Station, which was signed by the companies Prague CBD from the Penta magistrát group and Prague 1.

Minimal waste or its conversion into resources

The deputies also approved that Prague will prepare projects to help develop the circular economy. The management of Prague has already adopted a strategy of adapting the city to climate change. The basis of the circular economy, or circular economy, is to minimize the generation of waste, and once waste is generated, it is converted into resources.

According to Deputy Mayor Petr Hlubuček (STAN), the document is based on a climate plan and includes 73 measures to help meet the carbon neutrality commitment. According to the climate plan approved last year, the management of Prague wants to achieve this in 2050. The measures are divided into four thematic areas – construction, water management, agriculture and waste.

Marcela Plesníková, a representative of the YES opposition movement, criticized waste management. According to her, the prospect of increasing the amount of sorted waste is unrealistic. “Simply put, anyone willing to sort waste already sorts it,” she said.

The aim of the document is to sort and process 60 percent of biodegradable waste within four years, which it subsequently used, for example, in the planned biogas plant. According to the document, re-use centers should also be added in Prague, which offer people products that would otherwise go to waste. The city also wants to renew the “Iron Sunday”, ie the regular collection of scrap metal.

Sustainable construction and water saving

In construction, according to the document, the city was to create, for example, a material bank, where builders could find information about usable material that would otherwise become waste. According to the document, the city should also support sustainable construction in its public procurement.

In water management, the city wants to introduce leading measures to save water and prevent its leakage, the use of rainwater for irrigation or the use of residual heat from wastewater for heating. In agriculture and food, the document talks about supporting urban and suburban organic farming, for example by using their products in school canteens or creating a city production farm.

The strategy follows the city’s climate strategy, which was approved by representatives at the end of last May. According to her, the city should invest about 230 billion crowns in 69 measures aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. The municipality wants to get most of the necessary money from European funds. The plan was not supported by the opposition ODS and YES, according to their representatives it is unrealistic and insufficiently prepared.