Not only in Prague. Ostrava, Pilsen and Zlín are sounding the alarm because of the construction law
Prague and six other domestic cities have united in the fight for a better construction law, because the one that the government is discussing today will, according to them, only worsen the current situation.
According to city representatives from CityDeal, one of the most criticized changes is that it is not possible to purchase city building regulations. For example, Prague has had its building regulations since 2016, but the proposed law is planned to be repealed, other statutory cities are not expected to have them.
“Each city is different and has its own specifics and character. Just as there cannot be the same administration regime for the Podyjí National Park and the Krkonoše National Park, Liberec cannot be planned entirely according to the same principles as Ostrava or Prague,” says Ondřej, director of the Municipal Studio of Spatial Planning and Architecture (MAPPA), which is a contribution organization of the statutory city of Ostrava He served.
Urban planner from Hamburg: The metropolitan plan is the alpha and omega of construction. The Prague one is perfect
Prague needs affordable housing and the Vltava Philharmonic. The Alpha and Omega for the development of the Czech metropolis is undoubtedly the Metropolitan Plan. “None of the European capitals has such a well-developed plan. It was created on the basis of valid data, in cooperation with many other concerned institutions,” says well-known urban planner Peter Gero in an interview for Newstream.
City representatives in the initiative are calling, for example, for a change in the city’s status in territorial or construction management. “The current form of the Building Act gives the city the status of only a participant. It therefore has the same status for the builder as any neighbor of his plot,” says the architect of the city of Karlovy Vary, Karel Adamec.
In practice, according to him, the city often finds itself in a situation where it considers its own development and has no influence on any.
The construction law is a debacle, say critics
The substantive amendment to the Construction Act, which is being discussed by the government, primarily cancels the establishment of the Supreme Building Authority and its subordinate system and the preservation of part of the building authorities in municipalities. In addition to cities, it is criticized by representatives of the Association of Developers, the Czech Chamber of Architects, the Association of Entrepreneurs in the Construction Industry or the Chamber of Commerce. According to them, the government should postpone the discussion because it is of poor quality and slows down construction.
“With the comprehensive recodification, which was adopted literally in a year, the new material turned out like the peasants at Chlumek. It cannot be called anything other than the debacle of Minister Ivan Bartoš (Pirates) and his officials,” says Tomáš Kadeřábek, director of the Association of Developers of the Czech Republic.
According to the association, the main disadvantage of the “Bartoš” model is that it does not speed up the process and does not reduce the number of documents required for construction management. “So it is not true that it is one procedure, one process, one stamp,” adds Kadeřábek.
Hlaváček: When Prague builds its own apartments, it will affect real estate prices. But before long
All of Western Europe has different forms of urban construction. “It would be a sin if Prague got rid of its own land, of which it does not have many, and did not use it as a basis for urban construction. At the same time, I realize that to create a high-quality urban environment, we need reasonable developers,” says urban planner Petr Hlaváček, known as the founding father of the Prague Development Company, who defended the post of STAN in the Prague council in the municipal elections.
The desire to build in the Czech Republic is there, as are the finances. But projects are stifled by legislation, says the architect
The Brno architectural studio Chybík+Kristof was founded 12 years ago. He has a number of realizations and prestigious awards to his credit. For example, he won a bronze medal for architecture for the project of the Czech pavilion at EXPO in Milan. And it is this realization, as well as the design of the wooden headquarters of the state enterprise Lesy České republiky (LČR), which won an international competition, that one of the studio’s founders, Ondřej Chybík, considers groundbreaking. His 50-member team is now participating, for example, in the design of the Ostrava skyscraper, and the Prague Philharmonic on the Vltava is also competing. Chybík calls not only for a change in legislation, but also for Czech society to listen more to the opinion of architects.