The “square” will be occupied by workers, people will lose about a third of their parking spaces

Residents of Okružní street in Mařatice are in for a treat. At the end of April, a construction company will settle under their windows, which will take care of the reconstruction of the “square” surrounded by family houses. The town hall chose an option that would legalize it, but at the same time reduce the number of parking spaces, which the locals accepted with embarrassment.

“Even though we agreed on option A or D, which counted on the participation of the owners of private plots, the town hall pushed through the “B”. It is a closed square where only residents and their visitors go,” responded the residents of the street, who preferred the least expensive option with the largest number of parking spaces (20). “Currently, up to thirty cars are parked freely. The space between the family houses has not been maintained for forty years. When the new carpet is laid and the parking spaces are marked, we will be satisfied,” the people agreed. But after the construction intervention, only 16 parking spaces with green islands will remain in the locality. “None of the variants changed the existing function of the square. They differed only in the location of the road, the number of parking spaces and the design of the greenery. The chosen option is economically advantageous and optimally solves the availability of space,” responded Jan Pášma, spokesman for the Uhersko-Hradiště town hall.

According to him, the reconstruction consists of removing the existing paved area with an impermeable surface and laying new water-permeable paving. A road will grow around the perimeter of the “square” and vertical parking spaces with raised grass islands will be created in the center. The work also includes a new container stand and the construction of driveways and entrances to the surrounding properties. “We expect the work to start at the turn of April and May, the completion date is in the second half of August. The price of the public contract is almost 4.8 million crowns, but 82 percent of the costs will be covered by subsidies from the European Union,” said Marcela Čechová, deputy mayor of Uherské Hradiště.

The city thus continues with projects in which the main goal is to maintain water in the landscape. “Permeable surfaces allow rainwater to soak into the soil. We used them to a large extent in parking lots and purpose-built roads in the Štěpnice housing estate, but also, for example, in the parking lot near the cemetery in Mařatice, on 28. října street and other locations. This year we will repair and expand the parking lot in Sadová Street in the Východ housing estate,” Mayor Stanislav Blaha reminded.