Prague 2 wants to be a co-applicant for the change in the spatial plan to cover the main railway station

The City Hall of Prague 2 will join as a co-applicant in the initiation of changes to the spatial plan, which would allow construction above the main railway station. However, the municipality sets conditions, among other things, it will ask the investor to organize an international urban planning and architectural competition, to make the territory accessible or to build apartments and school facilities. Joining the request was approved today by the representatives of Prague 2. The Pirates from the city district are critical of the plan.

The request for change was submitted by the company CR-City, in which, among others, České dráhy and Penta are represented. The municipality will join the application through the Institute of Planning and Development (IPR). The final decision on any change to the zoning plan rests with the representatives of the capital city.

“Even if we will not be an individual applicant, I think that even if we do not have the application fully in hand, we will be able to apply comments. Today we are discussing the conditions under which a building could be built here in the future,” said Deputy Mayor Jan Recman (ODS).

The plan was discussed for the first time in November last year by the district development commission. Subsequently, she discussed it in March and April this year and then recommended to councilors to approve the plan. They subsequently did so.

The town hall will demand the fulfillment of the conditions. They include an anonymous international urban planning competition, which will check, for example, the buildability capacity of the territory.

“The permeability of the territory, i.e. the connection of Prague 1 and 2, will be important. It is important to preserve the historical heritage so that the Fant building of the main station is not surrounded by large blocks. We will demand schools and kindergartens,” Recman said. A working group must also be formed from representatives of Prague 1 and 2, the municipality and the investor.

According to opposition representative Radek Zykan (Pirates), the proposal is problematic. It bothers him, as well as other pirate representatives, the speed with which the document was prepared and presented to the representatives. Representative Tomáš Čada (Pirates) said that the topic of construction is so fundamental that representatives should not deal with it without legal advisors and other experts, and moreover “in such a mold.”

On the other hand, the intention of the construction was supported by the opposition representative Jan Mach (Praha 2 Sobě), who, however, warned against Prague 2 becoming only a bystander, but that it should have a strong position in the negotiation of change. “The place certainly deserves to be rebuilt,” he said.

The exact form of the project is not yet clear, the scope of the development is to be specified when the zoning change is made. Competitions are to be announced for the overall urban planning concept as well as the form of individual houses.

The company Penta is currently building houses in the vicinity of the nearby Masaryk railway station. For example, there is a house on the site according to the design of the architectural studio of architect Zaha Hadidová, and during the reconstruction of Masaryk Station, Penta will build a platform above it, which will bridge the tracks. It will allow people to go from Florence to Hybernská street and from Masarykov to the main station.