A year marked by urban greed

Another year is behind us in which, unfortunately, the lives and health of citizens were the collateral damage of corruption, corruption and lack of responsibility. The fall of the canopy in Novi Sad, in which 15 people died, is undoubtedly one of the biggest tragedies this society has experienced. That decline exposed all the weaknesses of the system - deregulation, non-transparency and decisions driven by the interests of profit, not the protection of citizens. The canopy in Novi Sad did not fall only because of specific mistakes, and it is not an isolated case, because it symbolically bears the weight of all those places where, if we do not change anything, we will see how the consequences catch up with negligence and greed.

These consequences can be painfully tragic and sudden or slow with delayed adverse effects on our health, but the pattern of planning, construction and demolition is the same. An example of this pattern is the demolition of Hotel Jugoslavija, which additionally confirmed complete negligence and carelessness for the future health of everyone living in the area, for the sake of profit. A month after the adoption of the plan for this space, the demolition began at an incredible speed, without adequate procedures and protection of citizens. The hotel, built at a time when asbestos was in widespread use, was demolished without a publicly available risk assessment, while the developer, with scant information, was the only voice to claim there was "no reason to worry".
These are not isolated incidents, they are a symptom of deep-rooted problems in the way space is managed and decisions are made, the consequences of which are increasingly catastrophic. They are also part of the wider picture that we bring you in the rest of the text, in which planning has become a tool for natural enrichment and political manipulation. Until these patterns change, our health, safety and lives remain at risk, not by accident, but by design.

While the two argue, the city planner rubs his hands together

For the area of ​​Bajdina in Mirijevo, a plan is being drawn up that has been going on for a full 8 years, a plan that envisages intensive construction on 54ha of naturally regulated green areas, aka forests. In those 8 years, the following happened: the beginning of the development of the plan, the concept of the plan, early public inspection, highlighting the expiration date of the conditions obtained by the competent institutions, the draft plan, public inspection, an unknown number of meetings of the chief urban planner with plot owners, three unsuccessful public sessions and zero public discussions on in which all interested parties participate and discuss - citizens, plot owners, competent institutions and decision makers.

The public review itself has been going on for almost three years, although the legal deadline is 90 days. In three public sessions, the Planning Commission avoided taking a clear position regarding this plan, and rather allowed the conflict to escalate in an extremely unethical and unprofessional manner. It seems that in the dictionary of the office of the chief urban planner, the meaning of divide and conquer is found under coordination of the planning process.

Today, two opposing interests of citizens are competing through the media and social networks, and the Commission and the city's chief urban planner are patiently waiting to welcome the winner and thus free themselves from responsibility for the fate of a significant green area.

Are we heading towards 0% greenery?

The summer behind us will be remembered for the hottest temperatures in the city so far, and we are rightly afraid of future ones. In 2019, the City of Belgrade adopted the Green Area System Plan, which envisages an increase in green areas from 12% to 22%, but at the same time declared it non-binding during planning and made it completely meaningless. Thus, the investors decided not to comply with it when they don't have to, and we have to eventually leak through our gills in order to survive. The result of the non-binding status of the plan is that now instead of 12% we have only 9% green (according to data from 2022).

During this summer alone, as many as 19 urban planning plans were exhibited at public inspections, in which it is foreseen to abolish almost 9 ha of public green areas. On the other hand, only 1,8% of the total area of ​​these plans is intended for the formation of new public green areas. In as many as 10 out of 19 plans, no public green spaces are foreseen at all. These data fill us with fear and raise the question - are we heading towards 0% of public green areas?

The Great Assault on the Great War Island

Although unplanned, during this year, on one occasion, RTS behaved in accordance with its slogan "Your right to know everything". Thus, we had the opportunity to find out quite by chance that an architectural office in Great Britain is currently working on a project for a Town Hall on Great War Island. The public does not know what that townhouse actually is, but there is no reason to worry - we will find out when the excavators are transported there across the Danube. Although this news may seem like a shock, it is actually just the realization of an idea that the City Administration has been nurturing for several years. In the concept of the General Urban Plan of Belgrade until 2041, more than two years ago, the public could see a proposal for the strategic direction of the city's development, according to which the Great War Island is planned for complete commercialization and transformation into a tourist zone. Until the next urban review of the year, keep your eyes open!

Where the Danube kisses the sky

If there was ever any doubt that the Danube coast would suffer the same fate as the Sava coast - this year it was definitely removed. In the spring, a decision was made to develop a plan for the area of ​​the Belgrade Cotton Plant, although the demolition of the buildings had already begun. In the same period, the Environmental Impact Assessment Study for the Marina Dorćol project was published, which worried the neighborhood because of the adverse effects of the project on the quality of life. The institutions did not instill confidence either. Upon arrival at the scheduled public hearing, citizens were awaited by a "whitewashed" hall and a promise of a new date for the hearing. Worried about the future of the settlement, the residents of Danube Quay sent an open letter to the media in which they expressed their fears, to which the investor told them that they had the right to their own view of the architecture, but that he believed that this would be the most beautiful settlement in Belgrade. Soothing, isn't it?

By the end of the year, new plans were published around the right bank of the Danube, i.e. in the immediate vicinity of Linijski Park, which confirm what we suspected from the very beginning - the goal of Linijski Park is not to create a green oasis for all Belgraders, but only for the privileged ones. And while the residents of a good part of the left bank of the Danube are still waiting for sewerage, the city government is working hard on the *revitalization* of the right bank, implying: "If you don't have sewerage, allocate 7000 euros for a square on the other side of the river".

General Staff: a unique unity of the profession

Among the many problems in the field of planning (the most extreme examples of which we present here), and for which we eagerly await the mobilization of the general public, we finally witnessed the thunderous criticism of the profession regarding the demolition of the General Staff and Ministry of Defense ensemble for the construction of a luxury hotel. An investor? No less than Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The government of the RS contracted the work with him despite significant public opposition, in which national laws and international conventions ratified by Serbia were violated. To make matters worse, this complex not only has exceptional architectural and urban planning value, but also contains additional memorial significance, as it inherits the memory of the NATO bombing in 1999.

In mid-November, after the fall of the canopy, the Government of the RS illegally revoked the protection status of this complex, completely ignoring the only professional and competent institution that assesses whether a cultural property can and should lose protection. The protest letter of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Monuments was reacted to by intimidation of the employees by sending members of the BIA, because, it seems, it was estimated that they could threaten the interests of the investors. Under pressure, in the middle of the year, the directors of the Republic and City institutes resigned. The wider professional and academic public was not silent either - the Declaration on the fate of the Belgrade Fair and the General Staff was drafted, which was supported by over 6600 experts, more than 40 scientific and professional institutions from Serbia, 15 international institutions, as well as the most important professional organizations such as the International Council for Monuments and memorial sites (ICOMOS), International Union of Architects (UIA), Docomomo and Europa Nostra. Even the special rapporteur of the United Nations in the field of cultural rights, Aleksandra Xantaki, reacted to this irreversible destruction of cultural property. Given that the preservation of the General Staff is not only a question of one complex, but a broader struggle for the protection of all cultural assets and values ​​that shape our identity and future - we must not lose this battle.

Belgrade on the water as far as your eyes and thoughts can reach

The long-announced plan for the BIP complex near Mostarska Petlje arrived this November for early public inspection. The concept of the plan only continues the trend of transforming brownfield sites (especially those that, through the privatization of public companies, put valuable land in the city in the hands of individuals) into landscapes of residential and commercial squares. As expected, the areas for public service facilities are completely deleted (let's not be mistaken, something is planned for preschool institutions - of course, in the form of annexes).

However, why stop at the category of buildings in the multi-story zone? In order for the Skyline towers to have someone to measure themselves against, an Analysis of the fulfillment of the criteria for the construction of high-rise buildings will be drawn up, which will de facto legalize going beyond the initially determined floor height. In addition, the lucrative marriage of a private investor and a private developer of the plan, as usually justifying the proposal of the plan by "maximum activation of the area", gave rise to the idea that a zone of commercial content of height is planned on the plateau above the entrance - exit tracks of the railway station "Belgrade Centar - Prokop" up to 23 m.

If we understand this plan in the context of the planned expansion of Belgrade on the water, which has already largely absorbed the Mostar interchange, we can consider it just another branch of the same logic and the same (infra)structure of urban development driven above all by profit.

The whole of Belgrade is PPPPN

What is the fastest way to repurpose, privatize and transform land in the city into a residential and business complex and to bypass planning and legal regulations? We were wondering that when the first announcements were made about the demolition of the Belgrade Fair and the new constructions on Ada Ciganlija. The answer is - changes to the PPPPN (special purpose area spatial plan) for Belgrade on the water. Thus, the boundaries of this project include any location that is attractive to investors, such as the Fair and Stara Šećerana, regardless of their social, cultural and urban importance. This is quite witty, because Belgrade on the water has been declared a project of special importance, so laws and valid urban plans do not apply. Isn't it really convenient to add another 150 ha of new locations to the boundaries of that project, when the conditions are so tempting?

In addition, Belgrade has not had a General Urban Plan for years, so this is an exceptional moment to make just such changes to the PPPPN in question, within which everything is allowed, the number of floors of buildings is unlimited, and other urban parameters are only imaginary nouns. When you have PPPPN, then you can let your imagination run wild and not care about the consequences. For example, you can demolish the Belgrade Fair and build a row of 120m towers on that spot, as well as on the site of the Old Sugar Mill complex, disregarding protection, and by the way, fill the entire space between with towers.

However, we can't help but ask ourselves what the urban plans are for, if the city is planned through PPPPN and what is the city administration for, if the urban development of Belgrade is decided at the republican level?

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This urban review of the year did not leave much room for optimism, but it was left by the students in the blockade of all faculties in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kragujevac and Niš who stood up against this form of state leadership. That's why for the New Year, we will all wish that the next urban review gets at least one paragraph dedicated to a plan that took into account the community and its needs, and above all the public interest.