GUP BY THE MEASURE OF A MAN - BUT WHO?

A comprehensive social consensus on the common goals and directions of the spatial planning of a city is realized by an umbrella planning document - a general plan. Depending on the state, this type of plan has a different name, but the same essence. That essence is reflected in the definition of future development principles, guidelines and directions in which the city should develop depending on the social, economic and ecological situation in which the city is located.

Throughout its history, despite numerous destructions, Belgrade has followed the norms from strategic planning documents, since the middle of the 19th century when Belgrade received its first plan thanks to the urban planner Emilijano Josimović. In recent history, one of the most significant plans at the city level is the General Urban Plan (GUP) of Belgrade from 1972, the so-called golden plan. In the process of its creation, the broadest public was involved at the level of local communities, and the plan set the contours of today's Belgrade.

The current GUP from 2003 was intended to be more flexible and was subject to change. Thanks to this, the construction of a large number of buildings was made possible. It defines the outer highway tangent and the inner highway semi-ring, with the aim of relieving traffic congestion. These projects have not been fully implemented to date, and they were transferred to the new GUP, which was on early public inspection (RJU) from June 13 to 30 this year.

According to the Law on Planning and Construction, conditions and other data are obtained from various authorities, institutions and holders of public authority during the RPU, which will be included in the plan. Additionally, all legal and natural persons can submit comments and suggestions on the attached report. In accordance with that, as a collective the Ministry of Space sent groups of objections on the topics: public participation, land policy, environmental protection and housing.

Participation - location, duration and dialogue

A breakthrough in the current practice is the holding of the RJU at three locations in the city: the building of the City Assembly, the premises of the Urban Planning Institute and the stand in Knez Mihajlova Street. However, the Secretariat for Urban Planning and Construction Affairs, which has the role of informing the public about all possibilities regarding participation via the website of the City of Belgrade, listed only the City Assembly as the location where the inspection is carried out, while information about the remaining locations was found only on the website of the City of Belgrade. institution. In addition, all these locations are located within a radius of one kilometer. A centralized way of presenting the plan can lead to an unreliable picture of citizens' needs, where the collected information represents the views of only one group of residents.

A period of 18 days (the duration of the RJU) does not represent enough time to acquaint the general public with the most important city plan, as well as to form a dialogue that would contribute to the quality of the document itself. Therefore, it was necessary to enable a wider time frame for public participation, of at least one month.

Appreciation of wider public participation during the development of the plan would lead to a key step of the participatory process - the possibility of decision-making. The planning solution, as well as the development directions, must be subject to joint decision-making, which precisely requires the engagement of all target groups - citizens and the professional public. In addition, participation in the creation of planning solutions makes the document itself of higher quality, and the possibility of manipulation and corruption is reduced to a minimum by delegating responsibility to all participants in its creation.

Public purposes

As one of the guidelines for which GUP opts for, which should establish a clear strategic principle of city development, it is decentralization. The concept of decentralization usually implies the creation of secondary city centers, located outside the narrow city area, which provide adequate access to public, recreational, commercial and economic activities. However, the plan states that "at the moment, a lower level of use of some of the existing public purposes is noticeable", among which faculties and children's institutions are mentioned, while on the other hand public functions "due to their position and spatial capacities are at the limit of functionality ”, where the emergency center, ambulance and fire stations are cited as examples - all crucial public functions for city residents. It is of additional concern that their relocation is being considered as a mechanism for their "reactivation and full functionality", due to the fact that "many of the buildings or complexes in public ownership occupy attractive and marketable locations in the city". The strategic direction set in this way explains that the economic value of land is a criterion that can cause the relocation of public functions from central to peripheral zones for the sake of achieving temporary profit. It is also disputed that according to the Law on Planning and Construction, existing and planned areas of public use cannot be alienated from public property, but the wording of this plan opens up the possibility for that. Under the term decentralization, goals for planning exclusively public purposes are presented, one of which refers to the inclusion of the private sector in the implementation and functioning of education and health care, and for which it was stated that the concept of public purpose areas does not automatically define property status. The goals set in this way in the Decentralization chapter can completely lead to the degradation of public services that should be available to everyone.

Land policy

As the previous part of the text hints, the goals set in the area of ​​land policy are mostly aimed at improving the conditions for land privatization as well as support for investors. City land in public ownership represents an important element of planning in the public interest, and the use of market logic in its management can have extremely bad consequences for the even development of the city and the distribution of public functions according to the needs of all residents. The plan recognizes that the income from the sale of public land is not adequate for the necessary funds for development programs of construction land, and in addition, the sale is a permanent alienation of a limited and valuable resource. It should therefore be considered how land leasing, in combination with tax measures, can provide sufficient funds to equip the land on an ongoing basis. In addition, it is necessary to stop the expansion of construction land at the expense of forest, agricultural and water land, especially because the demographic study carried out for the purposes of creating the GUP dictates that the population will not grow in the next 20 years. In accordance with all the above, we believe that it is necessary for the goal to be development, not the growth of the city, that is. that planning controls the expansion of construction land, and that land policy focuses on the preservation and sustainable management of the land fund in public ownership that will be necessary to meet the needs of future generations.

Environment

Within this chapter, an overview of the current situation and identified problems is given, however, there are no concrete measures and urban parameters that will solve them through the implementation of this plan and detailed urban plans. Examples of such urban parameters are garden colonies (urban gardens) and ecological index. These concepts are processed through the Plan for the general regulation of the system of green areas, but they are not mentioned in the elaboration of the new GUP, and it is not clear how the process of adaptation and mitigation to climate change will take place. Their omission, among other things, affects the inefficient solution of the problem of reducing the percentage of green areas in favor of construction. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the share of greenery in direct contact with the ground in squares, squares, private plots, as well as the introduction of porous and non-reflective surfaces that will contribute to reducing the effect of heat islands, as well as flooding in the summer due to intense rainfall. When it comes to greening solutions in the densely built city core, it is necessary to introduce guidelines regarding energy efficiency and technological solutions for greening the roofs and facades of buildings, taking into account the mechanisms for their affordability and sustainability for many years.

Apartment

The part of the plan that deals with housing is characterized by proposed principles that are at best arbitrary, and at worst could lead to long-term negative effects. Their arbitrariness is reflected in the change of standards related to changes in urban planning parameters, as well as the transformation of "units that are not used adequately, but have the potential for further development", which allows for a broad interpretation without specifying concrete parameters. Housing support is also not elaborated, and the established goals lose their meaning. "Housing at lower prices" is proposed for the middle and peripheral zone, without explaining how it is planned to reach lower prices and what is the role of this strategic urban planning document in establishing these conditions, as well as the role of the city/state. Diversification of the typology alone provides more concrete information, proposing to introduce individual housing on large plots in the peripheral zone, which implies suburbanization that has been overcome as a mistake within the profession.

Instead, in order for this strategic plan to enable the construction of affordable housing in the long term, we believe that diversification needs to be expanded so that it also refers to models of for-profit/non-profit housing, as well as private/public housing, with a clear definition of these relationships and the provision of spatial conditions for housing alternatives to the market in public and cooperative ownership. In order to avoid segregation and spatial inequality on the territory of the city, affordable forms of housing should be evenly distributed in all zones, including the central one, which requires concrete parameters and spatial solutions. We also propose the introduction of subsidies for the construction of non-profit apartments through the land policy, as well as maintaining and improving the rules for planning a certain share of social housing in investment housing.

Conclusion

What should be noted, and what the Urban Institute, as the developer of the plan, certainly emphasizes, is that the documentation that has been made available to the public represents a conceptual solution, which requires the application of the guidelines collected at the RJU, and on the basis of which a much more detailed draft plan is drawn up on which the public will again have the opportunity to react during the public inspection.

Given the above, it really is it is necessary to approach the upcoming draft plan in a broader dialogue with both citizens and the professional public, because it is a generational opportunity to shape our urban environment for the next twenty years. It is up to all of us to insist on participation in this process and advocate fair, solidary and responsible development of Belgrade according to all residents.