Report from the fourth forum

Precisely because of the position of the assembly at the very beginning of the plan adoption procedure, there was no more concrete plan concept that could be discussed, so the discussion was organized around the mapping of current problems in the Rušanj settlement, as well as proposals for interventions that are within the framework of the valid plans of the higher order - the General Urban Plan of Belgrade (that is, its part that refers to this settlement), as well as the General Regulation Plan of Belgrade. About 35 citizens of Rušanj - some of the active members of the Citizens' Association "Rušanj" and their neighbors from the settlement - were involved in the mini citizens' assembly. In the structure of the participants, care was taken to include as diverse experiences as possible and to represent different categories of the population. 

Based on preliminary discussions with the citizens of the settlement, the focus of the discussion was on two aspects of the development of the Rušanj settlement - infrastructure and distribution of uses (with an emphasis on public services and uses). In support of the discussion, experts from the field of urban planning, but also from the field of communal infrastructure, were invited, according to the selection of key topics. The invitation to participate was sent to the representatives of the developer of the plan - the Urban Institute of Belgrade, especially considering that this forum was based on their initiative, but none of the representatives attended. The ultimate goal of this mini-citizen assembly was to work on proposals that are relevant to the draft Detailed Regulation Plan and could be proposed directly to the drafter or presented through comments during early public inspection. 

Through the process of deliberation in smaller groups of residents and together with experts, problems and proposals in the field of infrastructure and public and commercial purposes in the settlement of Rušanj were defined, and then those relevant to the upcoming PDR concept, which will be presented at an early public meeting, were determined among them. insight. In contrast to the previous two assemblies, these proposals also received their own graphic representation, so that it would not only be spatially clear what the routes or distributions of the proposed solutions are, but also so that the material sent to the processor would be complete. Citizens' suggestions were sent to the developer of the plan - the Urban Planning Institute of Belgrade, and a meeting was held between our organization, the representative of the local citizens' association "Rušanj" and the representative of the developer of the plan, a member of the team working on the plan itself. 

Early public inspection of the plan was held in June 2023. The concept of the plan in some of its segments coincided with what the citizens recognized as necessary, but it is difficult to determine whether the developers adopted the citizens' proposals or whether the developer and the citizens simultaneously recognized the same needs and proposed the same planning solutions. In terms of sewage infrastructure, the concept of the plan envisages covering the entire settlement with a sewage network, as the citizens at the forum concluded. In terms of traffic infrastructure, developers proposed widening a large number of streets in the settlement, which coincides with the needs of the citizens to tidy up the streets and provide sidewalks in each for safety. In terms of green infrastructure, the concept of the plan envisages additional afforestation of existing forests, although not specifically the formation of new public green areas in the form of parks, for which the citizens expressed a great need. 

During the early public inspection in June of this year, exceptionally, a public presentation of the plan concept was held in the Rušanj settlement at the invitation of citizens and our organization. During the public presentation, a discussion was held through which the citizens again expressed their needs and proposals discussed through the deliberative forum, which the plan developers considered and invited the citizens to send them in the form of formal objections during the early public inspection. Citizens submitted objections, but they did not receive any answers, nor did the processor contact them. To date, public inspection of the draft plan has not yet been organized.