The urban planning project for the Fair must be cancelled

The area of ​​the Belgrade Fair needs to be elaborated through a detailed regulation plan, because it must be seen as a unique entity, which has its own context and environment, which must also be taken into account. In this regard, the Ministry of Space has drawn up comments on the urban project for Hall 1 at the Fair. Remarks can be downloaded and viewed at this link.

In short, it is necessary to reject this urban project because it is procedurally illegal, and because city planning through urban projects at the level of individual plots instead of through urban plans of a wider scope is inadmissible.

There is no real need for the development of this urban project, because the formation of the plot on which Hall 1 is located and the determination of the public purpose of the hall can also be done through a detailed regulation plan, which is mandatory for the Fair complex. Therefore, the question arises as to why this urban project was done. 

According to the Law, the urban project is adopted in a shorter procedure than the plan, the public presentation lasts only 7 days, and the Commission is not obliged to respond to objections and no public discussion is held. This tells us that there is no place for the general public, experts and all those interested in planning, which is unacceptable when it comes to important units in the city that have cultural and historical significance.

The planning regulation states that the urban project is the planning basis and enables construction works on the given plot. In the specific case, this urban project is illegal because it does not contain its basic elements. In the content, it was necessary to state the characteristics of Hall 1, but they were not shown, nor were the methods and conditions of its reconstruction prescribed, which calls into question its future, because this was an opportunity to protect it, but it was not done.

The confirmation of this UP would open the door for various harmful interventions in Hall 1, and would certainly represent the beginning of the transformation of the Fair area into Belgrade on the water, about which there was no public discussion, nor is there any social agreement about what should or should not be in the area of ​​Belgrade the fair.

It seems that skipping steps in planning has become a practice, because such units should not be done without the General Urban Plan, which strategically plans the city as a whole. However, this plan has been in the works for 4 years, and the question is when the public will see the draft plan. Now we see that there has been an even greater disregard for the procedures, where before the detailed regulation plan, an urban project is drawn up, which should be the last in the procedure, and leave the last word on exactly what will be built there and to what extent.