Somehow, right before the public hearing for the Detailed Regulation Plan (PDR), which is supposed to resolve the status of the park "Belgrade Bašta" in Bregalnička Street in Zvezdara, that plot got a new user of the space.
This park is recognizable in the city. It houses the stage and projector of the former open-air cinema, the former "Belgrade Film", which until recently had the right to use this park.
Now the right of use belongs to a certain Milica Vučić. It is not clear on what basis she received it.
What will happen to the park?
The detailed regulation plan envisages that there will be a park in this part of the city, but it does not mean that it will be like that.
Because, according to the latest amendments to the Law on Planning and Construction, whoever has the right to use a plot of land can become its owner. This means that Milica Vučić, who now has the right to use the plot on which the "Belgrade Bašta" park is located, can become its owner tomorrow and turn the plot into something much more profitable than a park.
According to the Plan of General Regulation of Belgrade, a plan of a higher order than the PDR, the purpose of the park "Belgrade Bašta" is planned for housing. Based on the purpose from the General Regulation Plan of Belgrade, a building permit can be issued so that instead of the "Belgrade Garden" park, buildings can be built.
The citizens of Bregalnička Street want to live next to the existing park, not next to the solitaires, and they are afraid that Milica Vučić will decide to have solitaires instead of a park.
Their doubts were not lessened by the aforementioned DPR, which foresees that their park will remain where it has always been, because, as we said, the General Regulation Plan is "older" than the PDR.
Throwing dust in the eyes
They believe that the adoption of the PDR is just throwing dust in the eyes, and that the privatization of the plot will be completed behind closed doors, regardless of the fact that it has a public purpose.
Last March, they spoke about it to the chief urban planner Marko Stojčić and other city and municipal officials who were present at the forum they organized on the occasion of their problem, which they had previously protested about. At the stand, they were promised that everything would be fine.
Then the aforementioned DPR was adopted for the part of the block between Bregalnička, Kajmakčalanska, Silvio Kranjčević and Svetomir Nikolajević. An early public inspection was organized this summer, and it was seen that the plan foresees what the citizens demanded: that the green area should remain that way.
Now, a public hearing of this DPR is scheduled for January 25. Citizens will try to guarantee that the "Belgrade-Bašta" park will remain a couple.
In the statement published by the Association of Citizens "Naša mesna zajednica" on that occasion, it is written that "this park will receive the protection it deserves only when the purpose of the public green area is defined in the higher order plan and when property and legal relations are regulated" and they note "that if there really was a will to resolve the status of 'Belgrade Garden', by now changes would have been made to the higher order plan and the issue of property-legal relations would have been largely resolved."