Photo: Ivan Zupanc"There is abuse of regulatory processes in order to legalize fundamentally illegitimate decisions. The development and planning of Belgrade are completely left to the arbitrariness of the decision makers."
On Friday, January 21, the public inspection of the General Regulation Plan (GRP) of Belgrade, the most important document on the spatial development of the city, ends. The public inspection lasted only one month, from December 20 last year, in the middle of holidays and the epidemic, which the civil sector assessed as a farce and an attempt to exclude the public's influence.
Ljubica Slavković, architect, urban planner from the expert organization New Planning Practice, one of the signatories of the request to postpone the public review, tells "Vreme" that based on the new PGR, Belgrade will look "arbitrary" and that her "strongest impression is that the development and the planning of Belgrade completely left to the arbitrariness of the decision makers."
Noting that the legally binding procedure in the field of planning, and especially participation, are carried out only pro forma, Slavković says about the new PGR: "What we have is not development and planning, but abuse of regulatory processes in order to legalize fundamentally illegitimate decisions."
She explains "that the focus of the changes is on public buildings in New Belgrade, but that actually only a detailed reading of the extremely extensive planning documentation, and then a thorough comparison with the document that is being changed, would provide a real insight into what is being affected".
"In short - we don't know what all these changes are proposing! And that is the fundamental problem we are warning about", says Slavković.
Considering the complexity of this planning document, its importance and the fact that it has not been adequately presented to the public, it points to the absence of transparency, professional grounding and non-compliance with the legally binding principle of public participation.
And further: "The city authorities did not use any of the mechanisms provided by law to bring this complex plan closer to the public, such as, for example, holding a public presentation. The exact opposite practice is at work. Therefore, the most important request of the citizens must be to repeat the public inspection, with the mandatory holding of public presentations."
On the occasion of the current struggle of the Novobeograd blocks against unnecessary construction, he says that in the New Planning Practice, the phones have been "ringing up" with numerous questions from citizens and calls for help to bring the plan closer to them and explain the claims that the city leaders make to the media.
"It is indicative. "If the public fails to understand the documentation that is exposed for public inspection to such an extent, the procedure is not valid," claims Slavković
He also says that in this whole mess, city leaders have added confusion with statements to the media that are unfounded and incorrect. And so, due to numerous questions from residents of the Sava blocks, New Planning Practice dissected the city planner's statement that there will be no construction in the blocks - and pointed out that his claims are incorrect, because the proposed plan contains different facts.
"If we start from the fact that the city planner has no intention of deliberately misinforming the public (for which he is legally responsible), the only explanation would be that even he, who is also the president of the Commission for Plans, which carries out expert control of the plan, did not manage to overcome it. Here is another reason to repeat the public inspection, with the organization of a public presentation", says Slavković
The public inspection procedure will be followed by a public session scheduled for February 1 at eight in the morning. "After that, the adoption of amendments and additions is certain, and what happens next - we would also like to know that. Perhaps new changes and additions? We don't know, because we are completely left to the arbitrariness of city leaders. And that is a problem that only citizens can solve - with their interest and persistence", warns Slavković.
(The New Planning Practice website is www.interactiveurbanism.com)
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