Niš residents' objections to urban plan under review

Authorities in Niš, Serbia, are deliberating on around 100 public objections submitted during the review of the draft General Urban Plan (GUP) intended to guide the city's development until 2040. The commission for plans will make final decisions on each objection, requiring the Institute for Urbanism to revise the draft accordingly.

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The new GUP gives only strategic guidelines and does not predict uses at the cadastral parcel level, unlike the current General Urban Plan.

City urbanist Lidija Stefanović Nikolić stated that the new GUP will offer strategic directions rather than specifying land uses at the cadastral parcel level, unlike the current plan. She emphasized that the new plan prioritizes environmental protection, contrasting with the 2010 GUP's focus on construction expansion.

However, citizen associations and political parties have voiced significant concerns. Andrej Mitić from "Nišlije da se pitaju" (Niš Residents Get a Say) highlighted that the draft fails to define land use, which they argue violates planning law. The association proposed requirements for developers, including providing at least two parking spaces per apartment, installing central heating, and creating genuine green spaces.

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The draft does not define space uses, although the Law on Planning requires it.

Representatives from the Movement for Decentralization of Serbia (PODES) submitted 23 objections, stressing the importance of protecting public spaces designated for schools, kindergartens, and parks from commercial development. PODES warned that Niš already suffers from poor urban planning, citing issues like parking shortages, traffic congestion, and loss of green areas, and fears the new GUP could exacerbate these problems.

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Niš is already suffering the consequences of bad urban planning – lack of parking spaces, traffic jams, concretization, disappearance of green areas, and increasing pressure on existing infrastructure.

Jelena Milošević, a member of the Party of Freedom and Justice, echoed these sentiments, criticizing the plan for potentially enabling "developer-led urbanism" by not clearly defining land use. She pointed out that while locations for essential facilities like hospitals are marked, they could still be redeveloped for commercial or residential complexes, arguing that the GUP should protect public interests, not private ones.

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The General Urban Plan is supposed to protect the public, not private interest, and the Niš GUP is doing the opposite – prioritizing private investors at the expense of public interest.