The preparation of the Vilnius master plan is at the finish line, a successful end can already be seen, Vilnius city chief architect Mindaugas Pakalnis says in an interview with BNS.
According to him, the main goal of the new plan is to balance development so that the city develops evenly in all directions. He admits that a more detailed, transparent, clearer general map of the city is only a plan of possibilities, not an investment plan - it will give business opportunities to invest, and not outline mandatory changes.
Development - to the southern and southeastern part of the city
According to M. Pakalnis, the plan will also reflect political and strategic development priorities - it is desired that the capital move to the southern, southeastern part of the city.
"Analyses show that there are the most social problems there, the attractiveness of the territories is significantly lower, and the population there is socially weaker. That movement of the city in the north-west direction until now has thrown the very structure of the city out of balance, as the city continues in one direction and the center becomes no longer the center - all connections are lengthened. This new general plan is an attempt to build the city not on one leg at BIG, but on two legs at the airport or Nemesis," M. Pakalnis told BNS.
"Therefore, investments in the areas in the southern part of the city around the airport will continue to be encouraged: the conversion of the entire area along Darius and Girėnos Streets, further development of the Kalnėnai district north of the Minsk highway, as there are many areas that are close to the city center and it can be quickly reached by public transport. In addition, those territories are attractive, clean and habitable," said the city architect.
According to M. Pakalnis, the renewal of Naujininkai is planned - from a social "outsider" it has the potential to become the new Užupis.
"The goal of the general plan is to balance so that such a deformation does not happen that the city runs to one side and all the infrastructure becomes expensive as a result and we suddenly no longer understand why the water is becoming more expensive, which happens because the pipelines have to be artificially lengthened. The plan must consider these things," he explained.
M. Pakalnis said that the city will seek more investments in the sleeping areas of the capital to make them more multifunctional.
"The current general plan has conserved these districts. In the new plan, we have identified green areas managed by the municipality, ie avenues, squares, parks, larger parks, which we will take care of. Then we will arrange the transport structure properly. And in the conversion projects, we will first of all see to it that services and workplaces come to these districts, so that their monofunctionality decreases", emphasized M. Pakalnis.
"Now, people from these districts move to work in the center and then back, and if we take into account that they take their children to school, it results in a large pendulum migration, which is caused by the monofunctionality I mentioned. The main task of the new general plan is to create as much multifunctionality as possible in that place", said the architect about the vision of the city.
Speaking about the transport infrastructure, M. Pakalnis assured that after the construction of the western bypass, connections in the east-west direction are necessary - Mykolos Lietuvios and Šiaurine streets, which would perform the function of main roads.
"Then the traffic would be removed from residential streets and the residents would suffer less as a result. Other things are more related to the improvement of the infrastructure in order to have an adequate network of all kinds of transportation, because until now the motorists have had too much priority in the city and for a long time," said the city's chief architect.
On the other hand, according to him, they want to rearrange the priorities of transport - first of all walking, then cyclists, public transport and finally the car.
"The new plan will aim to balance this and say that all road users are equal: priority starts with the pedestrian or disabled person, followed by the cyclist, public transport and only finally the car." With this general plan, we would like to break stereotyped thinking", said M. Pakalnis.
A master plan is a document defining a way of life
He hopes that the new urban development map will not become a mathematical document for the construction of spaces, but a document defining a way of life.
"In the new plan, we moved from mathematical calculations to urban matters, that is, we identified the typology of construction, and with it, the way of life. We have identified about 20 construction typologies - for example, there are different constructions In the old town, in New City, Žvėryne, Karoliniškės, Tarandė or Balsiai. From that different building typology, different building indicators, different lifestyles, ways of creating public spaces and many other things follow. And the fact that we made those plan indicators according to that typology is one of the most important things for me, as an urban planner," said M. Pakalnis.
According to him, in the new plan, the building intensity indicators of the major part of the city have been significantly reduced.
"For example, a whole generation of buildings was born - commercial objects, which in principle are residential, but are called by the wrong names. Some of the projects were made in such a way that there was a greater intensity of construction allowed for commercial buildings, with this general plan we significantly reduced the construction indicators in the major part of the city and approached the indicators characteristic of the residential environment, because in principle it is not very important what the purpose of the building is, it is important , how big it is, how many cars or people it can hold, and what its potential impact is on neighbors. Therefore, it is very important that we moved from mathematical indicators to things linked to a specific place", explained M. Pakalnis.
The chief architect of the capital also emphasized that in the current city plan there are about 20 different zones from which the city mosaic was put together, while in the new plan there are over three thousand of them.
"Everything is more specific, so now that a building permit can be issued directly according to the decisions of the current general plan, without the need for a detailed plan, that precision will help us a lot. For example, we named the green areas very precisely, so if someone wanted to build a house in the future green area, the entire general plan would have to be changed, which is not such a simple thing," emphasized M. Pakalnis.
Among other things, he said the new master map of the city is an opportunity plan, not an investment plan - it will only give business opportunities to invest, rather than outline the necessary changes.
"This general plan is not Lukashenko's five-year plan, that we will have money and spend it in one way and not another during those years. The current planning differs from the Soviet era in that we make a plan of opportunities, while back then there was an investment plan. And the opportunities plan only gives business opportunities to invest, and people an opportunity to see how their living environment can change", asserted the capital's chief architect.
According to M. Pakalnis, the general plan has already been coordinated with the state institutions, it is now being checked by Territorial Planning and construction inspection. The city council plans to approve it in early July.
According to the architect, the new general plan should be valid for 15 years, but this time is more indicative.
The general plan defines the main rules in the city: what and where can be built, where and what areas of use are planned. Currently, the city is guided by the general plan that should have been valid until 2015.
Author Remigijus Bielinskas
