What do they think about the plan according to which the Parish House of the Serbian Orthodox Church would occupy a larger part The plateau of the Temple of Saint Sava and according to which multi-storey buildings would spring up all the way to Slavija, the people of Belgrade have the opportunity to say until March 13.
Namely, that day ends public inspection in the Detailed Regulation Plan (PDR) of the Plateau of the Temple of Saint Sava and the blocks between Trg Slavija and the streets of Saint Sava, Katanićeva, Nebojšina and Boulevard Oslobodenja, which was offered by the Secretariat for Urban Planning of Belgrade.
The investor of this PDR is Serbian Orthodox Church.
What is planned?
Housing with business (mixed city centers) is planned on about 1,65 ha, writes Gradnja. The reconstruction and modernization of existing buildings and the construction of residential buildings with business on the ground floor are planned.
The commercial content zone in the high-rise zone (K1) has an approximate area of 0,28 ha.
In this zone, the building of the embassy of the Holy See is planned to be retained and, if necessary, its reconstruction or extension on the vacant part of the plot.
Also, it is planned to replace the parish hall with a new building according to the needs of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
The plan tentatively foresees an increase in the gross floor area of mixed city centers from 30.630 m² to 94.932 m², an increase in the number of apartments from 1.241 to 1.630, and the number of inhabitants from 3.488 to 3.098. The number of employees would also increase – from 290 to 469.
What do the citizens say?
Experts and citizens consider this plan controversial.
They state that the scope of the plan is extended far beyond the Temple zone itself and includes the entire urban block.
According to the Plan, the Parish Hall would occupy most of the park. Vračar currently has only a few square meters of greenery per inhabitant, which is significantly below the minimum recommended by the World Health Organization, so the planned construction would destroy one of the few remaining green areas in that part of the city and further burden the already overcrowded municipality of Vračar.
The informal group of citizens "Vračar Zona 3.1" announced that the Serbian Orthodox Church is neither the owner nor the user of the plot on which the construction of the new parish house is planned, but rather the Republic of Serbia, and the form of ownership is public.
They remind that "the entire Svetosava Plateau is a protected spatial cultural and historical asset, and that was by the decision of the city of Belgrade from 2021, and that the construction of buildings that would threaten or degrade this whole with their size and volume is prohibited, which would certainly happen if a new Parish Hall with a projected height of 12 meters was built."
Explanation of the SPC
SPC previously announced that it is exclusively interested in the regulation of those plots owned or used by the owner, "and whose purpose was determined before the Second World War."
It is added that "the purpose of the church plots around the Temple of Saint Sava has been confirmed by numerous acts passed by the competent state authorities after the end of the occupation and communist rule after the year 2000 and until today".
