The problem of real estate speculators who have bought green spaces should be officially regulated because they are lobbying to build on them or be expropriated at a price that the city cannot afford, Bucharest City General Mayor Nicusor Dan on Wednesday told a summit of European capitals for architecture, city planning and administration.

„We must stop losing what we have (…), five of the six zonal urban plans of the city districts were approved between 2018 and 2020 and concerned the disappearance of 600 hectares of green space. Some of them, a few, we have lost, because permits had already been issued for them and no one challenged them based on these departmental plans. (…) Let’s look carefully at the national regulation, because there are many speculators who bought green spaces, especially in the period 2000-2010, and who put pressure to build on them or to be expropriated at a buildable price, which we cannot afford, so there are some legislative mechanisms that we will talk about, as I said, moving forward, with party leaders, who are also presidential candidates so that, either in the Urban Planning Code or in the laws of green spaces, we regulate this issue,” said Dan.

He added that the city and the district mayoralties will buy green spaces, if it is inexpensive, and drew attention to the fact that the plans for new parks in Bucharest depend on the General Urban Plan and that there are some opportunities, for example, the Greenhouses in Militari Quarter(60 ha), a plot of land behind the Ghencea Stadium (about 120 hectares), the land called the Esplanade, next to the National Library (10 hectares) etc.

„I would have really wanted to have a park there instead of a space with very, very specialised use, the Justice Quarter, which does not bring any benefit to the city and which can be built elsewhere, so all these things are related (…) ”

AGERPRES