The word "plan" is changing its meaning. In Poznań, it is no longer a vision of the future, but an approval of growing chaos. It can take a decade or more to pass a local development plan for a few key sites, and during that time investors build on a massive scale. Of course - without a plan.
We have known for many years that the Polish planning system is fit, if not for the trash, then for a major overhaul. In its current form, it came into effect in 2003 and quickly created a host of problems and irregularities. However, instead of reforming, we've become entangled with the pathology created by the law. Investors, local governments and architects have gouged a rut in the sodden ground of the zoning law and are somehow getting their way. Not infrequently with success, only that it is individual success - achieved at the expense of spatial order.
plans for the future
The situation is no different in Poznan. In addition to the nationally known effects of the system based on development conditions ("wuzetki"), there is another unwritten rule here. Some of the key areas of the downtown or historic districts have no plans at all, or wait a very long time for them. In the meantime, investments are being built, which post factum find their way into these peculiar plans for the past. This is no longer only the aftermath of a bad law, but also of a not very clear municipal policy: the rhythm of work and decisions supervised by the magistrate and councilors. The adoption of plans for the two areas bordering the Old Town to the north: in the area of the Old Slaughterhouse and Bóżnicza Street, and the former thermal power plant in Ostrow Tumski breaks records.
In the 1970s, the Bóżnicza area was cut off from the oldest part of the city's location by a wide artery - the so-called Chwaliszewska Route, one of the biggest urban planning mistakes of the communist era. The urban highway brutally ploughed through not only the edge of the Old Town, but also the intimate Ostrów Tumski with its cathedral and the equally peaceful historic Śródka neighborhood.
Work on a plan for Bóżnicza and the slaughterhouse, which has been closed since the beginning of the century, began in 2004. However, the document, passed after two years, was invalidated, for formal reasons, by the services of the governor Tadeusz Dziuba, who was unfavorable to the city. After several years, work began again on plans for the space, shredded for design convenience into smaller sections. And during this time, residential blocks sprang up along Bóżnicza Street - in the place where a sensible square was originally planned. It neatly corrected the course of the intended walking axis of the Old Town-Cytadel. Its implementation in this optimal shape is no longer possible. The plan is still not in place. Sixteen years have passed since 2004.
For the neighboring Old Slaughterhouse, the plan has not been passed to this day. In this complex and monument-saturated area, the city has partially relinquished its role and is waiting for final design decisions by the developer's architects. They should fall in the coming months. After two decades of closure, the former slaughterhouse is to become a residentialand commercial enclave.
alibi for "wuzetki"
Just behind the Old Slaughterhouse stretches another investment field between North Street and the Poznan Garbary train station, where warehouses, workshops and a garbage dump haunt. And here there is no plan, although the first residential building has already been erected, which can serve as an alibi for further "vuzettes." The Old Town Neighborhood Council has been calling all along for a plan for the area on North Street. It is worth adding that more than 10 years ago the magistrate held a closed (and almost secret) competition for several studios to develop the area. Prizes were awarded, but none of the ideas were developed by city planners. A somewhat similar thing also happened to the results of competitions held in the first decade of this century for the development of two key areas between the Old Town and the Warta River: Stara Gazownia and neighboring Chwaliszewo. Work on plans for both sites has been underway since 2008.
Meanwhile, opposite the Old Slaughterhouse, in the former river port, another residential complex is under construction. Of course - there is no plan here either. One developer even wants to erect a tall house with a massive overhang over the low building of the historic captain's office. The bizarre idea has caused an uproar among neighborhood councilors and lovers of historic buildings. "Urbanistic rot!" - they commented for the press.
Finally: the Garbary thermal power plant. This site, isolated behind the PKP tracks in Ostrow Tumski, was bought last year from Veolia by Robyg, which intends to build a residential district there. Work on the still unfinished plan for EC Garbary began in 2005 and continues. The intensive development proposed here by designers from the Municipal Urban Planning Studio raised considerable objections two years ago from the Municipal Urban Planning andArchitectural Commission. However, it is difficult to expect that the MKUA's suggestions will be taken at least partially into account by the authorities hoping for a significant investment.
