A developer intends to build three blocks of flats on the site earmarked for a school in Warsaw's Ursus district. The school would be built on another plot in the area, which in the development plan is a production space. Residents are protesting the high development and the uprooting of dozens of trees, which the same developer had previously shown on visualizations of their neighborhood.
The scale of the ongoing investment in the former factory area is best seen from the air
© Above the Earth - Below the Sky
New Ursus is a development led by Ronson on the site of a former tractor factory. The neighborhood has been expanding strongly in recent years. More quarters of residential development are being built on the basis of the current local zoning plan. Today, the main area of the neighborhood is surrounded by empty lots left by the former factory, but over the next few years the development is expected to merge with the older part of the neighborhood. One of the sites at the junction of the new neighborhoods, Niedźwiadek and Stare Ursus, is a plot of land on Gierdziejewskiego Street, which in the current zoning plan was intended for the construction of a school.
deceived residents
residents of the already-built Ursus Centralny estate saw on visualizations a small development submerged in greenery, today in its place blocks of flats larger than the ones they live in are planned
photo. investor materials
This is also how the residents of the neighboring Ursus Centralny estate, also being built by Ronson, imagined the area. Visualizations of the estate encourage with a green area at its edge. The more inquisitive residents were able to verify that the development plan allows for the construction of a school with a maximum height of 13 meters at this location - so a small building that would not be able to obstruct the view from their windows.
comparison of the provisions of the plan and the planned size of the development
photo: UM Warszawa / investor materials
Now three seven-story blocks of flat s - taller than the recently built housing estates -would grow on the site. Not surprisingly, this raises objections from residents, who may feel cheated by the developer. The existing plan also severely limited the scope of the development by introducing impassable building lines, which were abandoned in the estate's design, filling the plot almost to the brim with new blocks of flats.
bigger school
visualization of the school
photo. investor materials
As the developer himself and the architects from the P+Architektura studio he hired convince, the initial concepts for the school on the previously planned plot yielded poor results - in order to provide an adequate number of classrooms on an area with a rather irregular shape, it would have to be almost entirely built over, creating, among other things, a two-story gymnasium. The proposed new location, according to the developer, is supposed to give a better location in the center of the emerging neighborhood and offer more seats. Instead of a facility for 380 children with grades 1 through 4, a school for 900 children with grades 1-8 would be built.
city square
Visualization of the square
photo: investor materials
The school would occupy a quarter of the area occupied today by the industrial plant. The remaining three parts would be allocated for residential quarters. The investor additionally announces the creation of an urban square with premises for craftsmen, however, ensuring such a selection of tenants seems unlikely. The so-called "art square" would feature a small park, an amphitheater staircase or a concert stage. The investor has not yet submitted an official application under the specs law. Consultations are currently underway with residents, who still hope to change the development project of the plot after the previously planned school and save at least some of the 75 trees planned to be cut down (the developer plans to keep only 6 specimens).
Visualization of the estate
photo. investor materials
