The people of Ostrava have chosen their favorites for Karolina in a poll

Ostrava - The residents of Ostrava believe that a boulevard, which would roughly match the width of Wenceslas Square and includes water elements and artworks, would look the best on the site of the former Karolina coke plant. In a survey conducted by the city, this proposal from Orco Property Group and TriGránit Czech received the most public support. It received a total of 1629 votes, said Marie Václavková from the Ostrava City Hall today. The city council is expected to decide on the winner of the competition on Wednesday.
    The second place, by a narrow margin (1600 votes), went to a project by Sekyra Group, whose prominent feature is a high-rise building with approximately 30 floors, styled to resemble a winding tower. Other positions were occupied by Multi Development (1163 votes), ECE Projektmanagement Praha and Passerinvest Group (761), and ING Real Estate Development (290).
    So far, the councilors are reluctant to comment on their decision-making on Wednesday. The competition has been accompanied by various uncertainties and criticism from the beginning. According to the civic association Za starou Ostravu, the competition conditions are unclear and it is not entirely evident what evaluation criteria will be significant for the councilors. The association distributed balloons with the inscription "KAROLINA 2007 - new regular competition" in downtown Ostrava today, and tied some of them to the fence around Karolina. "No significant architect participated in the competition, and the quality of the competition entries reflects that," said the association's director Olga Slámová. She added that usable elements can be found in each proposal, but not a functioning whole.
    The Czech Chamber of Architects has also opposed the competition, labeling it as an irregular architectural competition. The city itself claims that it is a development competition and not an architectural one. Nevertheless, it had three independent architects prepare assessments, who were not uniform in their evaluations either. While two favored the project by Multi Development, the other ranked the project from ECE Projektmanagement Praha and Passerinvest Group in first place.
    The councilors agree that the winner should gain majority support from the councilors. "It would definitely be good if there was a prevailing majority opinion. It would be very unfortunate if a proposal won by just one vote," said deputy mayor Zbyněk Pražák (KDU-ČSL).
    For example, councilor Josef Babka (KSČM) believes that if there is no majority agreement, it might be better to cancel the competition and announce a new one. This option is not entirely ruled out by Lukáš Ženatý (ODS), who, however, thinks it would be the least appropriate at this time. Ženatý claims that he and the leaders of the political clubs agreed that individual parties would not push their members to vote as a party, but rather as individuals. Deputy mayor Petr Kajnar (ČSSD) believes that the councilors will be able to find a majority agreement.
    A group of five developers would like to invest approximately 12 billion CZK in the Karolina area on average. Karolina is the second largest undeveloped area in the center of a city in the Czech Republic. The entire area covers about 36 hectares, of which approximately 30 hectares is undeveloped.