In Liberec, plans for the completion of houses on 1st May Street are coming to life again

Liberec – In Liberec, the long-standing plans to restore the so-called street line of houses on May 1st Avenue, which connects the train station with the lower center of the hundred-thousand-inhabitant city, are coming back to life. According to Mayor Jaroslav Zámečník, there are three projects from private investors that should see houses with hundreds of apartments built there.

"Let's hope that in a few years, I see it possibly within five, this avenue could again be the showcase avenue," said the mayor.

The significance of May 1st Avenue increased after the railway was built and the station was constructed in 1859. "Unfortunately, the city of Liberec treated this street very unkindly from an urban planning perspective. In the 1960s, a number of middle-class houses were demolished along what was then the most important street leading up towards the station," said Deputy Mayor Jiří Šolc (SLK). To this day, according to him, this urban avenue does not evoke pleasant feelings, and the construction gaps resemble broken teeth.

The project by Syner Group, which has been in preparation and postponed for years, is seemingly closest to starting construction. They plan to build two residential buildings in the lower part of the street that should connect to the former IPB Bank building. "They have a very old issued zoning decision, but precisely because it was outdated, the decision is being changed at the city's request," Šolc noted. An agreement with the city hall should be confirmed by a so-called planning contract, which the city council will approve in three weeks. Among other things, Syner commits to building a pedestrian zone on the adjacent Slavíček Street, a children's playground, adjusting the vegetation in the public space, and modifying the roadway and sidewalk on May 1st Avenue.

According to the mayor, they are currently finalizing a similar cooperation agreement with an investor who wants to build a house with around 200 apartments on the opposite side of the street, on the slope above the Pytloun hotel. "They already have the documentation ready, and the contract should be submitted to the council within a few months," Zámečník noted. Opposite this building, above the planned construction of Syner's houses, another building is supposed to rise. In this case as well, according to the mayor, they are in contact with the investor. "They have already informed us that they currently have a zoning study planned for several hundred apartments," added Zámečník.