From the largest Plzeň barracks Slovany, there will be apartments and a park

Plzeň - From the largest Plzeň barracks in Slovany, which was purchased by the private company APB Plzeň two years ago, there will be apartments and a park. The new owner of the thirty-hectare area has now requested the city hall for a change in the land use plan for the second time. At the same time, they want to significantly reduce the planned park. The councilors, who rejected this for the first time in December, want to first see a preliminary development study for the entire area, said Irena Vostracká, the director of the Department of Concept and Development of the City of Plzeň, to ČTK today. The investor promised to present it to the city hall.
    "They want to change the area from pure residential to urban territory," she added. The complex is expected to primarily consist of residential buildings, according to the city's original plan, up to 1000 apartments. APB Plzeň wants to further reduce the eight-hectare park that is in the land use plan to about a quarter. Vostracká admits this, stating that a park square and a land reserve for a tram terminus would be created in the area. The city's long-term intention is to extend tram line number 1 from the terminus to Milada Horáková Square.
    "Everything except for the apartments and the park must be permitted by the land use plan, to which we will express our opinions. Any change must be approved by the city council," said the mayor of Slovany, Lumír Aschenbrenner. The district will not agree if the company wants to expand production there, even though there are light manufacturing halls along the road to Koterov. "It would be logical to connect with these places, but the city wants to influence the territory," the mayor added, stating that the new owner of the barracks has not communicated at all with the district so far.
    "It will be a negotiation about mutual concessions. If they want production there, we would like to move the library or a retirement home there," the mayor stated. The district will want to demolish the wall along the route to České Budějovice. First, something nice must be built behind it, he added.
    The Slovany barracks have been abandoned since 1992. Plzeň has long sought a free transfer or a purchase for a price up to 20 million CZK. However, the Ministry of Defense announced a public tender for the sale of the complex in 1999. It was purchased by the 1st Plzeň Brokerage. However, it never paid the agreed purchase price of 120 million crowns to the state, and the ministry then sued it for seven years while the unguarded complex deteriorated.
    The brokerage claimed that the complex would require significant investments for demolition, damaged infrastructure, decontamination, and the removal of tarmac areas, totaling over 400 million crowns. "There are not such large ecological burdens there. That was their move to lower the purchase price in negotiations with the state," said the mayor. Occasionally, homeless people take refuge in the complex, but they do not cause problems. A fire occurred there a few years ago, he added.
    APB Plzeň - Petr Březina has been mainly engaged in earthworks, construction, and demolitions since 1991. They also specialize in heavy oversized transportation and the rental of machinery. In addition to the Slovany barracks, they have purchased part of the barracks in Dobřany and the former Prefa in Přeštice, where they also plan to build apartments, marking a new orientation for the group.