Business plan for the capital
The new Warsaw Mayor, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, has revealed some details of her vision for the city. As she prepares to target public transportation and the development of the downtown, businesses will be hoping for a more open dialog with City Hall officials.
Six weeks after winning the election for the post of Warsaw Mayor, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz has begun unveiling her plans for the city.
The new Mayor recently met entrepreneurs and businesspeople at a conference organized by the Business Center Club. Industry representatives highlighted the need to set up a business plan for the city, which would detail the capital's major projects and set a timetable for their completion. The plan could allow all interested companies to plan how they can get involved in city investments.
The new Mayor highlighted the importance of public-private partnerships. When asked for particular projects that she would like to cooperate with private investors on, Gronkiewicz-Waltz pointed to the construction of an entertainment and convention center for the capital, among others. "We will be looking for other projects where, based on cooperation, we will secure the needs of the public by using a private investor's capital," Gronkiewicz-Waltz said.
Shaping the city
Covering the city with spatial-development plans has been highlighted as one of Gronkiewicz-Waltz's priorities. She hopes that even if the areas covered by the new spatial-development plans are not particularly big, it will still go some way towards helping developers, who currently rely on the terms contained in the conditions of development on individual plots.
"One of my deputies will look after real-estate issues and he has been given the task of releasing land plots as soon as possible," she said.
Gronkiewicz-Waltz said it could be possible to resolve the issue of land ownership by returning some estates or by selling particular land plots. "We have recently sold two very expensive land plots at ul. Herbsta and ul. Inflancka for zł.600 million to a Spanish investor," she said.
In addition, the city will try to acquire more land plots from central government agencies, such as Polish National Railways (PKP) and the Military Property Agency (AMW). "Those plots will be used by the city to develop investments for public use," the Mayor announced.
Rise high
Krzysztof Szadurski, the president of the board of the Syrena Hotels Group, pointed to the issue of Warsaw's downtown development and asked for the Mayor's opinion on high-rise developments, especially when it comes to areas around Al. Jerozolimskie that have yet to be covered by a spatial-development plan.
"Personally, I would rather see the high-rise type of developments," said Gronkiewicz-Waltz. "Those should be included [in spatial-development plans] especially within the downtown area."
Gronkiewicz-Waltz pointed out that, despite the architectural advantages of other regional capitals, such as Prague or Budapest, Warsaw has become a financial center for Central and Eastern Europe. With so many companies locating their headquarters in Warsaw, the city's urban planning should reflect this and respond to their needs.
However, she highlighted that some previous commitments should be respected, even if these plans conflict with her new vision for the city. For example, the proposed museum of modern art, which will be built on Plac Defilad, is not a high-rise building, but it's construction will still go ahead.
On the buses
The development of the downtown area will need to be taken into consideration in terms of the city's greater metropolitan area, as many people who work in the city live in the surrounding gminas. To this end, Gronkiewicz-Waltz would like to see commuters getting out of their cars and into buses, trams and the metro: "It should be like in major western cities, when even wealthy people who own more than one car use public transport when moving around the city and use their cars only occasionally."
To this end, Gronkiewicz-Waltz was keen to stress the ongoing improvements in exit routes, which should alleviate traffic jams that snarl back through the city center. "A number of road-building projects should be expected, which could cause some difficulties to drivers next year," she said.
She added that the modernization of a road connecting Okęcie airport and the city center will be also one of her priorities, especially when the second airport terminal is fully operational.
The development of the Metro is also high on City Hall's list. The capital's authorities will include it in the Mazowieckie Development Plan for 2007-2013, which will be co-financed using EU funds. "By using these funds, I would like to develop a metro line from Rondo Daszyńskiego to Dworzec Wileński and from Rondo Daszyńskiego to Chrzanów station," she revealed.
Praga color
In addition to her plans for the development of the downtown area, Gronkiewicz-Waltz said she would focus on developing projects near the Vistula river and in the Praga district. The Mayor said she would like Praga to maintain the development of its artistic atmosphere.
"We want to continue Praga's revitalization process, which could give a home to 'off theater'," she explained, adding that the city's heritage conservator will be controlling the investment, so that everything proceeds in accordance with the law.
Businesspeople
Representatives from the retail sector are hoping to have better communication with city hall. Renata Juszkiewicz from the Metro Group, which controls the Real hypermarkets as well as wholesalers such as Makro Cash & Carry, asked for the new Mayor's views on cooperating with the major retailers. "The previous Warsaw authorities simply did not talk to us," said Juszkiewicz.
Gronkiewicz-Waltz said that a balance needs to be struck between the large retailers and the smaller shop chains and family businesses. However, she believes that proposals for new developments should be discussed with particular gminas as well as district councils.
