Architects criticize plans to expand Belgrade Waterfront

According to a Serbian government document, Belgrade Waterfront will expand to the southwest towards the Ada lake and across the river into New Belgrade as well as onto more land in the center of the Serbian capital. The Decision on Changes to Spatial Plans, adopted by the outgoing government and published in the Official Gazette, means that another 327 hectares of land will be given to Belgrade Waterfront. It said that the changes to the Spatial Plan cover the banks of the river Sava including areas around the Brankov bridge, Savski Trg square, Gazela bridge and Belgrade Fair along with a number of plots of land in New Belgrade.

Architects Bojan Kovacevic and Iva Cukic both spoke out against the expansion, calling it a case of fraud and a privatization of the river banks.

Cukic said that the changes to the Spatial plan are very bad, adding that “they are practically a complete privatization of the river banks in Belgrade”. She said Belgrade Waterfront is being expanded to New Belgrade because of a lack of green areas. She recalled that most of the land for the expansion is state-owned.

According to Cukic, the new Spatial Plan will be drawn up by the Spatial Planning and Urbanism Agency. “That agency was in place in 2014 for the Belgrade Waterfront plan and then it was shut down and reinstated now with this as its first job. The deadline to draw up the plan is 10 months and it should re-purpose the land. Once you change the land from public to commercial you have grounds for privatization,” she said.

She warned that privatization benefits only a few people and leads to higher real estate prices and social segregation. “That happens after you sell resources to the few who gain power for themselves,” she said.

Cukic also warned of what she said is ecological devastation effecting temperature rises in the center of the city. “That is a very unconscionable and unprofessional way to plan the city,” she added.

Kovacevic recalled that Belgrade Waterfront was originally on an area of around 100 hectares and is now getting another 327 hectares to expand on. “The decision does not show us the structure of that new part of the Belgrade Waterfront and I am afraid, with good reason, that this will be some Dubai-like structure,” he told the N1 morning show.

According to him, the authorities are doing this with no intention of making any corrections based on public and expert opinions but are going ahead with the project which, he added, is probably financially based. He recalled that the Spatial Plan for Special Purpose Areas (the official designation) is used to build highways, military facilities and power plants

“Large areas which have to be treated carefully and there is an article about things of national interest,” he said.

Kovacevic thinks that the Spatial Plan no longer brings Belgrade any benefits but is used for someone's benefit.