Redrawn what Vilnius would look like: warns that a lower housing ring could form

On Tuesday, M. Pakalnis spoke about Vilnius’s new general plan on the “Delfi” theme.

“The Vilnius Master Plan is the main document that determines the development opportunities in the city. According to him, the city will live for the next 10 to 15 years. Clearly, this is not a document set in stone. Obviously, it will have to change, improve. But still, it is a great event in the life of the city.

Actually, our general plan addresses three main groups of problems. Many more urban tools are provided to manage development. These are smart regulations that will encourage the streets to be more street-friendly, the first floors more friendly to people than cars, buildings will not only be judged by the overall sustainability index of buildings, etc.

Second, we value context much more. In the general plan that has been in place so far, we only had 18 functional zones for the entire city, and for a diverse city like Vilnius this is very little. Therefore, we now have more than 3,000. regulatory zones that are carried out on an individual quarterly basis. This reflects much better the specificities of the territories, both the expectations of the population and the business opportunities for investment are clearer.

Third, because we have a much more detailed document, we have ensured much better the protection of the public interest, the protection of urban green spaces, the protection of social infrastructure areas. Such things show up much better in the overall plan, “he said.

M. Pakalnis recalled that the plan had been prepared for a long time.

“The first steps were still in 2015, and it was actually completed in 2019. Unfortunately, we had to go public again because many of the suggestions made by the public were taken into account. It turns out that if we had not taken it into account, we would not have had to make it public again, the situation is absurd.

We will try to ensure that the plan does not freeze and constantly improve, renewing not once every 10-15 years, but once a year or two. Clearly, the general plan is not a concert of wishes on the radio. These are educated people who understand what a document does. It is based on initially attracting various groups in society, your vision. It is a document that balances interests.

There is no way to ask and allow or reject it. It is a strategic document for urban development that outlines the future of the city. So people who are visionaries and see one or another vision of the city have to work here, ”he said.

Downtown – 6-7 floors

Regarding the height of the buildings, M. Pakalnis pointed out that the regulations were very generalized in the general plan in force in the past.

“Actually, there were two areas of high-rise buildings: on the right bank of the Neris, on both sides of Lvovo Street and on Narbuto Street. More in much of the city it has been said that the height of the buildings did not It must exceed 35 meters. Realistically, that’s 10 floors. We had a great challenge managing these desires, especially in the central part of the city.

As the central part of Vilnius was planned in the 19th century, it has an urban structure typical of that period. T. and. Network of streets, their widths, perimeter construction. According to this, the buildings can have between 6 and 7 floors.

In the central part of the city we found a much lower elevation and introduced the concept of predominant altitude. T. and. 80 percent. the building block must be less than the prevailing height. So some buildings (20%) could be taller up to a certain limit. It is a smarter regulation that will make us have a much more adequate urban structure in the city center. The height will be lower, there will be less impact on the landscape, less impact on the panoramas of the old town. On the other hand, we will have a more beautiful center and more in line with the scale of the city, ”he said.

The chief architect added that the same principles apply in Soviet neighborhoods.

“The predominant height of the buildings is 5 stories. This means that there will be fewer opportunities to build very tall buildings. We also aim to better separate the street spaces from the patios. Lower-rise buildings restrict the street more from the courtyard, creating a safe space within the neighborhood, which is a better living environment for people. In this way, we are shaping a more urban city, ”he said.

Industry and Commerce

M. Pakalnis recalled that in Vilnius it was decided long ago that the southern part, in the area where the airport and the railway crossing are located, is more suitable for the development of industrial and production territories.

“It just came to our notice then. Now we are talking to some big companies that are planning to come to that area, they are planning big investments, they will do everything they can to make it happen the way we are talking about.

There are several other areas: the eastern part of Naujoji Vilnia, as well as the Lentvaris industrial zone, which is planned for business development in both the old and new general plans.

By the way, we have a regulation that production can also be carried out in the service area, if it is not polluting, it does not have a negative impact, it does not generate traffic flows, it does not have noise or air pollution. This modern production often protects itself from contamination, it builds filters so that the intake air is not contaminated, ”he said.

Looking at the largest possible shopping area, looking at the general plan, you can immediately see where Akropolis and Gariūnai are or are planned in Vilnius, Vilkpėdė, Šiaurės miestelis and the northern part of Ukmergės street stand out in terms of intensity.

“The old plan said that in the central part of the city there could be up to 20,000 supermarkets. kv. m, and anywhere else they want. I can’t really call it regulation. There could have been a shopping mall entirely between the houses, which would have ruined the quality of life.

We checked that large shopping centers (more than 50 thousand square meters) could only appear in the main transportation hubs. In addition, smaller supermarkets (up to 5,000 m2) could appear in the compact part of the city, where the environment is more residential, supermarkets have less impact, and can be reached on foot.

We will still have to consider the possibilities of small shopping centers (up to 2,000 square meters). We noticed that there were centers aimed at the closest community. There is no such regulation in the current plan, it will have to be managed and corrected ”, taught M. Pakalnis.

Bison and gingerbread

M. Pakalnis said that a rather big problem in Vilnius is that even in the central part of the city there were residential buildings with first floors for garages.

“As a result, a person walking down the street walks along the blind wall of a garage. It is not attractive or safe. People just do not dare to walk down those streets, they feel uncomfortable, unsafe walking.

In the previous plan, we had relatively high construction rates tailored for the construction of administrative buildings. Now we have drastically reduced them in practically the entire city area. We left the option to increase by 10%. the intensity of the construction, if the ground floors are equipped with premises with entrances from the street, adapted for commercial services, other activities, perhaps social, such as kindergartens.

So, as in a 7-story building, the flat is almost endowed, but in the sense that it adapts it to the needs of society. In this way, it is both bison and gingerbread. This will encourage parking underground or on the streets, but not on the ground floors, ”he said.

Strategic projects

M. Pakalnis rated the “City +” program as strategic in the program.

“For me, as an urban planner, the most important thing seems to be City +, which talks about residential areas in the west of the city. Making them complete and family-friendly neighborhoods.

They are characterized by the fact that there is a well-developed social infrastructure, since Soviet times, but we have unsafe passages, lack of parking spaces, lack of privacy spaces. It is a program of great transformations in these places that will last, perhaps, decades. This program encourages communities, communities that have buildings, to simply take the fate of those buildings into their own hands and decide to tailor the quality of their environment to themselves.

If those areas are not attractive to live in, then an inferior housing ring would form. That would have very negative consequences for the city, ”he said.

Another strategic project mentioned is Vilnius Connect.

These are the changes that will occur in the southern part of the city, related to the reconstruction of the railway junction, with the arrival of Rail Baltica to the city. That area will be converted, adapted to the life of the city itself.

In general, we want to return development to the southern part of the city. Now he has fled to the northwest. The city must be built on its own two feet and development must expand. Here we also have a more residential Kalnėnai district, the district near Liepkalnio street.

Of course, the great objective of the city is to preserve the natural and cultural heritage that we have. This is endless work, every time we think about development, we also have to think about protection, ”summarized M. Pakalnis.