At the penultimate session of the current term of the Legnica City Council (September 29), councillors reviewed a series of documents concerning the municipality’s activities and adopted several dozen draft resolutions submitted by the mayor. The most fundamental and far-reaching local legal act was the resolution, approved by an overwhelming majority, amending the Study of Conditions and Directions of Spatial Development of the City of Legnica.
The Study is one of the municipality’s most important planning documents, defining the conditions and objectives for its spatial development and growth for as much as two decades. It was drawn up in parallel with the mayor’s development strategy for the city for 2015–2020 Plus and is closely linked to it. It takes into account the assumptions of the Lower Silesia development strategy and the provisions of the voivodeship spatial development plan. The document was submitted to public consultation several times. Residents of Legnica filed 41 comments on the draft, 14 of which were taken into account, while 27 were deemed unfounded.
The adopted Study sets out a long-term, balanced spatial structure for the city, supporting the strengthening of Legnica’s position as a regional centre and improving residents’ living conditions. It identifies a number of functional and spatial zones across the city: inner-city, residential, economic, service, technical infrastructure, railway and road zones, as well as agricultural, urban green-space and ecological zones. The largest share of land—20 percent of the city’s area—is designated for economic investment. Residential development and protected ecological zones rank second, at 17 percent of the area each. Naturally, a substantial part of the city is already developed. Of the areas that will be developed in the future, 54 percent will constitute the economic zone, 36 percent the service zone, 41 percent the residential zone and 13 percent the inner-city zone. The Study places particular emphasis on the economic and industrial zone as the basis for Legnica’s further development. In this context, it is worth mentioning the site of the former airport, which the Study assigns an economic function while not ruling out an aviation-related one. Its designation will be decided definitively by the new spatial development plan.
Councillors adopted the changes to this year’s city budget proposed by the mayor. As a result, the pool of funds available for the city to purchase land for future investments will increase by more than PLN 518,000, while subsidies for the activities of cultural institutions will rise by more than PLN 450,000, including funding for fire-protection and anti-burglary systems at the Art Gallery. An additional PLN 135,000 will fund the installation of ventilation systems serving residents’ safety in seven more tenement buildings.
Councillors accepted the mayor’s report on the execution of the city budget during the first half of 2014. More than 53 percent of planned revenue was collected. Expenditure reached more than 45 percent, which is understandable because most payments accumulate in the second half of the year. At the end of June, revenue exceeded expenditure by more than PLN 23 million.
The Council also reviewed the annual report on the financial results and activities of companies in which the municipality holds shares. The city has interests in nine companies. Three of them—LPGK, LPWiK and SAG—are wholly owned municipal companies. The city holds 94.88 percent of the shares in MPK, while its stake in TBS Kamienna Góra is 44.01 percent. Its holdings in the remaining four companies range from just 0.4 to approximately 5 percent.
“The working capital accumulated in these companies exceeds PLN 153 million,” said the mayor, Tadeusz Krzakowski. “This is a substantial asset owned by all residents. Years ago, I decided that our municipal companies would have single-person management boards and that the composition of their supervisory boards would be limited to the statutory minimum necessary. This is consistent with our policy of economical management, limiting companies’ operating costs and saving public money,” he added.
Councillors also adopted resolutions concerning, among other matters, the establishment of separate polling districts for the upcoming local elections; a favourable opinion on the location of a gaming centre in the “Gwarna” shopping gallery; consent to lease several properties without a tender, which will contribute to the stability of business operations and tenants’ investment activity; and the naming of a new street—Wrzosowa—in the Przybków area.
The session also featured a presentation of the Legnica Development Strategy 2015–2020, prepared by the Naprawiacze Świata Foundation.