The greatest controversy at the latest session concerned changes to the city’s development plan. The issue involved two plots: on Zgorzelecka Street and Jeleniogórska Street. In the first case, changes proposed by the owners were approved, increasing the retail area and the plot’s permitted development intensity; in the second, a change from the area’s service-and-industrial function to a service function was rejected, and it was designated exclusively for industrial use.
“On the one hand, the construction of a large-format store on the site of the former dairy on Jeleniogórska Street is being prevented; on the other, the possibility of creating such a shopping complex on Zgorzelecka Street is being introduced. There is no logic to this,” says Civic Platform councillor Cezariusz Rudyk. Civic Platform councillors explain that this represents a clear disparity in the treatment of entities investing in Bolesławiec.
The area between Zgorzelecka, Łokietka and Górne Młyny streets was purchased in the middle of last year by a company owned by Henryk Guzik and Jan Cołokidzi. The tender committee accepted the offer together with an appropriate development concept. A service, retail and residential centre with an internal courtyard was to be built on the plot. Now the area may be built up entirely, and the retail space may occupy not 800 but 2,000 square metres. The plot owners applied for the change. Although the mayor did not agree to it, councillors from his party and Ziemia Bolesławiecka voted to approve the investors’ request.
“This change means that the city will actually receive more in the taxes we will pay. None of us is thinking about putting up a tin-box supermarket. There will be a proper shopping gallery,” assures Henryk Guzik. “We want to build a gallery similar to the one in Legnica, with underground parking. There will also be apartments, to meet the tender requirements,” says Jan Cołokidzi.
The plot on Jeleniogórska Street also aroused considerable controversy. Its previous owner, Rolmlecz, sought to reclassify the area’s function from industrial-and-service to service use. “We want to build an elegant gallery here,” Olgierd Hoffman of Hoffman & Siegl, which acquired the property from Rolmlecz, told Nowiny Jeleniogórskie. Councillor Józef Burniak even argued that there should be no industry there at all, because it harms residents and makes everyday life more difficult. However, the governing coalition councillors and the mayor held a different view.
The plan adopted at the latest session covers the right-bank part of the city, bounded to the south and east by the administrative boundaries of Bolesławiec, to the north by national road No. 4, and to the west by the Bóbr River. Work on the plan lasted nearly two years. It was prepared at a scale of 1:2,000, making the previous study clearer and more detailed. The plan establishes detailed building lines, adjusts plot development ratios, and introduces new road routes in the housing estates near Garncarska Street, Kosiby Street, Piastów Street and Jeniogórska Street.
(KG report)