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Warszawa ma rosnąć pomimo napięć budżetowych
Chcemy dogęścić Warszawę i sprawić żeby stała się miastem mniejszych odległości.
Warsaw to grow despite budgetary pressure
June 15, 2021
“We want to make Warsaw more compact and turn it into a city of small distances. We will be supporting investment in areas that have good communications, especially those served by rail. New projects are not the best solution in areas where such communications are not in place or building them would be too costly,” explained Rafał Trzaskowski, the mayor of Warsaw during the fifth interview in the series ‘Around the City in 8 Questions ’ organised by ULI Poland. Warsaw’s Mayor also announced that the city was preparing a list of properties it would sell to plug the holes in the city budget.
The guests in the fifth interview of the ‘Around the City in 8 Questions’ were greeted by Marcin Klammer, the new boss of HB Reavis Polska, who is also a member of the Executive Committee of ULI Poland. “The interviews are intended to find out about the spatial policies of Poland’s largest cities, as well as their policies for raising the standard of living, for developing the economy, planning for climate change and encouraging investors to come to them with their projects,” he said.
Photo By R. Motyl
Warsaw will stop its sprawl
Warsaw is a city that spreads out over a large area. The city authorities intend to concentrate construction in specific areas while leaving others alone. “What’s important to me is that Warsaw becomes a compact city that no longer sprawls as much as it does today and that it becomes a city of diverse activities. That’s why we are working on a new study and speeding up the work on new spatial plans. Currently, around 40% of the city is covered by spatial plans. We want this figure to rise to 52% by 2023 and to 70% by 2040,” stated Warsaw’s mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski. “We have a problem with residential estates planned on the basis of so-called lex developer laws, where we are not properly consulted. What we fear is that we will be left holding the bills for the construction of the roads and infrastructure. We are trying to bring order to the lex developer process. The city council has passed the necessary resolutions, we are talking to investors and we are trying to ensure that new projects are not started that directly oppose the city’s planning policies. All of this requires compromise at both the city and the district level, but it also requires investors to take a responsible approach,” points out the city mayor.
Photo By Ewelina Lach
A place has been set aside for a skyscraper next to ul. Emilii Plater but we certainly don’t want to build the entire street up with tall buildings. When it comes to the construction of the skyscraper, that’s going to be more towards Wola and is not going to be directly next to the Palace,” said Rafał Trzaskowski. “We are looking for Warsaw to develop in an organised fashion with multiple centres so that its people can find all the most important services nearby within their own area,” he added.
Building work over half of the city with even more in the centre
A new land development study is to be the main tool of spatial policy. The city intends this to mark out the boundaries of an inner compact city and within this area (covering 50% of the city) construction and development are to be concentrated including converting industrial and retail facilities into urban mixed-use. It will also mark out the city limits, creating a green belt where the city will allow no urban development at all.
The city has also announced that it is to protect Warsaw’s green corridors as well as key areas for the renewal of the air. “We also want to fill those places where there are urban gaps. Our idea is to build a large multi-purpose pavilion near the Centrum metro station, which will help us organise this space near the Palace of Culture and Science. It is still not clear what the future will be for this area next to Al. Jerozolimskie. We’re in discussions with Polish National Rail, who are preparing to build a cross-town line and this is going to result in a lot of construction works in this area.
Photo By Ewelina Lach
Additionally, Warsaw is investing in its social infrastructure and its communications. According to local authority figures, eleven schools are to be built or modernised by 2023 (175 new sections for 4,500 pupils), as well as 22 pre-school buildings (119 new sections for 3,000 pupils) are to be built or modernised. A total of PLN 609 mln has been budgeted for investment in education up to 2023. The investment programme also includes the construction of 15 kindergartens. The city is also to build nine communal buildings with 600 apartments.
A city of short distances and investment
The authorities want Warsaw to become a city with multiple centres with work, recreation and other services all near the home and say that this kind of balanced development reduces the need for travelling great distances. Local centres require investment in public spaces as well as amenities for pedestrians and sometimes additional construction work. “If you want to regenerate the commercial areas of the city centre, you have to make them more attractive. That’s the idea behind making the roads narrower and the pavements wider as well as increasing the amount of greenery and reducing the traffic. It is so that people want to spend time in these places and that is a necessary precondition. An urban plan for organising tenders for the lease of stores is also important. We are going to decide ourselves where we want the stores selling things like antiques, where we want the crafts and the services, the pubs and the restaurants, non-governmental organisations, the chain stores and the banks. We’re holding more and more of such competitions,” the mayor assures us.
City hall does not agree with the proposed closure of Warsaw’s Okęcie airport as a result of the construction of the Central Transport Hub. “I don’t agree with such an idea. Vast sums of money have been spent to integrate the airport with the rest of Warsaw and not long ago a large amount was spent to expand the airport. The idea of closing it is, to put it delicately, completely unjustifiable. Moreover, most investors consider an airport being so close to the centre to be one of Warsaw’s most important attributes. I believe that Okęcie airport should remain open,” Rafał Trzaskowski firmly declares.
Integrating city transport
The city has budgeted over PLN 4 bln on improving public transport up to 2023. Most of this is to be spent on the extension of the second metro line as well as preparations for the construction of the third line. The network of Park & Ride car parks also make up an important part of this investment. The city is also investing in improving its bus facilities including the terminals, bus bays and bus stops. “We are going to change our bus fleet for vehicles that are more ecologically friendly, we are getting rid of the smoke-belchers, we’re subsidising small retention ponds, and we have a program to rip up backyard concrete,” says the mayor.
The city authorities are also attempting to implement the idea of Mobility as a Service (MaaS). Different means of transport are to be integrated so that you can make your way across town as quickly and cheaply as possible. As a result, we can expect more investment in efficient public transport and the creation of an integrated network of pavements and bike paths. Road traffic in the centre is to be gradually reduced, with public transport, cyclists and pedestrian being prioritised.
The city also sees the need to create an information platform to join together all the city’s forms of transport based on the model of ‘mobility as a service’ and it will also be used to check where all the available underground parking spaces in the centre are regardless of who owns them or who manages them. Work on the project has been going on for many years, but city hall points out that integrating all the information systems still requires work but the platform with all the available parking spaces is nearing completion.
Photo By Ewelina Lach
As a result, he will be looking for additional revenues by increasing the number of city plots for sale. “Because of the difficult situation with the city’s budget, we are preparing to sell a number of city plots. We are going to put more and more of them up for sale. At the moment we are looking into which plots will be the most attractive to investors as well as cause the least controversy when we sell them. We have already drawn up a list of such sites and we are quite close to being able to announce the first properties for sale,” stated Rafał Trzaskowski.
The budget squeezed to the limit, plots for sale and PPPs in reserve
Vast sums are required for new investment and also for current projects. At the same time, the city’s mayor complains about the policies of the central government which are reducing the revenues coming into the city budget. In 2020 alone, city revenues were down by PLN 2 bln, says Rafał Trzaskowski. “We are very close to the moment when we will no longer be able to borrow more to fund our investments. We are limited by statute and various ideas of the central government are resulting in higher costs for local government and the possibility of us having to make cuts by scrapping certain programmes that raise the quality of life in the city,” he points out and he adds that due to financial pressure the city has had to delay the construction of the Sinfonia Varsovia building, the TR Warszawa theatre and the ring road around the city centre.
Photo By Ewelina Lach
“We are open to working with businesses on PPP projects. We’ve started with car parks in the centre of town but I hope that there will be considerably more PPPs. The first car park to be developed as a PPP project should be completed in 2-3 years. It’ll be a car park underneath Powstańców Warszawy square, which Mota-Engil is to start building any time now. We’re planning 4-5 similar projects. Earlier there had been talk of around ten projects of this type. But what is important for us is to get the road traffic out of the centre of town,” states Rafał Trzaskowski.
Working with investors
One way of maintaining the pace of investment is to work with business. “We are trying to meet investors’ expectations. The office that was formerly responsible for development is being turned into a point where investors can turn for help,” stated the mayor. The city can see a chance to develop by using private capital. “We also see the opportunity to work together with the involvement of private capital to develop blue-green infrastructure in those areas that are covered by a masterplan (such as on the site of the former Żerań FSO car factory). By working with the social and private sectors we have drawn up an attractive development vision for these areas. Investing their own money in public sector projects can simply be profitable for private investors when as a result of such a collaborative effort an attractive part of the city is created and brings in new residents, users and consumers,” stated one city representative.
PPP investments will also find their place in the investment development jigsaw, although thus far the city of Warsaw has been reluctant to use them. This is to change and professionals that have worked on such projects for other cities have already been hired by the city of Warsaw.
Nonobvious Warsaw
Diverse and remarkable.
“AROUND THE CITY IN 8 QUESTIONS” is a series of virtual meetings with the Mayors of the largest Polish cities. The purpose of the meetings is to present the strategy and spatial policy as well as the vision of the city’s development, and to enable an open dialogue between the city’s authorities and representatives of the real estate industry. During the meetings we discuss the plans that city authorities have to make their cities more environmentally sustainable, resilient and inclusive, but also competitive and attractive to investors and young talent.
All meetings with mayors are hosted by TOMASZ SZPYT-GRZEGÓRSKI, editor-in-chief of Property Insider.
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