The third debate of the General Urban Plan (PUG) of the city of Sibiu brought in the same room several citizens of Sibiu who came to express their grievances and proposals. Among them was a Saxon citizen, settled in Sibiu who wants the city not to change, contrary to the opinions of the others present at the debate.
After a brief presentation of the General Urban Plan, the citizens of Sibiu hurried to say what changes they want to bring to the new PUG, but also problems for which they have not found a solution even after several notifications sent over time to City Hall. Most of the discussions had as their topic the transfer of lands to the inner city.
If some of the Sibiu who took the floor expressed their desire for the inner city to expand, an opportunity for the development of new neighborhoods, others are against the development. At the same time, the Sibiians came with particular problems, which concern their lands and, most of the time, problems for which they made several reports.
The third debate of the PUG started at 17.00 and lasted approximately two and a half hours, of which in two hours questions were asked to the management of the Municipality regarding various issues, proposals were made for the improvement of the PUG and several observations were made. After a general presentation of the PUG, made by the architects Ioana and Alexandru Cristian from Daedalus Proiect, the first to speak was a citizen from Germany, settled in Sibiu, more precisely in the Gușterita neighborhood, who wants the city Transylvanian to remain unchanged.
“I live in Gușterita. I chose Sibiu over Cluj, because it is much more pleasant. I want the situation to be maintained here, so that we don’t end up in the direction of Cluj or Bucharest, that’s why I was unpleasantly surprised that you want to increase the inner city. At the revolution you had the same population, in 30 years there was no big change, however the urban area expanded, now it is expanding more and more to the north. The population is decreasing in Romania. I want Sibiu to remain the size it is now”, said the man.
The answer was given by one of the elaborating architects of the PUG and claimed that the extension of the inner city is mandatory. “The expansion of the extravillain does not mean destruction. A balance must be considered,” said the architect.
Shopping center, on Calea Șurii Mici
After the observation of the man from Germany, settled in Sibiu, another citizen spoke, who wants the development of a shopping center on Calea Șurii Mici. “I express my admiration for this work, bearing in mind that it is made by the people of Sibiu. The deficiencies of the old PUG that kept us in place for over 15 years were taken into account. I saw that there is a lot of emphasis on green areas in the inner city. I consider that Sibiu is a beautiful, well-proportioned city. We have Sub Arini Park, one of the most beautiful parks in the country. (…) I think it is a very suitable area for a commercial development because that whole part is an industrial area, combined with a residential area. There is no commercial area there, the Metro is very far away and I think such an area would be developed”, said Constantin Mateescu.
“I was a victim of the old PUG”
Horia Bratu was another Sibian who spoke at Tuesday’s debate. He said he was a “victim” of the old PUG. “I was a victim of the old PUG. A road came to my land. We thought this was a good opportunity to be able to get back to some decent limits in the areas we have. If you look in the area where the road is shown, 28.5 meters means two meters of lane in the middle of the green,” said Bratu.
In response, the architects said they would look into the situation. “It is a particular situation that we will consider and we will try to reach a favorable conclusion”, said the architect Cristian.
Problems with green spaces
Denisa Budac spoke about a problem she has with a piece of land she owns in the Gușterita area. The young woman claims that she has also sent numerous reports to Sibiu City Hall, and so far no solution has been found.
“You proposed the modernization of the city through green areas but you did not come up with a solution for green areas without the consent of the owners, the only solution is expropriation and it is not plausible. I have a plot of land along Tchaikovsky Street. It was placed in the green zone. All the surrounding lands have constructions, they have received construction permits, only this one has not. Framing the land without the consent of the owner is an action of wrongful occupation of the land. I want to come up with the proposal to move to the procedure from the green place to the residential area. I don’t want to make requests anymore, I’ve been making requests for 4 years. I don’t know if they are taken into account,” said the young woman.
As in the case of other citizens, those who developed the PUG said that they will analyze the situation.
“In Şelimbăr I live in a block, in Sibiu I grow tomatoes”
Crișan Lăzureanu was another Sibiu who claims that expanding the inner city would be a very good idea, especially towards Poplaca. Ten other people supported him, at one point creating a petition. “I also live in Şelimbăr, where I live in an apartment block, and in Sibiu I grow tomatoes in a solar house. I am referring to the area known as “La Turn”, an area that belonged to the owners of Turnisor. I don’t see any impediment against building and bringing it into the inner city. The road is paved, it would be appropriate to develop a residential area here. The belt goes beyond the forest. I have a shelter there, it is a land of the fourth category, where hemp was grown in the old days”, said the Sibiian.
Mayor Fodor responded to the Citizen saying that the proposal would be reviewed. “”The team is inclined to prove you right”, said the Mayor of Sibiu.
“The situation is more than tragic”
Cristian Bichiș was another Sibian who spoke. He claimed that in the Dog School / Cartierul Primaverii area since 2010, roads have been drawn that divide into two parcels of land. “In Tropinii Noi from 2010 until now the streets in that PUZ have remained unpaved. We don’t even have a water bill. We pay the water to the developer on the physical account. We are not related to DJ106C. To reach DJ, we stay in Cisnădie, we walk 300 m on an unpaved road, towards Sibiu. How could a school bus on such streets? It is not taken into account that we do not have unpaved streets, there will probably be another 15-year ordeal on the roads that Sibiu does not control. Is an intra-village expansion appropriate?”, asked the Sibiian.
Mayor Astrid Fodor answered. “I want to re-analyze it. It is a novelty. It is an area that was not discussed with me as mayor. We will analize. With utilities we know the problem. The situation is more than tragic”, said the mayor of Sibiu.
Other land problems in Gușterita
A resident of Gușterita, Andrei Vecerdea, asked the developers of the PUG why, under the conditions in which the expansion of the area is desired, part of the surface, delimited to the south by Răchitei street, still remained outside the village. I’m curious to know why it wasn’t proposed for introduction into the inner city”, asked the young man.
In response, he was told that it is an area crossed by high voltage lines, which would be an impediment, but this proposal will also be re-examined.
Dan Popescu, another owner of two plots, this time on Cristian street, asked if there would be another possibility “to build vertically” in the city, wanting to build “build something spectacular”. “Is there any option to go vertical with the development of this city?”, asked the Sibiian.
The mayor clarified the citizen by saying that the prohibition of a PUZ, which the landowner was talking about, no longer exists in the new PUG.
A Sibiian woman, for the second time at the debates with the same dissatisfaction
She vehemently argued that the residential areas on Vasile Milea must remain strictly residential areas, especially since “there are a lot of empty blocks”.
Please keep the entire area of houses just houses. I saw that a breakthrough from Nicolae Iorga street is proposed. I can’t explain why I build so many blocks. I don’t see why areas of houses should be taken care of, which are normal to remain areas of houses, when there are a lot of empty blocks in Sibiu. As a citizen, I believe that you are seriously affecting the quality of my area by building blocks, reducing vegetation. Leave us our area of houses. In my neighborhood, I want monofunctionality, I want peace,” said the Sibian.
The Independence Zone, another discussion
Adrian, a resident wanted to sound the alarm about the PUZ of the area of the former Independenta factory, which is in public consultation, claiming that the city would congest even more.
“The most interesting thing is that the whole area is very crowded. There are hellish queues in traffic. From the former Libertatea, it takes 15 minutes to get to the hospital. Bike lanes are built for nothing because not everyone can ride a bike. At least 40 percent, no. In vain they widen the boulevards, which increased the concrete surface, where the tram used to run, there were two lanes and parking spaces, now it has only been solved with a line for buses. Bike paths sound like a lot, but you can’t get from one end of the city to the other. You can’t walk between cars and sidewalks on the streets of Orașul de Jos”, the Sibiu expressed his dissatisfaction.
At the end of the debate, Andrei Rusu, from Urban Bike Revolution, raised the issue of cars parked on public land in residential areas. “In housing estates there are many stretches where the car takes up more than 50 per turn of the available space. There are many areas where the yard is empty, but the car is in front of the yard, thus we provide a public service to the citizens. Sibiu is one of the cities where the density is not very high, unlike Bucharest. And this encourages you to have many cars,” he said.
Alexandru Găvozdea, Ruxandra Cibu Deaconu and Adrian Bibu, three candidates for Sibiu City Hall, were also present at Wednesday’s debate.
Citizens “for” and “against” about the expansion of the inner city, the main topic of discussion at the PUG debate. “In Şelimbăr I live in a block, in Sibiu I grow tomatoes”
