Construction work in Savica park is supposed to start today, according to a sign placed in the park last night. Residents are gathering to once more protest the project and to obstruct the impending renovation, reports zagreb.info on April 19th 2017.
The project in its current state implies removing a large part of green spaces and replacing them with paved areas, thus completely altering the environment. A local initiative called Savica ZA park considers the project to be a devastation of an important urban area, calling out the mayor Milan Bandić for arbitrary conduct and using City funds for objectionable purposes.
The Savica park renovation will amount to a minimum of 12 million kuna, a ridiculous sum considering there was no official competition and the local community hasn’t been consulted nor properly informed. The appointed architecture firm called Arhitektura u bijelom has been registered in January 2017 and has no official website at the moment – quite a questionable choice for such a large-scale project.
Savica has been a subject of controversy in recent months, due to the City’s initiative to build a church in the park. Considerable social media backlash and a chain of protests caused the project to come to a halt on February 2nd 2017, when the Ministry of Construction and Physical Planning revoked the location permit for the church. It remains to be seen if the park can be preserved this time.
Image source: Savica ZA park Facebook
