The municipal district of Prague-Lipence is located on the outskirts of the capital city of Prague. The quiet village of mostly family houses has faced an intensive population growth in recent years. However, this has not been matched by the availability of local civic amenities. Lipence misses some basic civic amenities and struggles, for example, with a lack of capacities in the local kindergarten and school. The situation will only get worse as the population grows. A new private investor, who has recently purchased large tracts of land in the area, is aware of this.
The investor group Spolumajitelé has acquired almost 40 hectares of land in Lipence. They plan to use the land not only to build additional housing, but also to solve the difficult traffic situation and an issue with the lack of civic amenities. However, before starting to plan the actual development, the private investor decided to enter into an open dialogue with the municipality. This progressive approach aims to define local needs and requirements so that future development is conducted with the respect for the local context. The investor approached Participation Factory to design a robust participatory process to create space for transparent discussion between the local community and the investor.
The participation process lasted from February to April 2024 and allowed the municipality and local citizens to learn about the investors’ ideas and to share their own needs and requirements for future development.
Representatives of the municipality were invited to expert workshops, together with the group of investors and independent experts, to discuss important aspects of urban planning and possibilities for the future development of Lipence. The results of the expert presentations were then made freely available to the public on a website dedicated to the project, www.planetalipence.cz.
We also organized a meeting for the representatives of the local associations. The participants were able to get to know the group of investors and ask any questions they had regarding the new development.
Participation also took place at a local primary school. We involved the children in interactive exercises such as working with a map of the village and found out where the children felt comfortable or not comfortable in their district, what they miss in Lipence and how they imagine their locality in the future.
At the end of March, we brought a participation container to Lipence, where we spent 10 days giving out key information about the investors’ plan and the overall situation in the district to local citizens, and collecting suggestions and feedback right from them.
The whole participation process was concluded with a public meeting on the 4th of April. Citizens were able to hear the conclusions of the expert workshops and ask questions directly to the representatives of the investors’ group. Despite the initial mistrust, the discussion was held in a very good spirit and confirmed the interest of local citizens in the future development of Lipence.
The representatives and most of the people involved in the participation process expressed their desire to continue the dialogue with the investors’ group and to be a part of the planning of new development on the affected land. We therefore believe that these participation activities will not be the last in Lipence.
More information about the participatory process and its results is available on the project website www.planetalipence.cz.
Are you planning projects of new development in your village, town or city and do you need help with participation? Contact us at info@participationfactory.com.