It is necessary to restore Budva's Old Town to the appropriate cultural, historical and touristic valorization and revitalization of urban contents, the disappearance of which led the city to its economic decline and unsustainability.
This is the position of the Stari grad local community, which in a letter to Mayor Dragan Krapović proposed detailed steps towards achieving that goal.
They forwarded the text to members of the municipal Commission for amending the program for setting up temporary locations on the territory of the municipality of Budva.
Previously, the local Secretariat for Property Protection invited all interested parties to submit proposals, interests and views regarding the preparation of a draft decision on establishing criteria for leasing temporary locations for the installation of catering terraces in the Old Town and in front of private business establishments.
Even after seven meetings, the municipal commission still hasn't determined the draft, and many locals have announced that they expect to finally end the practice of the fairgrounds.
"We all know that in the last decade, the Old Town and its contact zone have been dominated by pub facilities. With their appearance, especially during the day, non-functionality, displacing other city contents, driving out pedestrians - walkers, unsanitary conditions, noise and aggressive atmosphere, they degrade the life of citizens and tourists, and especially make meaningless its cultural and historical values that put Budva on the list of protected national cultural assets of Montenegro. . It is necessary to reprogram the floor life of the Old Town and its surroundings in accordance with the valid Urban Plan and the Report of the State Commission for the Revaluation of Cultural Properties from 2014", stated the President of the Council of the Old Town MZ Slobodan Bobo Mitrović.
According to him, although the Commission held a series of meetings - it did not go far with the question of how to bring temporary locations on public city areas to legal standards...
"The introduction of cultural rent is a legal obligation for protected cultural assets. Revise the price of 13 euros per square meter of public area in accordance with other prices in the Old Town and the tax policy for the exclusive zone. If the traffic in the contact zone is left as it is now, there will be a collapse because the buildings that are being completed now will receive 5.000 new residents by July."
The local community offered the Municipality a proposal for an urban planning program for the Old Town, elaborated in 13 points.
"It is unnatural in such a small area for the Municipality to plan for itself, and Morsko well for itself. The old town with the contact zone is a unique spatial, organic entity and should be integrally planned. Make a program of reduced summer and winter traffic regime. Return the garbage containers behind the Captain's office, because they are not visible there. Return the fish shop to "Peškarija" where it was located before and where it was planned by the Urban Project. "Remove the gates from Školjera and from the wharf near the Porto restaurant," the memo states.
They warn that it is necessary to reduce catering in and around the city by at least 50 percent.
"What kind of catering standards is Stara Budva with 40 cafes, each of which offers pizza, imagined?" All touristic Budva, with a dozen afternoon excursion buses and evening guests on about 12.000 square meters of catering terraces and bars, has only one public toilet in the park with four cabins, over 50 years old, which cannot be approached due to neglect. Solve the problem of the park managed by Morsko dobro, maintained by the Municipal Company, and the tenant is the Budva Riviera. The fixed bleachers of the Grad Theater, which have been standing for ten years all year round and are used only 30 days a year, degrade the space between the churches and make it impossible to use the space for other purposes. The grandstands that the Municipality once bought from Italy for the purposes of 'beach soccer', which are 100 percent assembled and disassembled and portable, will be given to the Grad Theater. "Strategic issues of maritime and nautical tourism through the definition of the port of Budva and the wider water area is an obligation, without which the urban treatment of the Old Town cannot be planned," Mitrović said.
Forcing the program to be adopted is favoring Budva
Mitrović says that forcing the program of temporary locations to be adopted in a hurry means - favoring the touristic Budva fair, to the detriment of citizens and tourists: "And to the benefit of a small number of favored individuals".
"Due to the complexity of the work, which after all, every urban plan implies, it is necessary to form a team that will draft the project program and that will animate all decision-making entities. "After the adopted program and permanent communication with the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Property, the coordinated procedure for the development and adoption of the urban project, the port, squares, streets and contact zone of the Old Town, the only way to revitalize a city that has been brought to its urban unsustainability," announced "Vijesta" president of the local community.
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