Shopping centres: Difference between revisions

= Heart of Europe Stifling Under Concrete=

The Shopping Gallery Harfa opened fall 2010. The Fenix Shopping Gallery opened in 2008. They both lie in a driving distance of approximately 5 minutes from the biggest shopping area in Prague and the Czech Republic - OC Letňany built in 1999. I visited Fenix on the 23rd December and it felt like ghost town. On one of the busiest days of the year! This experience made me wonder, how is it possible, that energy and resources are wasted for redundant chapels of consume. In Czech Republic the so called area standard – square metres of shops per inhabitant – has tripled since 1989 from 0,331<ref>Ministry of Industry and Trade</ref> to 1,1 in 2009<ref>Incoma Research</ref>. That means that every citizen in this country has their own square metre for shopping. Out of these, shopping centres present 0,26 sq m per inhabitant(sq/inh)<ref>CB Richard Ellis, 2010: http://www.cbre.cz/propertyinfomap/emea/_PDF/EMEA_FPR_CZECH_RETAIL%20_H1_2010_ENG.pdf</ref>. Compared to Liberec for example, which has a value of 1,4 sq/inh<ref>CB Richard Ellis, 2010: http://www.cbre.cz/propertyinfomap/emea/_PDF/EMEA_FPR_CZECH_RETAIL%20_H1_2010_ENG.pdf</ref>, Prague might seem quite empty with its 0,72<ref>CB Richard Ellis, 2010: http://www.cbre.cz/propertyinfomap/emea/_PDF/EMEA_FPR_CZECH_RETAIL%20_H1_2010_ENG.pdf</ref>. The velocity of new shopping centre openings however teases common sense. Prague is fancied for its intimacy and was honoured to become a part of the UNESCO world heritage in 1992 thanks to its historical value. Does the construction boom present a threat for its uniqueness? Sýkora (2006) warns that new investments after 1990 contributed to densification in central city morphology including rapid growth in car traffic and consequent congestion, which turned out to be especially critical in Prague. Furthermore, Sýkora adds, there have been numerous conflicts between investors and the protection of historic buildings and urban landscapes. Another argument in the discussion is environmental sustainability. As the City Development Authority Prague points out, developing commercial areas significantly increase the proportion of built-up land and so decrease opportunities for setting up adequate proportions of greenery. Numerous civic petitions for maintaining parks or other free land in different parts of the city were signed. Rumour has it though that in the Czech Republic, the democratic governance of people is carried out without the people. I will take a closer look at the situation of shopping centre construction in Prague and try to find out, what is happening and whether there is a problem of some kind. <br>  

Shopping centres have been replacing traditional markets since the previous century. They represent the modern lifestyle as they are sometimes called the chapels of consume. <br>I.Smolová provides an overall definition: “A Regional Shopping Centre is an architecturally unified complex of commercial facilities planned, constructed, owned and administered as a whole. They represent a concentration of retail stores, catering and services (entertainment and cultural establishments, e.g. multiplex cinema) aiming to satisfy the customers’ requirements in the field of goods and services in a short-term, mid-term and long-term perspective. The basis of shopping centres is formed by big retail units of the hypermarket type and by specialized superstores (e.g. hobbymarket).”<br>The localization of SC is determined mainly by the proximity of potential customers and accessibility by transport. Given the ratio of sales area to total required area stands at approximately 1:7<ref>I.Smolová, Z.Szczyrba (2000): Large commercial centers in the Czech Republic - Landscape and regionally aspects of development. Palacky University Olomouc</ref>, the localization is limited by the offer of development areas and by lot prices. Concerning Prague, the most wanted places are edges of the city and its high streets.<br>  

Shopping centres did exist before 1989 – every citizen then new the famous first western-like Retail House Kotva for example, nevertheless the massive spreading of this shopping phenomenon began after the revolution in 1989 as a result of joining the global market. The capital city Prague forms a kind of bridge between the national and foreign market, therefore it has been affected the most by globalization and internationalization. The service sector has grown rapidly, leaving industrial brownfields in several parts behind. The most visible recent urban tendency is suburbanization including outward migration and commercialization. Stores, logistic centres and shopping areas are built. As I mentioned in the foreword, the so called area standard – square metres of shops per inhabitant – has tripled since 1989 from 0,331 to 1,1 in 2009 in the Czech Republic. Prague belongs below the average with the value of 0,87 sq m per citizen. The total number of shopping centres in the capital is 38, their area present 33% of the national SC area (CBRE, 2010).<br>  

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<br>Three main laws are relevant to the topic of shopping centre construction in the Czech Republic. Firstly it is The Construction Law no 183/2006 of the Code, secondly the Law no 334/1992 of the Code about Protection of Agricultural Soil and lastly the Law no 100/2001 of the Code containing Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). All these include general principles whereas complex regulations concerning big shopping centres are missing. <br><br>  

In the Czech Republic, the responsibility of policy making rests primarily with city governments. The problem is that the so called functional urban region extends the political boundaries of the core cities. As concerns Prague it is surrounded by over 170 small municipalities, which are economically and legally independent units and whose decision-making lacks wider coordination. Moreover the metropolitan area of Prague is governed by two regions – Prague itself and Central Bohemia which tend to compete rather than cooperate in the question of common development.<br>Prague itself as a statutory town has its municipal territory divided into 57 boroughs, therefore establishing a second tier of local governments, which take advantage of the gained partial autonomy in decision making. However they ought to respect two citywide planning documents – The Master Plan and The Strategic Plan. The former is a physical plan that specifies the special arrangement and land use in the medium term perspective, the latter specifies long term priorities of socio-economic development. The Strategic plan declares controlled development and coordinated management and decision-making in order to achieve prosperity, healthy and cultural environment and preservation of values, which make Prague one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It is an agreement between politicians, specialists, corporate sector representatives and citizens. One of the five pillars focuses on Quality of environment: “Prague endeavours to achieve a high quality of both natural and urban development, while observing the principles of sustainability. It wants to substantially reduce pollution in the city and create balance between human settlement and landscape in order to become a clean, healthy and harmonious city.” Besides these two documents, Prague worked on policies according to the EU demands and created a Regional Development Strategy which matches the Strategic Plan.<br>  

Fig.2: The development of different types of land, ENVIS<ref>ENVIS, 2007: http://envis.praha-mesto.cz/%28cvvouk454exf1gmszo5zjmia%29/zdroj.aspx?typ=2&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;Id=79433&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;sh=-1015397439</ref>  

<br>Citizen NGOs were probably the first to start complaining about retail construction as it has affected the direct surrounding of their homes. A good example is an NGO called Healthy Life founded in 1998 in Prague 10 in order to protest against the construction of SC EDEN, located close to the Slavia football pitch. As their website<ref>http://nno.ecn.cz/index.stm?apc=nP2z1-161309&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;nocache=invalidate&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;sh_itm=d8f9c3fa1af9670e34fc21399469e5e6&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;add_disc=1&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;parent_id=2d04b53480894ea9832979b7bfb6972f</ref> claims, this SC was built despite the lack of necessary approvals. This NGO and other bodies appealed against the Prague 10 Council´s permission of the construction and even though the Supreme Court decided that the decision-making process had been wrong and must start again (and so the building permit is invalid), the investors started cutting trees and building engineering network. Later on there was not enough power on the side of opponents to stop the construction. <br>The most important arguments of Healthy Life were that the park, which lay on the allotment was the only green land in a wide area and that the construction of a SC would increase traffic and worsen air-pollution. <br> [[Image:Eden 1.jpg]][[Image:Eden 2.jpg|170x127px|Eden 2.jpg]]  

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