OSTRAVA

LUDA selected in the City:

Karolína:
The Karolina Area was originally used for heavy industry. Today, production has stopped, the industrial complex has been demolished, and a total decontamination and clearing is almost complete.
The area is located in the centre of the city, about 500 metres from Ostrava's historic square. The demolition of the old industrial buildings has freed up space for the further development of the City centre, which makes it a particularly attractive investment for developers.
After holding an open international urban architecture competition for the future development of Karolina, the City of Ostrava and the Ostrava-Karviná Mining Company awarded first prize to the proposal from Gliwice, Poland, in November, 2000.

The "NEW CITY"
The "New City" will take up about 9ha of the Karolina Development Area, in accordance with the winning urban-architecture proposal chosen in November, 2000.
The "New City" plan calls for the construction of civic facilities, complementing and expanding the existing Ostrava City centre.
This will involve compact urban construction around an inner pedestrian square. Municipal transport in the form of trams and trolleybuses will circle the city perimeter.
A multi-functional six-floor building is envisioned for the western part of the area, and should include shopping, services and office space, as well as dining and entertainment facilities.

Hrušov:
The Hrušov Development Zone is located in the northeast of the City, and has been designated as an area for light industry. In 1997, the area was struck by floods that severely damaged the buildings within the zone. The site is currently being cleaned up, and further steps are being taken toward revitalization, development, and the resolution of ownership issues.
The goal is to have a development zone with complete infrastructure, owned entirely by the City of Ostrava, and dedicated to investors interested in developing light industry.

Type:
X Areas distressed from outside / divided from the City
X Areas with environmental Risks
X Industrial Brownfiels
X Underused urban Areas

Size:
Site name: Size (hectares):
Karolína 60
Hrušov 45.5

Urban Organization and Main Functions:

Ostrava started to create a brownfields inventory on the city level in 1999. The inventory consists of a digital map and text descriptions. There are about 100 sites in the inventory. Inventory is comprise of all sites that were impacted by industry (including mine dumps, sludge pits and other). This means that not all of the sites can be considered as LUDA and others have no potential use as well.
Properties in the inventory comprise about 3,2 ha (15%) ofthe City built-up area.
The inventory also contains information which could be necessary for potential investors/developers. One purpose of the inventory is to allow the City to select the most appropriate sites Irom the inventory and to prepare special offer for investors. Former use ofthese sites were primarily steel production, chemical industry, mining industry. Environmental contamination has affected the soil and groundwater and there are all levels of contamination (Iow, medium, high/emergency status) in dependence on former type of activity. There are many sites nearby the City center because of the history development of the City.
The City of Ostrava provides financial support for LUDA redevelopment from the city budget and the money has been used for surveys, development plans, purchase of land and technical infrastructure construction, etc.

There is a still no private investment to LUDA sites because of:

• greenfields competition
• lack of interest Irom developers/investors
• risk and unprofitable projects
• lack of public-private partnership

All properties have relativwly good and diverse transportation as noted in Table: Socio-economic conditions surrounding each property are quite diverse.

Population Structure and Dynamic:
In this LUDA areas were only industrial plants settled without housing estates.

Main LUDA’s Problems (social / political / economical / ecological):

Karolína Vacant, on going remediation, historically protected buildings, infrastructure being developed Social – unrest followed facility closing
Economic – restructuring of heavy industry
Environmental – extreme contamination (blackfield)
Political – regional significance of location
Market – attractive location

Hrušov Vacant, partially contaminated, buildings on site, some infrastructureon place, surrounding sites are not used Social – challenged population
Economic – good location based on proposed highway and railroad improvements
Environmental – flood damage and nearby (former) chemical plant
Political – has gained interest of City Hall
Market conditions – depressed, no demand
Other – City in process of building land

Reasons for Neglect:
In Ostrava, property development progress is mixed. Socially and economically, the city is in the process of restructuring, presumably as the decline in the steel industry. Environmentally, on site has extremely contamination which is extending the remediation time and cost. Politicaly, the city is unsettled in trying to determine its future role. The demand for property, i.e. the market is also cause for stalled progress.

Additional Biography :

• Ostrava – Fact sheets, Updated: April, 2004, City of Ostrava – The Magistrate, department of Economic Development
• CD – Ostrava – Economic Development