Sofia: Dragalevtsi residents oppose swap of a wooded municipal plot
A municipal green area at the foot of Vitosha could become buildable through a land swap. Residents point to old forest, power cuts and a water main beneath the site.
Archive image · Photo: Preslav / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (cropped and resized)
Residents of Sofia's Dragalevtsi district at the foot of the Vitosha mountain are protesting against plans to hand over one of the neighbourhood's few undeveloped plots as compensation. According to BNT, the site is public municipal property earmarked for greenery and a transformer substation. The owner of a private property has applied to swap it for two neighbouring municipal plots of twice the area. The background is a dispute from two years ago, when a private property blocked the Sunny Alley, the oldest and best-known alley on Vitosha, and construction began; it was halted after protests and the building permit has since expired. The city is now preparing the swap, which would make the site private and buildable.
Mayor Vasil Terziev has, according to BNT, issued an order changing the designation of one plot from "transformer substation and greenery" to "residential construction"; a draft amendment to the zoning plan has been admitted. However, there is not yet a swap agreement or a decision by the city council, the municipality said. Resident Venchislav Dikov criticised: "There is no justification whatsoever for why the need for these two things has disappeared." Others pointed to power cuts of up to 24 hours and to the Rila water main beneath the site. The applicant told BNT that on the new plots buildings may only be up to 7.5 metres high with a 25 percent density, so a block of flats could not be built there.