Central Romania: Brașov City Hall aims to build large underground car park under the Central Park
The city of Brașov, in central Romania, aims to free the city center from cars and turn parking spaces into pedestrian areas and green spaces. To do so, authorities tapped an underground car park with hundreds of spaces under the city's Central Park.
Following the reorganization planned by the authorities, the Central Park area will have an underground car park with 440 spaces, an expanded pedestrian area, green spaces, and another managed car park with more than 300 spaces.
The underground car park will be built from the fountain area toward the Army House, on an area of approximately 7,000 sqm. It will feature modern systems for managing and monitoring occupancy levels, video surveillance, payment machines, access barriers and guidance systems. Charging stations for electric vehicles, elevators, access for people with disabilities and spaces for motorcycles are also planned.
Critics of the plan in the local Save Romania Union (USR) party, however, argued that, through this project, the Central Park would be destroyed, according to Digi24. There is also a petition against the parking, signed by over 5,000 people at the moment of writing.
In reply, Brașov mayor George Scripcaru said that the park would actually be expanded through the development. “The existing vegetation will be relocated to an area that is just as natural. And after the works are completed, it will be replanted, if we want, exactly as it was or much more beautifully,” he said.
Moreover, according to the mayor, the City Hall would receive a concession fee for the new parking.
The costs for design, approvals, construction and operation, estimated at EUR 11 million, will be covered by the company that will be granted the concession for the land for the next 49 years. The estimated value of the concession is RON 518.6 million excluding VAT, approximately EUR 101.9 million, for a maximum period of 49 years. This amount does not represent the value of the investment borne by the municipality, but the estimated total revenues that the concessionaire can obtain from operating the car parks throughout the entire period of the contract.
“In the end, the car park will become the property of Brașov Municipality,” Scripcaru said.
(Photo source: brasovcity.ro)
