Metropolitan Plan: Public Preview

For the first time in its history, Prague is regulating building heights everywhere, thereby protecting views. Height regulation will help transfer construction energy to where it makes sense and prevent “teeth” from sticking up in the silhouettes of Prague’s neighbourhoods. For selected localities, the plan specifies what it calls a “tower level,” meaning places where high-rise buildings can be located. Their appearance is assessed according to their impact on the city’s skyline, using selected panoramic photographs. The scale of a development, the appropriateness of an intervention in relation to a location and the significance of a building as a local landmark or point of reference in Prague as a whole are all considered. For example, Pankrác has a clearly defined height horizon that clearly says how tall the buildings that appear in its vicinity can be.

The Metropolitan Plan also says how intensive construction can be in various places and contains a simple formula that takes into account how many square metres of development can be placed in a given area and how much of it can be built up while complying with the appropriate number of floors. 

In the Plan, the city is not described only in terms of buildings, but primarily through streets, squares and parks, meaning places where we meet. In public spaces, it is important to distinguish their hierarchy and composition, and to separate the parts that help organise the city. In chaotic development, it is difficult to define street space, relate the placement of buildings and infrastructure to it and perceive the landscape in the city through it. The Metropolitan Plan therefore not only focuses on the development and cultivation of public spaces, but also divides them into four levels according to their importance for a place: metropolitan, neighbourhood, locality and local. Prague should serve all residents, so the ability to move through an area and safety play an important role, which the plan supports by defining footpaths and routes that lead through development, parks and open landscape. Information about publicly accessible ground floors is an additional layer. The existence of services and shops on ground floors provides a real sense of what we call a “city.”

Prague faces fundamental transport challenges, from the construction of metro line D and the Inner Ring Road to new tram lines and high-speed railways. The Metropolitan Plan will accelerate the construction of transport structures by taking the corridors for crucial projects into account, thereby simplifying the approval processes. The transport concept is based on a balanced system of public, car and non-motorised transport ensuring the necessary level of mobility in the city. Road, rail, river and air transport are classified according to their importance, but in addition to major projects, the plan does not forget cycle routes or significant routes for pedestrians. In addition to linear markings, the map also includes point markings such as for a metro station, P+R car park, river port or railway transshipment point.

The concept for technical infrastructure is based on the smooth and trouble-free supply of the necessary utilities, where the system can handle outages and crises and leaves sufficient room for future development. To achieve this, it is important to group networks into corridors and ensure their spatial arrangement is efficient.

Housing and residential development in Prague needs help, so the Plan assumes the definition of localities in which a method of land use defining areas for housing is also rooted. If, for example, a building for a retail store is permissible in the existing structure of a garden city, it will only be a building that is the same size as the houses in the surrounding area. In the case of brand-new development areas, the Metropolitan Plan tries not to add any new ones to the edge of the city and rather focuses on neglected areas and brownfields inside Prague. For them, the process takes into account approved, as well as ongoing, changes to the current zoning plan and relies on economic and sustainable studies for new neighbourhoods that heal the city’s old wounds. Thanks to the Plan, housing will be built for tens of thousands of families, but only in places where it makes sense.

In historical towns, it was fairly easy to say where the town began and ended thanks to the walls. However, in the case of contemporary European cities, the issue is more complex. Prague lost its walls long ago and, as a city, has generally lost its clearly-observable boundaries due to modernist housing estates, garden cities and sprawling residential developments. One of the zoning plan’s main aims is therefore to redefine the city’s boundaries, where developable land turns into non-developable land and where the city turns into open landscape. The Metropolitan Plan therefore prevents further spreading of the city into the landscape and protects the landscape inside Prague. It defines a network of biocentres and biocorridors that support environmental stability, protect animals and plants, and help retain water in the landscape. It captures all open landscape, proposes new afforestation of selected areas, areas designated for sensitive agriculture and places designated for recreation. The river is an important topic in the Plan—its bed and surrounding area are clearly defined and protected.

One of the Metropolitan Plan’s main principles is the “return to the centre,” which means supporting construction in the wider city centre by filling empty or neglected reserve plots of land. This includes, for example, brownfields and abandoned and unused areas designated for conversion or redevelopment. Multiple Prague developers are interested in these plots of land—but in addition to apartment construction itself, it is also necessary to invest in public infrastructure such as schools, kindergartens, parks, public spaces and new tram lines. However, the city and its boroughs often do not have enough money, so it is essential that investors whose projects are transforming an area also contribute financially to these expenses. This is possible thanks to the investor participation methodology, which, based on a transparent calculation, determines the extent to which an investor will contribute to the construction of amenities. The Metropolitan Plan establishes a fair environment for developers so that a planned project becomes a pleasant and comfortable place to live.

Schools, kindergartens, hospitals and shops, as well as sports and recreation facilities, are just some of the public amenities that the Metropolitan Plan takes into account and works with. It strives to ensure a sufficient and high-quality network of services in each locality, so that its residents have everything they need in the place they live. Prague will therefore become a city of short distances in the future. To fulfil the overall concept, public amenities are divided into commercial, civic and recreational. In contrast with civic and recreational amenities, only existing commercial amenities are shown in the plan. Thanks to this, we know where a new swimming pool, school, hospital or football pitch will be built in Prague.

The Metropolitan Plan is not arbitrarily created, it is not a political matter of a representative of one of the parties, it is not the opinion of a couple of people. The Metropolitan Plan is being created because Prague’s highest authority, which is the democratically-elected city assembly, has decided to do so. This decision was made in 2012 and all subsequent city assemblies and political leaders, who change every 4 years, have not questioned this decision and continue the work that was started.

The procedure is exactly according to the Building Act. The political will of the city, or rather the elected local government, is represented throughout the process by a member of the Prague City Council who has the mandate of “designated assembly member.” Today, the designated assembly member is Deputy Mayor Petr Hlaváček, who works on the plan with his team of approximately 6 assistants and expert advisors. The person who manages and is responsible for the whole process is the acquirer, the Urban Planning Department (UZR) at Prague City Hall (MHMP), whose director is currently Filip Foglar. His team, or rather the department, which has about 70 employees, is responsible for, among other things, ensuring the entire debate according to the requirements of the law and deciding on the responses to and evaluation of all comments, objections and opinions. Finally, the third party in this “triangle,” in which all three parties work together every day on the Metropolitan Plan, is the Prague Institute of Planning and Development (IPR Prague), where you are now, and whose director is Ondřej Boháč. IPR plays the role of preparer, i.e. designer and authorised architect. It is responsible for the substantive content of the draft plan and guarantees its quality and concept.

Yes, it is a complicated process that takes a long time. Prague has an area of 496 square kilometres and everything has to be worked out in detail. Prague is also a region and other regions are often covered by dozens of zoning plans, but we have to cram everything into one. What complicates things is that we have 57 boroughs, i.e. 57 mayors and assemblies at the local level with whom everything has to be discussed and agreed. Prague is also a capital city where a huge number of topics, interests and conflicts in the territory intersect, both in terms of infrastructure and in terms of individual values and public interests. There is extreme pressure on every square metre in terms of its use. All this needs to be coordinated, reconciled, agreed and discussed. 

The first round of debate and commenting (from the affected state administration authorities, but also from the public and boroughs) took place in 2018. According to the law, this was a joint discussion. The comments were evaluated and the plan was modified.

Citizens, boroughs and all other entities could then comment on the plan again in 2022 during the public debate. All the comments submitted were again evaluated by the Prague City Hall Urban Planning Department, and IPR then incorporated the results into the current version of the plan, which is required by law to be re-issued and subject to a second round of public debate.

We are therefore at the stage of the second round of public debate. This means that Prague residents have the opportunity to see how the proposal has been modified and how all comments were incorporated.

The plan has been and continues to be worked on intensively. It should be noted that, for example, we spent the entire year 2024 discussing all the comments from the boroughs in person at meetings with mayors. A special committee of the Prague City Council was even set up for the new zoning plan and discussed everything, across the political spectrum. In total, it met more than 30 times because of the plan. In addition, in 2024 and 2025 there were also intensive working consultations between the acquirer and the affected authorities, as a part of the cooperation. Finally, during the summer of 2025, a mandatory environmental impact assessment was carried out as an integral part of the draft plan.

The city’s management declares that it wants to approve the plan by next summer. That is why we informally call the current display a public dress rehearsal.

The city’s management declares that it wants to approve the plan by next summer. Once approved by the assembly, it will take effect within days or a few weeks. We therefore expect it to be in force in the summer of 2026.

The new Metropolitan Plan does not have a specified validity period. You could say that it will be valid as long as it is able to meet the needs that Prague and society have. The plan is set up in such a way that it does not need to be redrawn from scratch, but rather just added to as Prague develops and as what is needed from the plan develops. According to demographic projections, the submitted proposal should easily meet the city’s needs until 2050.

The public comments, owners’ objections, boroughs’ requirements and affected authorities’ opinions were responded to. Therefore, both minor elements in specific places and areas were changed, and the plan was improved in some ways both methodically and systematically.

Thanks to all the comments and adjustments made, the plan is now much more stable, ready to succeed in the real world, clearer and more easily reviewable. A comprehensive review and sorting of individual topics, layers and drawings was carried out.

If you would like to know specifically what has changed, we recommend Annexe 10 to Chapter 1 of the justification, where you will find clear difference diagrams showing what has changed.

It can be summarised that the plan includes zoning studies, both those that were carried out in the meantime (and on which citizens had the opportunity to express their opinions as a part of participation) and those that have already been approved (about 20 in total). In addition, the amendments to the current zoning plan, as well as those that are still being processed, were coordinated and incorporated in the meantime. In total, there are about 400 amendments to the current zoning plan.

As far as specific localities and new elements in individual areas are concerned, we can mention significant modifications in the Písnice area, where the metro line D depot will be built, in the Letňany area, where extensive construction is being prepared in the vicinity of the future high-speed rail station in connection with the Prague North Terminal, as well as modifications in the locations of Prague’s largest brownfields, such as Holešovice-Bubny-Zátory, Žižkov Freight Station and Bohdalec-Slatiny-Strašnice.

In terms of systemic and methodological adjustments, the methodology for calculating the capacity of an area has also been changed and determines how many square metres can be built on each lot. The methodology has been greatly simplified and made more transparent, as requested by the public and boroughs.

A big change that is certainly worth mentioning is a big step towards clear rules for developers and transparency in cooperation between the private and public sectors, as a binding condition has been added to the Metropolitan Plan in many areas, in the form of the duty to conclude a planning agreement before a project is even permitted and built. Thanks to this, the “salami method” has been avoided, the most valuable locations and large development areas have been protected and the rules of the game for all have been clearly established so that developers must proceed according to uniform principles, i.e. according to the Prague Methodology for Investor Participation. It clearly states how and in what amount developers are to contribute to compensation for the city when they enter an area with their plans and thus cause additional demands, e.g. on schools and kindergartens.

Precisely because of the comments and objections we received. This is clear evidence that we did not just treat the public debate as a “formality” or an opportunity to give us an alibi, but approached the corrections responsibly and carefully. We tried to consider all comments in a comprehensive and contextual manner. Where relevant, efforts were made to incorporate requests, even though sometimes the intervention was quite substantial. But it was all for the good of the cause and helped the plan. There has been a great deal of streamlining, simplification and clarification of some ambiguities. It is precisely because there have been so many modifications, some of which have been substantial, that this second round of public debate is now taking place. The law remembers just such cases, speaking of “substantial modifications to the draft,” which must be debated again, so that the public, owners and affected authorities can comment again on the modifications made.

If the plan is not approved, Prague will be governed by the current zoning plan, which will cease to be valid on 31 December 2028, unless extended by an act of parliament. When it ceases to be valid, there is a risk that construction in Prague will be completely blocked. This is because Prague cannot be without a zoning plan. All this would mean extreme uncertainty and instability for all projects and plans underway, not only private, but also municipal and government ones. Realistically, this could cause a complete collapse in the city’s development, as well as a loss of control over the protection of its values.

However, in recent years the Metropolitan Plan has been consulted and discussed with politicians across the political spectrum, both in the coalition and the opposition, at the level of the Prague Assembly, as well as at the level of the 57 boroughs. Dozens of meetings have been held completely outside the requirements of the Building Act. It can therefore be expected that the plan will have the political support of Prague Assembly members. At the moment, according to the information available to us, it has this support.

The best way is digitally through the Pražan Portal (via the Land Development Portal), the official online commenting application. Electronic submission is convenient because you can digitally load the plan and comment directly on a specific element. You can do this directly at the exhibition or from the comfort of your home or work.

You can even take advantage of a new feature we have prepared for you this year, which is the ability to copy your original comment from your 2022 submission and make it again, either in an identical or amended version, or mark it as an affirmative (acceptance) comment, if you are already satisfied with the draft Metropolitan Plan.

If you use the Pražan Portal, it will allow us to process all comments received faster and deal with them immediately. Comments on the Metropolitan Plan can be made from 20 October up to and including 3 December. Questions will be answered in person by CAMP custodians and experts from the Urban Planning Department (UZR MHMP). They will also be happy to help you submit your comments.

Anyone, a citizen or an institution, can comment on the Metropolitan Plan during the public debate phase. Only those parts of the plan that have been adjusted (changed) since the last debate in 2022 may be commented on.

An objection is stronger than a comment. Objections may be made by a person who demonstrates that he/she is affected by the proposed solution in the Metropolitan Plan. This is usually the owner or co-owner of a property or lot. When entering individual requests in the Pražan Portal, you can simply select objection instead of comment and, in the appropriate step, prove your right to object, e.g. by uploading a scan that proves your ownership.

Objections can also be submitted by authorised investors, e.g. network managers, and by representatives of the public, i.e. citizens and entities who obtain and provide signatures (authorisations) from at least 200 persons.

You simply compare the old and new versions of the plan. The old version is available for download on the website praha.eu. Alternatively, the old version is available directly in the Pražan Portal in the part where you can import comments from 2022, i.e. copy and convert the original comments into a new submission. You can compare drawings in the old and new versions of the plan there. 

In terms of the drawings (graphical part), there are also difference diagrams in the justification in Annexe 10 to Chapter 1 to help you identify if anything has changed in a specific place. In terms of the changes to the text part, the justification in Annexe 8 to Chapter 1 also contains the text part with revisions marked, so you can see all the changes clearly. If you are not sure, contact the experts from the Prague City Hall Urban Planning Department and they will help you with this. But do not worry, if you are hesitant or it is unclear, be sure to comment. The department will look into it and evaluate its relevance. In the event of any doubts, it always applies that your right to make a comment has priority.

Example: Although it might seem that nothing has changed in the drawings in a certain part (e.g. recreational site XY is still defined in the same way and there is no difference in the drawings), in the text part there has been a change in the wording concerning the regulations for recreational sites, i.e. for all recreational sites, so the specific recreational site XY is also a de facto changed part that you can comment on (both in the drawings and in the text part in the regulations), even though it does not seem to have changed at first glance.

Objections can be submitted by public representatives, i.e. citizens and entities that obtain and prove signatures (authorisation) from at least 200 people. A list of 200 names, their permanent residential addresses and handwritten signatures, containing a clear authorisation for you, as a public representative, should be scanned and inserted as an attachment in the Pražan Portal in the part where data about the entity who is commenting are.

The option “the logged-in user represents the commenter” should be selected and a member of the public should be selected as the commenter. Here you will upload a scan of a list of 200 names, their permanent residential addresses and handwritten signatures, containing a clear authorisation for you, as a public representative. If necessary, the department will ask you to physically bring the list to the department to verify the document.

Each comment that was received was evaluated and considered by the acquirer (Prague City Council Urban Planning Department), together with the preparer (IPR), in a comprehensive and contextual manner. However, not all comments could be dealt with favourably or upheld, as they are often contradictory or sometimes even outdated. Reasons for not upholding a comment may also include conflict with a public interest protected by the affected authorities, conflict with any limits in an area, conflict with superior documentation or conflict with the concept or methodology for the plan, etc. The way comments are dealt with always respects the overall concept of the Metropolitan Plan and the continuity of urban planning.

In general, however, a huge number of comments and objections, specific, systemic and methodological, were upheld and led to improvements in the plan. As an example, we can say that 75% of the requests from the boroughs that were site-specific and could be upheld were upheld.

You can see this directly in the drawings (or texts) of the Metropolitan Plan itself, which has just been published. You can also see your previously submitted comments in the Pražan Portal, and when you copy them into a new submission (an import) you can easily compare the original and new versions of the plan. In short – whether or not it was upheld – can be seen directly from the Metropolitan Plan.

Finding out why it was or was not upheld is another matter. That is, whether you can receive information on how your comment was dealt with, or even on how all comments were dealt with. In this matter, however, we regret we have to disappoint you, as the law does not allow it. This is because there is an ongoing (unfinished) procedure concerning the draft Metropolitan Plan, so both the draft itself and the individual responses to and evaluations of comments may change and influence each other in the context.

But do not worry about the information being lost. The law clearly states that responses to comments and objections are submitted to a municipality’s assembly prior to its approval. This means that the responses to all comments and objections will be published before summer 2026.

All the comments will be evaluated and dealt with by the acquirer, the Prague City Hall Urban Planning Department. The department’s decision cannot be predicted at this time. All comments are always evaluated at one time, comprehensively and in context. If the second round of public debate does not result in the need to make substantial adjustments to the draft and if partial adjustments are sufficient, there is no need for another round of debate, so after the completion of the responses to all comments and the evaluation of the results of the debate it is possible to proceed to the final approval processes, i.e. the “home straight”.

In addition, the newly submitted opinions of the affected authorities will be evaluated and dealt with, and any contradictions and conciliation proceedings will be resolved. Subsequently, confirmation will be made by the superior authority, which is the Ministry of Regional Development of the Czech Republic. If all goes well, the Metropolitan Plan should be approved by the summer.

Projects that have already been granted planning permission will not be affected. In the case of others, it will be necessary to determine whether they are consistent with the Metropolitan Plan. If so, all is well. If not, it is important to establish whether the procedure for their permitting has already been initiated at the relevant building control authority. Based on the relevant article in the Metropolitan Plan, plans for which the application was submitted to the building control authority before the Metropolitan Plan came into force will be completed because of the legitimate expectations of the builders and because of legal continuity pursuant to the original zoning plan, i.e. the Metropolitan Plan will de facto not apply to them and will not affect them.

The aim is to limit further urban sprawl into the landscape and, on the contrary, to support construction on unused areas such as vacant lots and brownfields. These are usually places that are well connected to public infrastructure and the public transport network.

However, thanks to the Metropolitan Plan, all existing urban neighbourhoods will fully retain their character, uniqueness and structure. The Metropolitan Plan takes much more care of these stabilised (currently inhabited) areas than did the old zoning plan, in force since 1999. As an example, we could state that we will finally have a plan that prevents the densification of housing estates, as it very strictly prevents any development on green spaces on estates.

Yes, this option exists in law and practice is likely to require it. However, the Metropolitan Plan, by its very nature, seeks to avoid the need for change through a more modern and flexible methodology.

In addition to the zoning plan, construction in Prague is influenced by the superior and related (more detailed) documentation and source documents.

1. The basic principles at the national level are addressed by the Spatial Development Policy of the Czech Republic (SDP) and the Territorial Development Plan (TDP), the regional instrument for coordination of an entire region is the Land Development Principles (LDP), and municipalities and cities are served by a zoning plan (ZP).
2. The newly introduced zoning plan for a defined part of Prague (ZPPP) or a regulatory plan may be more detailed than a zoning plan.
3. Most often, however, more detailed planning documents are used, such as zoning studies (ZS), which are arranged by the acquirer (Prague City Hall Urban Planning Department). Their task is to plan in detail the layout of certain localities and to coordinate private and public interests and set out a development, including more detailed rules.
4. The most frequently used instrument in the field of detailed planning is the institution of a planning agreement, which addresses not only the urban form of an area, but also the agreement on its development, phasing, financing, arrangements of property rights and compensation for induced deficits in public infrastructure (contributions), according to clear and transparent rules for cooperation between the private and public sectors – i.e. according to the Methodology for Investor Participation in the Development of the City of Prague (approved by the Prague Assembly in January 2022).
5. Prague also has the Prague Building Regulations, which set out clear rules on how construction work can take place in Prague to create healthy and pleasant neighbourhoods.
6. In addition, we have guidance manuals such as the Public Space Design Manual. In them you will find practical answers – for example, what the paving should be like and how a bench should be positioned. These manuals are generally binding for municipal organisations and recommendatory for all others.

An overview of the documents can be found on the IPR Prague website and information on zoning studies and planning agreements can be found on the website of the Prague City Hall Urban Planning Department.