Czech President Petr Pavel visits IPR Prague.

The program comprised two parts: a presentation on the current state of key issues in the capital city, and a round table discussion, where the Czech president sat with IPR Prague director Ondřej Boháč and selected Prague City Council members.

President Pavel noted: "I was pleased that we have such a sophisticated department for the development of the capital city, which works closely with other large cities in the Czech Republic. It fills me with optimism." 

Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda added: "We had the opportunity to acquaint the President with the problems that are weighing on Prague, including unfinished transport projects, accessibility of schools, and housing. Municipal districts are dealing with different problems than the center of power and that is logical. Together, however, they make a whole. A functioning state needs functioning municipalities, and vice versa," 

Petr Hlaváček, Prague's Deputy Mayor for Territorial and Strategic Development, was also in attendance and noted that:  "In addition to presenting the educational activities of [IPR Prague’s Center for Architecture and Metropolitan Planning (CAMP)] to the president, we also presented the projects we are preparing on housing affordability. Specifically, we talked about urban housing construction and the expansion of the city's housing stock through the Prague Development Company, one of the city's contributory organizations and about how we view as key the participation of developers in the construction of public infrastructure in commercial housing development. We also talked about where the new Metropolitan Plan, which we plan to approve this election cycle, will take Prague. We also touched on changes to national building legislation and the need for more rights for municipalities, without which they will not be able to effectively decide on their own development." 

Ondřej Boháč, Director of IPR Prague, said: "I very much appreciate that the President decided to visit us and we had the opportunity to present the work of IPR Prague and CAMP to him. Moreover, I firmly believe that we will not end with just one working meeting. We spent the whole morning on the topic of housing affordability, which needs to be actively addressed not only at the city level, but also at the state level. Prague already lacks thousands of apartments, yet every year another 10 to 15 thousand new residents move to Prague, so the deficit is growing exponentially." 

Petr Pavel's program continued with a visit to the construction site of the future line D of the Prague metro.

Photos of the visit can be found here.