The initial draft plan for revamping the river beach area along the Supilinn side of the Emajõgi was first completed in 2021. The plan called for the parking lot immediately adjacent to the river beach to be shifted further away from the beach itself, toward Tähtvere Sports Park.

Tartu Deputy Mayor Raimond Tamm (Reform) said that relocating the parking lot in question would create better opportunities for pedestrian and light traffic movement as well as for bike parking, for example.

Construction of the nearly 3,000 square meter new parking lot, which would accommodate 75 cars, was scheduled to begin last Friday. That morning, however, the city decided to call off construction as the initial planned size of the lot sparked significant outrage among Supilinn neighborhood and Tartu city residents alike.

"We have informed the builders that we are still appraising the size of this parking lot, and we'll then issue the final assignment, so to speak, regarding whether and how this parking lot will be built there," Tamm said.

"What's clear is that with every parking lot, it's possible to divide up implementation into stages – that there is no need to build a large-scale parking lot right away," he continued. "That it can be done on a smaller scale too, and to that extent we're now weighing what size it should initially be."

According to Supilinn Society board chair Helen Hiiemaa, the association was aware of the fact that the location of the parking lot would be shifted further away from the beach, a move that they support. What they weren't aware of, however, is that the number of parking spaces is set to nearly triple at its new location.

"Our implicit assumption was that there would be no more [spaces] than those currently available at the official parking lot – under 20 of them," Hiiemaa explained. "I'd seen the draft plans, but I knew that this was a provisional draft as such and nothing was final. So at the time, we had no reason for suspicion regarding the construction of any parking lot."

In hearing about the construction work slated to begin shortly and the planned size of the new parking lot, the neighborhood association addressed its dissatisfaction to the mayor.

In its appeal, the association drew attention to the fact that the creation of so many parking spaces will also increase vehicular traffic on the Supilinn neighborhood's already narrow and poorly maintained streets.

"Oa tänav runs through Supilinn," Hiiemaa noted. "It's partially renovated, at the beginning of Oa tänav, and the rest of it is basically without sidewalks – just the street – and if all of these cars or drivers know that there is a great big parking lot at the end of the road there that would allow them almost direct access to the beach, then it's obvious that drivers are going to start driving there even more than they already do. I as a Supilinn resident cannot be content with this scenario."

Thus the city putting construction of the lot on hold and reviewing plans was the right decision, she added.

On top of the matter of number of parking spaces, there was another reason construction had to be put on hold. Namely, plans call for the removal of several trees in order to build the parking lot, but a bird nest was discovered in one of the trees just before construction work and the nesting season began.

"In turn, we have commissioned an ornithological assessment as such," Tamm said. "An ornithologist will come and specify what the exact bird nest situation is involving those trees, and whether the one bird nest found there by our specialist today is actually being used by any birds."

The deputy mayor added that regardless, the lion's share, some 80 percent of those trees, have already previously been assessed to be in unsatisfactory shape.

"Meaning 80 percent of these trees should actually be cut down, parking lot construction notwithstanding," he said.

The fate of both the trees and the size of the planned new parking lot may become clearer over the upcoming week. If, according to the ornithological assessment, the city can nonetheless go ahead with removing trees, construction of the parking lot will move forward following the trees' removal with OÜ Terrasson, with whom the city concluded a procurement contract this February.

The new Supilinn-side parking lot may be completed by June 1.

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