Tallinn plans to replace parking lot with city park in Sadama neighborhood
Tallinn City Government has initiated a detailed plan for the properties located at Hobujaama tänav 12 and 14 as well as the surrounding area in the Kesklinn district. The 1.89-hectare area is located at the corner of Hobujaama tänav and Ahtri tänav in the capital's Sadama neighborhood, and is currently used primarily as a parking lot and city bus layover zone.
According to a City of Tallinn press release, the aim is to densify Tallinn's city center and add value to the land via new uses. The detailed plan seeks to rezone the area into individual plots, grant building rights for commercial or residential buildings up to eleven stories high, designate a new city park, and set general land use conditions.
Given the area's current shortage of green space, it is considered essential to include as much landscaping as possible in the designs, with plans for a new park in the center of the designated area. The new plan will allow property owners within the area to implement it independently and in phases if needed.
Tallinn Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning Madle Lippus (SDE) said that the Hobujaama, Ahtri, and Jõe tänav areas have undergone a significant amount of urban re-development in recent times.
"For example, the Rotermann Quarter was one of the first ambitious attempts in newly independent Estonia to create a cohesive and architecturally high-quality urban space. However, much of this transformation has focused on buildings and street space. Now it's time for parks to take their place in Tallinn, and it's exciting that the planned park area here will be several times larger than the paved square in Rotermann Quarter," said Lippus.
Nearly 15 years ago, the city and OÜ PalmGrupp failed to reach an agreement on a previous detailed plan to redevelop the area. Since then, the urban development needs and goals for the area have evolved – a tramway to the harbor has been built on Hobujaama tänav, and demand for green spaces has also increased.
The current plan includes a landscape architecture competition to determine the best landscape design for the park, while it also recommends holding an architectural competition for the buildings on other plots.
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Editor: Michael Cole