SIA “Centrālais tenisa klubs” has abandoned the intention to build a shopping center instead of Āgenskalns tennis courts due to the objections of the residents, according to the decision made at the meeting of the temporary administration of Riga municipality on Wednesday.
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Already last year Riga City Council deputies rejected the wording of the local plan developed on the plot of land at Baldones Street 7, which, if approved, would have allowed the establishment of a shopping center instead of the tennis courts in Āgenskalns. At the same time, the decision of the City Council envisaged to instruct the City Development Department to prepare a new terms of reference for the development of local planning, taking into account the proposals received during the public consultation of natural and legal persons.
Following this decision, the Central Tennis Club requested time for reflection and submitted a letter this summer requesting that the development of the local plan be stopped. The interim administration of the municipality supported the company’s request today, canceling the decision of 2018 to start the development of the local plan of the land plot at Baldones Street 7.
It has already been reported that the purpose of the local planning was to create preconditions for the provision of business, which envisages the expansion of the public construction spectrum in the specific land plot. The plan envisaged to change the public building territory into a mixed building territory. However, during the public consultation, residents expressed concern about how the changes could lead to the liquidation of the sports club, which is more than 100 years old, as a result of which 52 applications were received in the council with 1723 signatures protesting the plan.
In February 2019, considering this issue at the Riga City Council City Development Committee meeting, the department representative Zita Miķelsone did not hide that such great public interest is “unprecedented in the history of local planning”, so the department called on the council to suspend the development until and a compromise will be found for the people.
“We cannot ask the owners of the territory to 100% fulfill the wishes of the residents, therefore we ask to reach a compromise. If this fails – the council may reject the prepared version of the plan and have it redrafted,” the spokeswoman said. How long it should be agreed by both parties is not certain.
The building of Āgenskalns Sports and Gymnastics Society has been located at Baldones Street 7 since 1910. In the 1930s, tennis courts were built on the site, which still operate there today. There are four indoor tennis courts under the inflatable dome about ten meters high and two open tennis courts.
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