The speech of Kostas Tzoumis on the Local Urban Planning Plan of the Municipality of Tripoli under preparation

The introductory informative presentation – working meeting of the Municipality of Tripoli and the involved bodies and Services, took place on Wednesday, for the Local Urban Planning Plan of the Municipality of Tripoli under preparation.
THE SPEECH OF THE MAYOR OF TRIPOLI KOSTA GIOUMI
Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow Citizens,
I want to welcome you to Tripoli to the Inaugural Meeting of the work of the Tripoli Local Urban Plan known as TPS. The Local Urban Plan is the evolution of the old General Urban Plan of the well-known GIS.
The Municipality of Tripoli was one of the first municipalities to approve a GIS in 1986 during the days of the late Tassos Sehiotis, which he implemented in its entirety. About a year ago we sanctioned the last Implementation Act in the Kolokotroni Town Planning Unit.
In total with the 1986 GIS the city’s zoning plan was expanded by about 2000 acres and about 50% of the old 1956 zoning was revised. Today we have another extensive revision underway in the 11th Constitution area that concerns about 10% of its zoning 1956, we aim to soon complete the revision of the remaining part of the old plan.
Evaluating the role of the 1986 GIS, the assessment is particularly positive. The city grew, the old 1956 streetcar was put in order and a large part of the historic center was pedestrianized.
Today, the reconstruction of Agios Vassiliou Square and the surrounding streets is in progress, expanding the pedestrian network even more. Tripoli is a pedestrian-friendly city with an upgraded historic center, capable of further upgrading its urban organization. We at the Municipality of Tripoli believe in planning. We sought for Tripoli to be included in the B cycle of TPS studies of the “Konstantinos Doxiadis” Urban Planning Reforms program. We firmly believe that with TPS a new creative cycle begins for the entire Municipality. We will participate creatively and I would say demandingly both in the design and in the prescribed procedures.
The Municipality of Tripoli had a very bad experience with the GIS of law 2508/1997 which, although it was never started, was never completed. The analyzes are good, but the result is the proposal. Without the proposal the best analyzes have no value.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Today’s meeting gives me the opportunity to make a brief reference to the issues that should concern the study and supervision groups and above all to identify the goals that we, as the Municipality of Tripoli, will pursue.
We are looking for a growth TPS, and as I explained we have no need for consolidation. This was done with the 1986 GPS.
Today we seek arrangements that will contribute to growth.
We seek the creation of organized receptors for industry and logistics, we seek arrangements that will contribute to the stimulation of the primary sector and the increase of tourism activity.
The Municipality of Tripoli has experienced the crisis very strongly in recent years. We experienced population decline, closure of businesses, unemployment and with delignitization closure of the lignite units of Megalopolis which obviously has wider consequences.
The abandonment of the countryside, as it happens throughout the country and in our Municipality, has as a consequence the shrinking of the primary sector.
Tripoli, despite the efforts that have been made, shows little tourist activity, although it has natural beauty, history, culture and is in contact with the two ecosystems of Mainalos and Parnonas and at a very short distance from the Coastal Kynouria.
However, lately, it seems that something is changing. For two years now we have been living an investment cosmogony. The installation of the two large pharmaceutical companies of DEMO and ELPEN in the Tripoli’s VIPE created an investment wave. At least ten other major investments are seeking to establish themselves in Tripoli. The three have already acquired a plot of land for installation and their planning and licensing are in progress.
The lack of industrial plots is becoming the biggest problem. The plots of land of BIPE have been exhausted and the immediate expansion of its boundaries is a first priority.
The highway and the advantages it entails, the proximity to Athens and Tripoli’s central position in the Peloponnese make it suitable for the installation of large peripheral logistics for which there is already mobility.
The design of new organized receptors of manufacturing and business activities should be the first central pillar of the TPS.
The increase in tourist activity will be the second pillar.
In this direction, we aim to integrate into the TPS an extensive urban regeneration centered on a virtual reality digital space that will be a modern museum of the Greek Revolution.
The main redevelopment is aimed at the expanded public space made up by Areos Square and the surrounding parks, with a total area of ​​approximately 77 acres, as well as its connection with the sports center, the peri-urban grove of Agios Georgios and the University of Peloponnese.
It is an ambitious plan, proposed by CHOROVATIS and accepted by the Municipality.
At a special event, we will present the design that we aspire to make Tripoli a hub of research and digital innovation capable of creating an important cone of cultural, touristic and economic activity.
In the same direction, the important antiquities of ancient Mantinea and Ancient Tegea, the Temple of Alea Athena and the archaeological museums of Tripoli and Alea should form elements of the design. The large public estate of 2000 acres around the Taka reservoir is also a bet for planning. Its creative use can contribute to the field of urban development.
I last left the two ecosystems of Mainalos and Parnonas on the same axis.
It is of course a shame that the study area does not include the Municipal Unit of Phalanthos to which the largest part of Mainalo belongs, however arrangements must be sought that will make Tripoli the center of the tourist flows of the two ecosystems.
The third pillar will concern the primary sector.
The two major infrastructures of the agricultural sector, the irrigation system of Kandila and the irrigation system of Taka with a total budget exceeding 100 million euros should be utilized to the maximum.
The planned protection of the agricultural land in the zone of the two irrigators will be the object of the planning. Moschofilero and the strong wine sector, like other PDO products, can make a decisive contribution to the growth of the primary sector.
Animal husbandry is declining, but the existence of cheese factories that produce excellent quality cheeses with European distinctions can be the bulwark.
The fourth pillar will concern residential organization.
The institutionalization of land uses in the entire area of ​​the Municipality will constitute the central regulation of the TPS.
The re-demarcation of the settlements, urban development and possibly the expansion of some of them is the first demand.
The expansion of the boundaries of Levidis is an example in which significant tourist activity has developed, and the urban development of the neighboring demarcated settlement will also concern us.
Finally, a targeted expansion of Tripoli’s drainage system will be considered, as well as the correction of errors in existing land uses such as those of the Kolokotroni section.
The spatial institutionalization and especially the town planning organization of the University of Peloponnese, the expansion of the area of ​​the establishment and its functional integration with the urban fabric of the city is a strong demand.
The institutionalization of the municipal road network in the areas outside the zoning plans and approved settlement boundaries, after the well-known decisions of the STE, is an imperative and must be addressed within the framework of the TPS and not be referred to another regulation.
The fifth pillar will concern sinkholes and the main streams leading to them.
As you know, the plateau of Tripoli has no exit to the sea and the drainage of the flood benefits is done by the sinkholes, which, however, often block the flooding of large areas, mainly rural but also urban in the villages around them. The institutional protection of sinkholes and the main streams leading to them will concern the TPS.
The sixth pillar will concern roads and transport.
The institutionalization of a new road axis that will ensure unhindered access to the University, the institutionalization in terms of spatial organization of the bypass of the villages of Tegea for the Tripoli-Astros road axis, taking into account the needs identified by the Tegea report as well as the Spatial Planning support of the conversion of the military airport of Tripoli into a civilian one, should be elements of the design.
I last left the exhibition of Tegea and the sports facilities of the city which can be the axis of extroversion.
The Tegea exhibition is organized the week of August 15th at the same time as the trade fair. In 1992 Vassilis Maggioris as Minister of Industry had characterized it as a Regional Exhibition with a status equivalent to today’s Helexpo. Unfortunately, the reaction of Thessaloniki led to the withdrawal of the decision. The reorganization of the exhibition on a modern basis, its institutionalization in a space that will allow its development with permanent installations and its spatial support will be requested by the scholars.
Finally, the sports facilities of Asteras and the Municipal Sports Center should be reviewed from another perspective. Asteras brought Tripoli to the forefront of sports news, however the development of modern facilities that he sought, faced dozens of problems and was not possible.
Tripoli can be a sports destination, a place for summer training of sports clubs, but also a venue for major sports events, as it did in the past.
In such a direction we see the sports facilities and it is appropriate for TPS to adopt them.
I don’t want to bore you any longer, however I considered it crucial to define on behalf of the Municipality of Tripoli some of the objectives of the ongoing planning.
I want to state once again that the Municipality of Tripoli will be creatively present at all stages of planning and of course will be a catalyst for solving any problems that arise.