Our urbanized cities breathe through their green spaces. Therefore, people are particularly sensitive to the cutting down of any tree. Residents of Stara Zagora react strongly on social media to any encroachment on the city’s “lungs.” The latest cause for their discontent was the felling of trees on a plot of land that has been designated for greening in the General Spatial Plan since 2011.
An investigation conducted by “Za istinata” (For the truth) revealed that the property was purchased at a municipal auction in 2015 for 1.7 million BGN by the sole proprietorship “Eurostroy Engineering,” owned by Nikolai Dyakov.
The investor plans to build a residential complex comprising six eight-story buildings on the site.
In a declaration to the mayor of the city, the chairman of the municipal council, and the councilors from all groups, architect Yordan Danev insists on a thorough investigation into how the property was acquired, the reasons for changing the zoning designation from “Greening” to “Residential High-Rise Construction,” who permitted and approved the amendment, who authored the Detailed Development Plan and the Investment Project for the property, who assessed the project, and whether all regulatory requirements were met. According to the author of the declaration, the mayor of Stara Zagora, Zhivko Todorov, has for years delegated all his functions related to the urban environment to the now former chief architect Viktoria Grozeva, while overall control has been in the hands of deputy mayor Yanchо Kaloyanov.
This, according to the author of the declaration, has led to a conflict of interest, double standards, direct assignment of projects without competitions, overbuilding, abandonment of public facilities, dying villages, and more.
So far, architect Danev has not received a response from anyone.
From the consulting firm “Geodet” Ltd., led by Antoaneta Damaskinova, they explained to “Za istinata” that when the property was purchased by “Eurostroy Engineering,” the development plan was already intended for residential construction. During their oversight, they were only concerned with whether building rules, norms, and regulations of the Territorial Development Act were followed, not whether, when, and why the General Spatial Plan of Stara Zagora had been changed.
The author of the Detailed Development Plan and the residential design is Dragolyub Nakov.
However, it remains unclear whether he designed it as part of the team at the office V&V Architects, owned by Vladimir Georgiev—the husband of former chief architect Viktoria Grozeva—or on behalf of his own firm, “DN Architects.”
Manuil Manolev, a representative of the consulting firm, stated only that the documents bear the stamp of architect Nakov.
According to Manolev, there is an enforceable order for the Development Plan, as well as an order for the felling of trees from the property, which was previously a green space. He could not specify how many trees were destroyed, but clarified that 25 percent of all trees were supposed to be preserved. Landscape architect Todor Dobrev has designed the relocation of 20 trees to the same or another municipal property. However, even if they are transplanted, their chances of survival are minimal, and the costs for this activity for a single tree range between 4,000 and 5,000 BGN.
There is also no clarity on the basis of which dendrological opinion it was decided which trees are considered non-essential,
whether a vegetation survey has been conducted by a surveyor, and where in the city compensatory afforestation will take place.
In an interview with “Za istinata,” the mayor of Stara Zagora, Zhivko Todorov, stated that a Detailed Development Plan for this area was created in 2007, designating the property for construction. However, the changes were not reflected in the city’s General Spatial Plan from 2011, in which the same property is indicated as a green area. Therefore, in 2014, the Municipal Council voted for a partial amendment to the General Spatial Plan, establishing a regulated land plot (UPI), and the parcel was sold at auction, won, as mentioned, by “Eurostroy Engineering.” The municipal budget received 1.7 million BGN from the transaction.
When asked if he knows the investor Nikolai Dyakov, Mayor Zhivko Todorov responded negatively, stating that he had never heard of him. The same question—whether he knows the city’s mayor—was posed to the owner of “Eurostroy Engineering,” and we received the same response. Thus, it turned out that the mayor and one of the largest investors in construction had never met in a city with a population of fewer than 125,000, according to the National Statistical Institute data from the 2021 census.
This specific case raises further questions, among which the most important is whose interests dominate in decision-making by the Municipal Council in Stara Zagora—the public or the private?
When, at the September session in 2014, the councilors gave the “green light” for the partial change of the city’s General Spatial Plan, did they consider the public interest, or did they place excessive trust in the proposal submitted by the administration? Or perhaps the councilors do not always know what they are voting on?
Zhivko Todorov was adamant in our conversation that he does not support overbuilding and the reduction of green spaces in the city. However, this project is precisely that.
It destroys a green area, particularly in one of the most polluted places in the city, where there is constant heavy traffic, to pave the way for a high-rise residential complex on this small plot of land.
Whether anyone would buy an apartment in the future buildings is not the topic of this text. However, according to preliminary data from the National Statistical Institute, in the first quarter of this year, 52 residential buildings were brought into use in the Stara Zagora region, housing 138 newly constructed apartments.
Statistics show that compared to the same period last year, there is a 73.3% increase in buildings and a 14% increase in the number of apartments within them. The highest growth in the last five years was recorded in the last quarter of 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic had not yet subsided, and businesses were claiming compensation from the government.
At the same time, the population is decreasing both in the region and in Stara Zagora. Many of the newly constructed apartments remain uninhabited, yet their prices, even “on the green,” surpass the psychological threshold of 1,000 euros per square meter.
