Sustainable mobility is a key component in Vilnius' new general city plan

The Lithuanian Capital, Vilnius, has approved its new general city plan for the next 10 to 15 years. Key elements of the plan are providing residential districts that are good to live in, the development of southern Vilnius and sustainable mobility.

The preparation of the new general city plan aimed to address major changes that had made the previous plan unsuitable for the development of the city. Societal trends and needs, as well as a change in urban planning legislation, required the city to create a new plan with more precise definitions of development opportunities, construction standards, green spaces and social infrastructure. A major change was to restructure the city from 18 functional areas to 3,300 blocks to comply with the new level of detail that was needed.

Under the new plan, residential areas will have better connections by focusing on changes to the main arteries. Within residential districts, the plan will move in the direction of the 15-minute city by allocating more services and infrastructure within walking distances. Transit traffic will be kept to the main streets and be removed from other streets in residential quarters, which will see the creation of more footpaths and walkways instead.

The new plan makes public transport the backbone of transport in the city, to safeguard the quick and safe transport of residents to their various destinations within Vilnius. Peripheral areas will be connected by access routes to high-speed public transport services. The new general plan will also extend the cycling network with the aim of developing cycling to become a daily modal choice beyond pure recreational use. In addition, a network of green spaces will be created at a distance of 200 to 300 metres from housing, with larger parks being available within 2 kilometres of everyone.

Vilnius’ new general city plan also aims to protect architectural and cultural heritage, sets out the maximum heights of buildings, regulates the allocation and size of supermarkets and defines standards for all construction across the entire city, which are closer to the ones for residential areas, to ensure high-quality living conditions.

Chief City Architect M Pakalnis said that “the new plan is the result of the work of a large team of professionals, municipal companies and administration, city politicians and caring citizens. During the first discussion, about 1,200 proposals were received, and during the last public announcement, citizens sent about 330 proposals. All of them helped to make the plan better, more in line with the citizens’ expectations.”