Lake Herăstrău will be emptied in June, for bank rehabilitation works / Why is the terrace area bypassed

Lake Herăstrău will be emptied in the next two to three weeks and work will begin to consolidate the banks, announced the Capital City Hall. The works cost a total of 45 million lei and will last 13 months, with 15 million lei planned for this year.

“Soon, we will start working on Herăstrău Park! We want to restore its charm, arrange it meaningfully, coherently, elegantly. But it must also be safe. In 2-3 weeks, we will empty the lake of water and start the shore defenses. At the same time, we will carry out expertise to establish technical solutions for intervention at pontoons and jetties”, announced the Capital City Hall on the Facebook page.

Why the project “stops at the terrace area with song”

The project to consolidate the shores of the lake, however, stops at the area with terraces, from Șoseaua Nordului. In order to be able to rehabilitate the lake shore in that area, the terraces should be demolished/dismantled because they are on the pontoons on the shore.

“I want to say one thing from now on, let it remain, and not be attributed to me later: I signed (after unlocking) the construction permit for securing the shores of the lake, but – and please note here – the technical project does not cover, it stops at the song terraces area. The project was ordered several years ago, I had a choice between signing it as it came to me, with all the opinions taken, including from the Romanian Waters (a big deal), and to restart it from scratch”, announced the mayor Ciprian Ciucu, as early as April, on his Facebook page, in April.

The 3 phases of the project

The mayor says that the project has been divided into several phases, and for the area with the terraces, an expertise will be made and the design will be contracted here as well. In the first phase, one meter of the water level will be taken, in order to widen the surrounding alleys, and the bottom of the lake will also be cleaned. The second phase includes the part of the terraces. The third phase includes the jetty.

“We have decided that we will deal with it in phases: this is phase I and it will be executed this year. For phase II, the one with the terraces, I will ask ALPAB for an expertise and to contract design here as well, we cannot play with the safety of the banks, you have seen what state they are in. It is possible that the former management of ALPAB has designed the safety of the banks without that area in order not to block the entire project in many litigations”, Ciucu also wrote on his Facebook page in April.

On May 9, during a debate organized on the situation in Herăstrău Park, Ciprian Ciucu emphasized that it is a little more difficult for the Capital City Hall to close certain terraces in the park, because some may be on private land.

“As for the terraces, the problem is that the authorizations are given by the District town halls. Here, unfortunately, even if you withdraw the authorization, they can sue you. Some are on private spaces, others on public space, I have to do an analysis, let's see what we can do”, said the mayor of the Capital.

“When I go to Herastrau Park, I honestly tell you that I am ashamed”

For the rest of the park, the municipality will create a management plan and a master plan.

“Based on them, we will determine what the alleys, urban furniture, benches, trash cans, kiosks will look like, how the playgrounds, lampposts will look, which trees are dry and what we will replace them with, which vegetation lends itself to each area,” the municipality also announced.

Mayor Ciprian Ciucu says he is ashamed of how the park currently looks.

“Now, when I go to Herăstrău Park, I honestly tell you that I'm ashamed. And I want it to look a little better. In the next 3-4 months we want to have the master plan ready and know what we have to do, so we can get to work. From this autumn, in the short term, we can intervene. We are thinking of placing a statue of King Mihai I as well”, declared the mayor Ciprian Ciucu.

The master plan, with the management plan of the park, will be the basis for the development and completion of the Zonal Urbanistic Plan for the park.

Paragina from Herăstrău and the terraces of trees

Hundreds of dead trees, damaged walkways, empty artesian wells, broken benches, damaged playgrounds and abandoned buildings. This is the image of Herăstrău park in recent years. The only ones that have prospered are the terraces and the restaurants.

For years, the City Hall of the Capital did not make any major investment in this park, the former general mayor of the Capital, Nicușor Dan, arguing that there was no money.

In Herăstrău Park, a historical monument, there are more than 50 terraces and restaurants, revealed an investigation carried out by HotNews in 2021.

Seven buildings in the park were sold by the City Hall of Sector 1 based on a law from 2002 – and the land under them and around them was concessioned by the City Hall of Sector 1 without the consent of the City Hall of the Capital, so without complying with the law, as shown in a response sent by the institution to the request of HotNews, in 2021.

For the rest, the Parks and Recreation Administration, the park administrator, concluded 44 lease and joint venture contracts 1997-2019, with the longest contracts expiring in 2039.

Most of the terraces on the pontoons on the banks of Lake Herăstrău were built without a building permit, thus in violation of the law, although the park is a historical monument, according to a report of the control body of former mayor Gabriela Firea, made in 2017 and obtained by HotNews.

The biggest park in Bucharest

Herăstrău Park – the largest park in Bucharest – is composed of three parks, which in total have almost 130 hectares. It is about Herăstrăul vechi, located between Prezan Constantin boulevard, bd. Aviatorilor, Shos. Nordului, str. Elena Vacarescu, Șos. Bucharest-Ploiesti and Sos. Kisellef. It was established in 1938 and inaugurated by King Charles II. Area: 52.5 hectares. Miorița is part of the Miorița well and DN1 and has an area of ​​25.5 hectares. Herăstraul Nou, located on Șoseaua Nordului, was established in 1951 and has an area of ​​51.9 hectares.