May the 16th, 2022 - The announced construction of the five-star Hotel Valkane, with the investor being a Serbian media mogul, has caused quite the reaction among locals in Pula, with the local self-government unit there now torn between giving it the green light and saying a resounding no.
As Morski writes, the construction of a 5-star, 7-storey hotel on a popular promenade by the sea has raised a real storm in Pula and shaken up the city government. Does the city need another huge hotel or not, and is the lungomare (the city's promenade) really the right location for that? The reactions are as strong as they are mixed.
Hotel Valkane's investor, otherwise a Serbian billionaire and media mogul, wants to build the aforementioned hotel which would be worth half a billion kuna. The mayor has given the idea a thumbs up, but Pula locals are allegedly less than thrilled about the idea.
''We sincerely hope that Hotel Valkane will be completed within the next three to four years. There's no talk of deforestation, causing damage to the promenade or anything of high value. On the contrary, the ''hole'' that was once used should be returned to function,'' said Zoran Kostic, the project manager of "Hotel Valkane".
Pula's city councilors are generally not opposed to the idea of the construction of Hotel Valkane, except for those from the political party Mozemo (We Can!)
''Mozemo! has already initiated the third changes to the urban development plan of the promande, which can remove the hotel or reduce its size,'' the president of the Pula City Council Dusica Radojcic told HRT.
Most of Pula's local residents are allegedly not happy at all about the construction of this massive hotel
''It's not that it shouldn't be built, but maybe not in this place, maybe we'd rather build a sports centre or something like that here, use it a little better, build a better stadium, than build another hotel here. It's just a little too big, that hotel, in my opinion the two floors above should not protrude over everything as they would do,'' are just some of the comments of Pula's residents.
Despite the apparent dissatisfaction of the local residents he represents, Pula's mayor sees no issue...
''This is an excellent development project, the first five-star hotel that will be environmentally sustainable, one that won't touch any of the trees in the forest and has all the predispositions to be a new development point in the City of Pula and preserve the space we're in,'' said Mayor Filip Zoricic.
Mozemo is currently insisting on a referendum on building Hotel Valkane. They've warned that the entire part of the Pula coast has been privatised in a murky way and are as such calling on state institutions to do their jobs and investigate this matter more deeply.
With Pula's residents and Mozemo apparently vehemently against the hotel's construction, but with the mayor and the city government willing to give it a green light, will a referendum be held in which Pula's citizens might say no to the hotel, or will the investor get a location and construction permit and start building it? Time will tell for Hotel Valkane's fate.
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