The problem with the lack of parking spaces in the Kapishtec neighborhood, Centar Municipality should have been solved by building another prefabricated garage along Naroden Front Street, the same as the one that was already built more than ten years ago opposite the "Beverly Hills" shopping center.

With the new garage, 260 new parking spaces were to be obtained, which would be very significant for the local residents, but also for the guests in the neighborhood. At the same time, the advantage of prefabricated garages is that they are actually placed over an already existing parking lot, so you get twice as many parking spaces in the same space.

Even two years ago, the Municipality announced that a public procurement procedure for the selection of a contractor is underway, and that its construction will begin immediately after the selection is made. But so far the construction has not started, and it is uncertain when and if it will happen soon. The problem is that the City of Skopje does not give a positive opinion.

The City is holding back certain projects, capital projects, which have been included in the programs, budget funds have been allocated, and we are receiving negative opinions from the City. Specifically, I can point out that one of those projects is a prefabricated garage in the Kapistec neighborhood, which was supposed to be implemented by now, but unfortunately, for the third time, we have received a negative opinion on the same project. The reason is the start of the implementation of the Makedonija boulevard, the famous boulevard that was talked about decades ago, which will start from "Limak" and extend all the way to Karposh - says the mayor of Centar Municipality, Goran Gerasimovski.

At the recent press briefing, he emphasized that previously all matters surrounding this project were agreed upon in meetings with the previous director of "Parkings of the Municipality of Centar", with the mayor Danela Arsovska, and that teams from the municipal sector for urbanism and planning were also present.

We had meetings where all things for the realization of this project were agreed upon. The prefab parking lot had to go not only along the National Front, but also over the existing "City Parking" parking lot all the way to AMSM in order to use as many parking spaces as possible. And we get a negative answer to everything agreed. And the plan was to install photovoltaic cells upstairs to obtain electricity - explained Gerasimovski.

The parking problem in Kapistec will be "eased" with another prefabricated garage

In the second request that the Municipality submitted to the City of Skopje, the obligation was added that 30 days before the construction of the boulevard begins, the parking lot will be dismantled and relocated to another place, but the opinion of the City of Skopje was again negative. At Gerasimovski's request, another meeting was arranged, at which they were asked to make a new project that would not cover the areas managed by PE "Gradski Parking", but that the prefabricated garage would extend along the line of Naroden Front Street.

After changing the project and insisting again that 30 days before the start of the parking lot will not interfere, we will dislocate the other prefab which is along the street, we get a negative answer for the third time. Now we are asking for help from the Ministry of Transport and Communications to see if there is a possibility that they will give us permission to continue with the project - says the mayor of Centar.

The parking problem in Kapistec has been going on for years, although in the past it was not so big, because every household had one car, not two or three as it is now. The biggest problem is that even then the parking lots were not completely well planned, as Gerasimovski says – there was no underground parking for such tall buildings, and the capacity of the streets is not enough for parking.

Unplanned urban planning has led to problems that now need to be solved. And that's why we adopt certain regulations in the area of ​​issuing building permits, there must be as many parking spaces as there are apartments, there must be a sufficient number of parking spaces for bicycles and there should be no unpopular "seesaws", which no one made because they cost a lot even in a very small number of buildings have been inserted - according to the head of the Municipality of Centar.

The center has big problems with parking, especially in Debar Maalo, Bunjakovec, behind Universalna, on the streets around the town square and in Kapistec. Parking is regulated by two companies, POC and "City Parking", parking prices are the highest in this part, most of the streets are made one-way so that one lane is dedicated to parking, so it is always almost impossible to find a free space. This is especially problematic for residents who face this problem on a daily basis.

In fact, all surveys and research conducted by the Municipality on an annual level, with which the problems and needs of the citizens should be determined, have shown that the biggest problem for the residents of the city center, as Gerasimovski says, is always parking.