Barutana, on the protected slopes of Vodno, is once again a battleground between concrete and greenery. The Council of Centar Municipality passed a draft detailed urban plan by a narrow majority of 13 votes for and 9 against - and mayor Goran Gerasimovski and the opposition are telling two completely different stories about the same plan.

Gerasimovski insists the accusations of fresh concreting are false. According to him, the new plan actually reduces the buildable area - from the previous 43,429 gross square metres to 29,459, a cut of around 33 percent. He also claims the height of the buildings is capped at ground floor plus two storeys, with expanded green space, and that the plans go through geological and geomechanical analyses before they are adopted.

The other side of the plan

The opposition reads the same paper differently. „Šansa za Centar“ and ZNAM warn that the plan enables excessive construction on terrain prone to erosion and sliding. They counted as many as 25 large buildings, 24 of them private villas, in a zone that has been flagged as unstable for years. Levica says the plan opens the door for private investors to get permits for luxury buildings on Vodno, despite long-standing warnings about land slippage and ecological damage.

On one state plot of about 5,397 square metres, a home for the elderly is planned - a move that gives the plan a social facade. But critics ask why a home for the elderly comes in the same package as some twenty private villas on a protected mountain.

Who do you believe - the mayor who says the area is shrinking, or the councillors counting villas on eroding terrain? The answer, as usual, lies somewhere in the details of the plan that hardly anyone will read to the end. The plan now goes into public consultation. The Vodno question is as old as the city itself: every new plan promises less construction - yet the mountain seems to get more and more cranes. Is it different this time, or just better packaged?