From 13 August to 14 September, the municipality of Centar is running a public consultation on the draft Detailed Urban Plan for City Quarter J 05 - Barutana, on the slopes of Vodno. The municipality's press release talks about transparency and citizen involvement. The content of the plan itself talks about something else.

Mayor Goran Gerasimovski called on residents to take part. "No decision is mine alone, nor the Municipality's or the Council's alone. We should be making decisions together with citizens," he said, adding that every opinion matters and every proposal deserves attention.

Consultation forms can be filled in every working day from 8am to 4pm at the Koco Racin primary school at 2 Salvador Aljende Street, where the draft plan is on display in paper form, or electronically via the municipality's website and the e-urbanizam system. The public presentation is scheduled for 3 September at noon, at the offices of the municipality of Centar. The plan covers the 2025-2030 period and an area of 6.89 hectares.

What sits beneath the word "plan"

This is where the press release stops and the numbers carry on. The draft envisages building around twenty residential properties on steep terrain, which requires clearing around 9,000 square metres of forest on Vodno.

Councillor Biljana Filipovska-Todorcevska, who voted against, claims the plan contradicts the General Urban Plan and that the gross developed area rises to 29,000 square metres against the approved 6,500. Her argument is not only about aesthetics - she warns of erosion and landslide risk, which is a problem not just for future residents but for the whole city below the slope.

The draft was adopted on 14 July with the combined votes of VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM. Voting against were Sansa za Centar, Levica and ZNAM.

The consultation is real, but only if somebody reads it

A public consultation is not a formality and it is worth using - it is the only moment at which a citizen has a written right to say something before the plan becomes binding. But there is a difference between an open door and an invitation.

The consultation lasts a month and starts in mid-August, when a large part of Skopje is away on holiday. The draft is on display in a primary school, during working hours, when most people are at work. Formally, everything is available. In practice, this is a consultation model that always produces the same result: a low turnout, later cited as an absence of objections.

The difference between 6,500 and 29,000 square metres is a question worth giving up an afternoon for. Vodno has only one slope, and it does not grow back once it is cut.