Where did the impartial action go when Karlstad’s leading officials pursue politics to satisfy the client in Karlstad’s many planned new buildings, asks the debater Stefan S Widqvist.
At the end of March, Karlstad municipality published a post on Facebook that clarified where in the building permit process the detailed plan for Viken 2:1 was and marked when the last time for public comments could be given. The proposal includes approximately 200 apartments with a 24-storey building as the highlighted building.
However, Karlstad Municipality’s post is dominated by a video, where we followed the drone pilot and got a view from the 24th floor of the upcoming high-rise and its planned top-floor bar, so cool and cool! The service staff’s actions cannot be seen as a factual approach to the questions and problems that this building project raises.
In the now revised Overview Plan, the following is stated: “The overview plan highlights the need for more parks and green areas in urban development.” “… green areas close to residences to enable close access to recreation, play and rest.” “In the municipality’s green structure, a gap analysis has been made based on the residents’ access to green areas.” Viken 2:1 is precisely Tullholmen’s last green space!
Why are the service personnel not following the guidelines laid out but are now acting as a political vanguard for the construction of the 24-storey building?
In addition, as they obviously know, the construction on this particular site violates several other guidelines for the municipality, such as additional traffic along Karlstad’s today’s busiest thoroughfare Packhusallén – Sjömansgatan.
The service staff’s task is to report on the various aspects of the construction and should not be political influence and offensive support for the project. Where did the impartial action go?
What do the administration’s staff have to say about the municipal management’s ambitions to build ever more densely and ever higher where the number of green areas becomes fewer and fewer. This has a negative effect on the health of the municipality’s residents:… light penetration decreases due to the tall buildings, noise increases, views are disturbed, the living environment becomes more crowded, values for recreation decrease, quality of nature experiences disappears.
The municipality’s plan manager Jonas Zetterberg does not want to be worse when it comes to politicizing his public mission when he was interviewed by NWT 6/3 and commented on the Trähotellet.
Zetterberg considered that the Trähotellet is indeed a real colossus, but this is the purpose of the building…”At the same time, tall buildings should act as landmarks and stand out.” …and so he fits in with municipal councilor Tallgren’s (s) view of the investigation assignment”… since the location is a little outside the central inner city, you are a little freer in the assessment of a new project like this.”
Shouldn’t the public officials follow the decisions regarding the protection of Karlstad’s valuable cultural environments? Why didn’t the plan manager Zetterberg speak out already when the chairman of the Technology and Real Estate Board, the environmentalist Monika Bubholz, assigned the Norwegian developer a location for the Trähotellet’s construction in precisely a protected cultural environment area?
It is high time that Karlstad’s public servants calm down a bit and take a reading together with the Swedish constitution. Because there it is clear what should distinguish the exercise of public duties.
The Form of Government stipulates that all performance of public administration tasks must be characterized by three principles, namely objectivity, impartiality and equality before the law. However, we can see that Karlstad’s leading officials run politics, so impartiality and objectivity come to the fore in order to satisfy the client – the high-rise rush of the leading politicians of the municipal political majority, lack of cultural environment responsibility and insensitive zealous densification efforts.
Stefan S Widqvist
