Almaty To Open Public Debate On Ecology In New Master Plan

Public hearings on the strategic environmental assessment of Almaty’s new Master Plan will be held on June 30, Orda.kz reports.

For the first time, the city’s main urban planning document has undergone a comprehensive environmental review. The assessment examined how future development could affect the environment and residents’ quality of life.

Almaty’s Department of Architecture and Urban Planning said the hearings will focus only on environmental issues. The department said the assessment made it possible to consider the environmental impact of future urban planning decisions while the Master Plan was still being prepared.

The authors of the document concluded that Almaty’s further development is possible if environmental measures included in the new Master Plan are carried out consistently. They said this would help reduce environmental risks and maintain a balance between urban infrastructure development and nature protection.

One of the key proposals is an environmentally oriented development scenario. It includes creating a polycentric city structure, where jobs, social facilities, public spaces and transport infrastructure are distributed across several urban centers. According to the developers, this would reduce pressure on the historic center, cut the number of daily trips and ease traffic flows.

The Master Plan also gives special attention to natural areas. It introduces a full ban on major construction in the foothills south of Al-Farabi Avenue. The document also keeps strict protection rules for the Ile-Alatau National Park, where residential and commercial construction remains prohibited.

Another important area will be strengthening environmental monitoring. The city plans to expand its air quality monitoring network to more than 50 stationary posts,the authors wrote.

The strategic environmental assessment also says Almaty should move toward continuous environmental monitoring and the publication of open data. According to the document’s authors, open environmental information would make urban development decisions more transparent and give residents objective information about the state of the environment.

The public hearings will serve as a platform for discussing the environmental part of the new Master Plan. Their results will be taken into account during further consideration of the document, which will shape Almaty’s development in the coming years.

Original author: Daria Malkova

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