Manastirski Livadi is one of the youngest and most rapidly developing districts of Sofia. Located in close proximity to Vitosha, the ring road and Sofia Blvd. Bulgaria, the neighborhood is connected to major road arteries and has good prospects for development. In recent years, however, the area has become the subject of attention not so much for its new urban environment, but for its infrastructure problems.
Manastirski Livadi started to develop since 2001, together with other new neighbourhoods such as Vitosha and Krustova Vada. As Sofia grows at a rapid pace and economic growth causes a boom in demand for residential property, there are more and more people willing to buy a new apartment in the elite southern areas of the capital. The areas of the southern arc of Sofia are attracting exceptional interest from investors seeking to meet the pace of demand in the housing market.
Initially, the territory on both sides of Blvd. Bulgaria was occupied entirely by meadows, formerly owned by Dragalev Monastery, as the name of the neighborhood suggests. The area is situated close to major boulevards and has the potential for good transport connectivity.The location with a nice view near the mountains and the increased demand are reflected in investment interest and quickly turn the area west of Bulgaria Blvd. Bulgaria, called Manastirski livadi-west, into the first fully built-up with new modern residential complexes. However, the development is preceded by street infrastructure, lighting and landscaping, which take place subsequently and do not follow any prior planning. This leads to serious challenges for the administration of the Vitosha district and the residents of the Manastirski livadi-west district today. The area there is already fully built up and few changes can be made to improve the urban environment more substantially.
The situation in Manastirski Livadi-East is different, as the area is still in the early stages of development. The demand for properties in the southern parts of Sofia continues in line with the unceasing investor interest in these areas. But after the experience of Manastirski Livadi-West and the visible problems there, the local administration and the residents of Manastirski Livadi-East are mobilising with the clear mission to participate in the regulation of the development process of the neighbourhood and to achieve a better quality urbanity for all new residents.
The Manastirski Livadi-East Initiative Group is a positive example of an active civil society working together with the administration of the Triaditsa district to improve the environment of the neighbourhood and the city. Meetings between the residents of the area and the municipality are held every third Thursday of the month at the Triaditsa District Hall. At these meetings, specific topics of various scales are discussed, from a problem with a tree box or the vision of the curbs, to the construction of a water pipeline and overall strategies for the future of the area. Conversations at these meetings are constructive and get into plenty of specifics. About 20 representatives of the initiative group participated in the last meeting on October 18, and from the side of the municipality - the district mayor Nikolay Terziev, the chief architect Ivan Shishkov and the deputy mayor Antony Krastev. About the structured minutes of the meeting, Mayor Nikolay Terziev says that he personally checked the progress of the infrastructure projects. The residents of Manastirski Livadi, for their part, also monitor the development and construction of infrastructure, as well as the deadlines for their implementation undertaken by the municipality. This is also a graphic example of how meetings between the municipality and residents, which started through protests and dissatisfaction, have turned into a constructive conversation about the development of the urban environment in an area that has an attitude and a need to talk about improving the environment around them.
The neighbourhood is also perhaps one of the best documented areas of Sofia. The municipal enterprise Sofproekt - OGP, which is responsible for Sofia's General Urban Plan, produced a map of the area that considers it not only from a territorial point of view, but also from a demographic and functional one. On the map prepared by the Sofproekt team
https://gis.sofproect.com/ one can see the technical infrastructure of the area, the ownership of the land, the issued construction visas and many other aspects of the urban development in Manastirski Livadi-East. The map shows that the development plan is less than half completed, and it can be expected that at least as many more buildings will be built in Manastirski Livadi-East as there are currently. Therefore, after collecting all the information about the neighbourhood and presenting it in a more accessible way on the map, a multidisciplinary team of Sofproject has taken up the task of working with the residents, investors, administration and all stakeholders and propose a plan and recommendations for the development of the neighbourhood by the end of 2018.
How this development of the area will take place, what steps have been taken and what is still to come, says the Mayor of Triaditsa Nikolay Terziev. The municipality's main priority at the moment is the expropriation of land for street infrastructure. Of the planned 300 000 sq.m., 170 000 sq.m. have been expropriated so far. The remaining areas are expected to be expropriated by the end of 2019. The expropriation process is complicated and long, but it is definitely the right way of planning and building the territory. Emergency and temporary measures, such as asphalting and building streets by developers, are definitely not sustainable practices. It is important that the street areas are municipally owned so that the municipality can build and maintain the infrastructure and be responsible for it. Charles Champot Street has already been constructed and Kostenski Falls is under construction and is expected to connect to Vasil Stefanov Street next year. The green areas of the neighbourhood are being developed around the Bojanska Bara and the Bara Izlivo. They are set in the Master Plan and cannot be changed, so it is certain that they will be turned into a park. There is a brief for a masterplan for Bojanska Bara, but for the plan to be made, the land must first be converted to municipal ownership.
Regarding the social infrastructure of the neighbourhood, the Metropolitan Municipality is planning to build a kindergarten and a school in Manastirski Livadi-East. The lack of these social functions is felt acutely by young families, who make up a significant part of the area's population. These educational institutions would significantly improve their quality of life in the neighbourhood. Permission has been granted for the construction of the kindergarten and the procedure for selecting a contractor is currently under way. The site for the kindergarten is located next to ul. "Flora" and ul. "Kostenski vodopad", next to the new "MONA" complex of BLD in the central part of Manastirski livadi-east. The kindergarten will open soon, and the school project is in its initial phase, with the site negotiation for construction completed for the time being. For this purpose, the church has provided the municipality with a plot of land on ul. "Vasil Stefanov with the right to use it for the next 100 years. The tender for the design of the school is to be launched. Another public project that is being worked on is the so-called "green island" - a place for play and recreation near the boulevard. Kableshkov.
From the information summarised so far, it is clear that there is currently sufficient knowledge about the needs, problems and prospects in the neighbourhood; there is planning data easily accessible to any investor, which is presented in a handy map; there are concrete commitments from the district and municipal administration; and, above all, there is an active civil society, which can make a significant contribution to making Manastirski livadi-east develop in a better synchronised way its infrastructure, environment and territory in the future. All this is due to the realisation of residents, municipality and investors that a quality urban environment is beneficial for all. As an investor in Monastery Meadows-East, the construction and investment company BLD will continue to invest its time and resources in the development of the urban environment in the neighbourhood and will monitor and inform about every important step that will accelerate the transformation of the new neighbourhood into a new, pleasant and peaceful residential area.
BLD is a construction developer specializing in the construction of residential buildings. BLD is one of the leaders in new construction in Sofia.All real estate is issued with Act 16, and sales of their apartmentsare made directly by the builder.