After obtaining all the necessary permits and completing the required procedures, VAS “Tiesu namu aģentūra” (TNA) will soon begin improvement works on the derelict site located in Riga, at Invalīdu iela 1. At present, this site, where the reconstruction of buildings for the needs of the justice sector is planned, is in a very poor technical condition, having gone unmaintained for several decades. It contains worn-out and derelict buildings and unsafe structures that pose a danger to people, as well as overgrown trees and bushes.
LTV program “Adreses” about this property
As a result of the dendrological survey and site management proposals carried out by SIA “LABIE KOKI”, as part of its improvement measures TNA will shape the crowns of 213 trees, fell 340 trees, remove them from the site, mill the stumps, clean up the site, and sow grass. This will be the first stage of the project, to be followed in the future by the reconstruction of the buildings on the site for the needs of the justice sector.
Before a decision was made on the works to be carried out and their scope, a public consultation was held from December 28, 2016, to January 10, 2016. On February 27, 2017, permission was received from the Riga City Council’s Landscaping Preservation Commission to fell the necessary trees after obtaining a building permit and fulfilling the conditions contained in the building permit. The building permit confirming fulfillment of all conditions for these works was issued on December 5, 2017.
“In accordance with the opinion of the State Inspection for Heritage Protection, in order to put the property’s park area in order, we engaged park and garden specialists from SIA “LABIE KOKI” to carry out a park inventory and improve the site, taking into account the architecture of the whole complex and the garden-design traditions characteristic of the period,” says TNA board member Santa Sausiņa. “Only after careful analysis and obtaining permits from the responsible state and municipal institutions was a decision made to carry out these works, in order to clean up this site and make it more attractive and safer.”
The need for the aforementioned works is also acknowledged by Andrejs Svilāns, President of the Latvian Dendrologists’ Society, since the planning and shaping of the planting structure must be carried out with regard to the building’s 19th-century cultural-historical context, rather than Soviet-era additions: “Clearing trees, thinning overcrowded plantings, and removing hazardous trees is objectively necessary to preserve the vitality of the buildings and infrastructure and of other – valuable, old – trees, as well as for building maintenance and human safety.”
Grounds for tree removal: extensive trunk damage; the tree is dead; the tree has no prospects for growth at its location; several other trees have self-seeded next to the tree, hindering its development; the tree has taken root in the building’s foundations or a concrete fence; most of the crown has died back; the tree is suppressing neighboring trees, a metal rod is nailed into the tree; the trees could break and fall, endangering nearby buildings; the trees have grown into a power line; the trees obstruct the movement of emergency vehicles, etc.
The site clean-up and improvement works will be carried out by SIA “Arborists”, with which a contract was concluded on February 12, 2018, following a public procurement.
The state joint-stock company “Tiesu namu aģentūra” (TNA) was established in 1997. TNA is a commercial company whose shares are 100% state-owned. TNA’s core activities include managing, maintaining, and administering real estate held by the Ministry of Justice, ensuring the operation of IT infrastructure, and publishing legal educational and instructional literature, legal acts and their compilations, and compilations of court rulings.