Shopping mall project to be canceled, replaced by green area in Istanbul’s Kadıköy

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet

The area in Istanbul's Kadıköy district, on which a shopping mall was slated for construction, is currently being used as a parking lot by Istanbul Municipality’s parking lot operator, İSPARK. DHA photo

A shopping mall project in Istanbul that caused controversy between the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Kadıköy Municipality is expected to be canceled, according to a recent report by daily Hürriyet.

The Istanbul Municipality Assembly will discuss this week a change of plan that will arrange a green public area with an underground parking lot, instead of the Kuşdili mall project that had been planned to be built in a central neighborhood in Istanbul’s Anatolian district of Kadıköy.

The assembly is likely to approve the change of plan by consensus, which would completely cancel the shopping mall project. The area will be designed as a green public space with a two-story underground parking lot after the decision.

The area, known as Kuşdili meadow, is an old marketplace and a natural protected area.

The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality had earlier opened the area for construction and faced the Kadıköy Municipality’s objection to stop a mall project in the area, with Kadıköy Mayor Selami Öztürk calling the decision a “disaster.”

The Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning canceled a part of the project in May and reduced the area set aside for the mall following Kadıköy residents’ objections with 7,369 petition signatures.

The residents requested the halt of the mall project and the preservation of the area as a green space without construction.

A group of NGOs, including engineers and architects from the Chamber of Architects and Engineers, has also staged various protests to halt the Kuşdili Mall project.