From 7 April to 6 May, everyone in Riga will have the opportunity to be a leader in their neighbourhood by submitting a development project idea to the Participation Budget Competition.
The purpose of the competition is make it possible for local residents to make their own decisions about how to spend their share of the city budget and improve the public environment in their neighbourhood, while providing the local government with feedback about the urban improvements that people need.
A project idea can be submitted by a person who is at least 16 years of age, or by an association or foundation that does not have a local government participation.
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In order to submit a project you need:
- to find out the address and cadastral number of the land parcel where you want to see your idea implemented;
- to find out who owns the land parcel (if the land parcel belongs to a private or legal person, you need to get the consent of the owner or owners)
- The following shall be used to establish the ownership of land parcels - The GEORIGA portal. It will not include the details of private or legal persons, but will provide general information on the ownership of the land parcel;
- to come up with a project name and a project description;
- to prepare a cost estimate, a sketch of the project and a visualisation of the project;
- to visit geolatvija.lv – Participatory budgeting – and fill in the information requested in the project application.
The projects to be submitted will be divided into three categories: infrastructure projects (up to EUR 250,000 per project), courtyard projects (up to EUR 250,000 per project) and social innovation or intangible projects (up to EUR 50,000 per project).
Unlike the previous conditions for submission of projects, projects can now also be submitted on privately owned land, provided that the landowners have decided on the project and agree to enter into an agreement with the local government on the use of the land.
Submission of projects and voting for them will no longer take place on the website balso.riga.lv, but on the National Geospatial Information Portal www.geolatvija.lv developed by the Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development (MoSARD). You can vote for projects during one month – in November, voting no more than once per project. The customer service points of the Riga Neighbourhood Population Centre will continue to be available for voting in person.
The total municipal funding for the Participatory Budget this year is EUR 2.3 million.
Riga Municipality has been organising the Participatory Budget Competition and resident vote since 2019. During this period, a total of 216 project applications were submitted by Riga residents. Over the six years of the competition, 53 projects have been submitted for implementation. Of these, 29 projects have been fully implemented and 24 are currently in various stages of implementation.
Information was prepared by Sabīne Solovjeva, Project Coordinator for External Communications Department of Riga City Council Communication Administration, email: sabine.solovjeva@riga.lv.