President Kurnaz: “We will begin urban transformation”

The Mayor of İlkadım Municipality in Samsun, İhsan Kurnaz, announced that they will soon start urban transformation and will solve the natural gas problem of thousands of houses that are deprived of natural gas.

Mayor İhsan Kurnaz visited the Samsun 19 Mayıs Journalists Association. During the visit, he answered questions from the press members and provided information about the problems of the district and the works they will carry out regarding proposed solutions. Kurnaz emphasized that their priority is to solve the issues of unhealthy buildings’ urban transformation and the problems of houses without natural gas.

“We will start urban transformation”

Stating that the biggest issue in the district and their first priority is urban transformation, Mayor İhsan Kurnaz said, “Urban transformation will be carried out with the consent of the citizens and financial means. If God permits, we will start urban transformation this period. We are working on it. Today, we held a meeting with our bureaucrats under the chairmanship of Samsun Metropolitan Mayor Halit Doğan. We discussed not only urban transformation but also the problems that need to be addressed in İlkadım, which have turned into a gangrene and become difficult to solve. We reached a consensus. We will turn this into action. The biggest problem is urban transformation. However, it does not end there. There are other problems too. The problem of İlkadım does not end with urban transformation. Our city has many problems because it is an ‘old city.’ In the Adalet Neighborhood, there is the transformation of unhealthy buildings. In some areas, houses have been built in landslide zones. In the coming period, we will tackle these problems one by one together with Samsun Metropolitan Municipality. 80% of our two major neighborhoods, Hastanebaşı and Kökçüoğlu, cannot use natural gas. In the upper parts of the 2nd Boulevard, there is no use of natural gas in the residences. It is challenging to achieve results in 14,000 residences within a year by entering urban transformation today. There are 14,000 residences in the neighborhoods of Anadolu, Zeytinlik, Kadıköy, Kökçüoğlu, and Hastanebaşı that require urban transformation. In the risk-prone areas declared in Anadolu, Zeytinlik, and Kadıköy, there are over 8,000 residences, and in Hastanebaşı and Kökçüoğlu, there are nearly half of the residences. We do not have the chance to transform all of this within a year, but we will start. While doing this, we will also look to solve the problems of neighborhoods without natural gas. The Metropolitan Municipality has made plans for the three neighborhoods declared as risk areas. Work will be carried out within the framework of this plan. We will also act together in the other two neighborhoods. We are preparing a plan,” he said.

Expressing that high-rise buildings will not be permitted in the neighborhoods that will enter urban transformation, Mayor Kurnaz stated, “There is no permission for high-rise buildings in urban transformation areas. The maximum allowable is ground plus 5 floors, which we call a coefficient of 2. 11 cities were destroyed by earthquakes. Most of the resources have been used for people left on the streets, and priority was given there. Over 600,000 houses will be built. Nearly 200,000 houses have been completed. Economic difficulties and the cities affected by the earthquake delayed our work. If this destruction had not occurred, Samsun would have simultaneously transformed the unhealthy structures. We hope that our citizens will live in healthy buildings and solve the natural gas problem. They can reach the city center in 10 minutes from their homes, but they cannot burn natural gas at home. Due to the lack of natural gas, they have rented elsewhere. We will work on how we can solve these issues,” he said.

At the end of the visit, Yusuf Ziya Çakır, the President of the 19 Mayıs Journalists Association, wished Mayor Kurnaz success in his efforts.