The city of Lieksa and Pohjois Karjala Osuuskauppa would like to replace Loma-Koli's former ski slopes with holiday apartments and a hotel.
I moved in connection with the national landscape, Loma-Koli's Rintansenvaara is being planned for an extensive plan change. The change would enable, among other things, the construction of a hotel and other buildings for tourism and recreation.
It is about the area where the Loma-Koli skiing center used to operate. The slopes were closed in 2016. The city of Lieksa and Pohjois Karjalan Osuuskauppa (PKO) would like to develop tourism and recreation services in place of Loma-Koli's former slopes.
The total area of the area is approximately 65.4 hectares, the majority of which, just under 57 hectares, is owned by PKO. The city of Lieksa, on the other hand, owns an area of around 8.5 hectares with buildings around the former skiing center substation.
The plan has progressed to the draft stage. In the draft, Rintansenvaara is assigned a building right for a total of 33,200 square meters. Of this, a block of approximately 20,000 floor square meters has been placed in an area owned by the city between the former lower station of the ski slopes and the larger Kuikkalammi.
The remaining approximately 13,000 square meters of floor area are placed in seven blocks on the slopes and on the top. It would be possible to build no more than two- and three-story buildings on the slope.
I'm burning the city council discussed the matter at its meeting on March 18. The draft plan is available for viewing until April 22. Decisions on the matter will be made at the end of the year.
CEO of PKO Juha Kivelä according to one of the goals of the project is to spread the pressure of Koli tourism outside the national park.
“Needs related to nature conservation would also be served by shifting the focus of the area's development to a wider area,” says Kivelä.
As a former ski resort, Loma-Koli fits the purpose well, as the area already has some municipal technology.
The goal of both PKO and the city of Lieksa is to find partners from outside the province for tourism development in the Loma-Koli area. According to Kivelä, there has already been a discussion with an external hotel entrepreneur regarding the area.
“It's not about mass tourism, but the entrepreneur in question is familiar with more natural construction that suits the landscape,” says Kivelä.
I'm burning from the city's point of view, the formula supports the goals of the city's strategy, such as diversifying the diverse tourism and business activities of the Koli area, Lieksa's mayor Pirre Seppänen says.
“The new services also target new tourist groups. At the moment, Koli's services rely heavily on hotel operations in the vicinity of Ukko-Koli,” says Seppänen.
Koli has been one of the most popular domestic tourist destinations in recent years. In ten years, Koli's visitor numbers have almost doubled.
According to Metsähallitus, around 251,000 people visited Koli last year, which is only two percent of the 2021 record number.
CHEST DANGER is part of Koli's nationally valuable landscape area, which can be seen, for example, in the landscape opening from Mäkrä and Ukko-Koli.
In its statement on the participation and evaluation plan, the ely center of North Karelia has emphasized that the planning area is located in a landscape that is very sensitive. According to it, building according to the plan would create permanent damage to the valuable landscape.
The North Karelia district of the Finnish Nature Conservation Union considers that the construction areas planned in the direction of Loma-Koli would cause significant damage to the landscape of Koli.
“In our opinion, it is one of the most important cultural landscapes in this country and it must be protected. The starting point cannot be what the landscape looks like when viewed from a certain landscape location, but also how the national landscape of Koli looks like when viewed from other dangers or Pieli”, executive director Antti Saarelainen says.
The local district of the association believes that the ski slopes of Loma-Koli should be restored by afforestation. If necessary, the organization is ready to complain about the formula.
The slopes of Loma-Koli in 2016.
Blacksmith understands the concern about Koli's landscape, but reminds us that it is not an untouched area. In connection with the plan, it is also possible to afforest the hillside areas.
“With the formula, we aim to ensure that the landscape is preserved. The intention is not to damage our attraction, which is the main national landscape,” says Seppänen.
According to Seppänen, a nature survey will be conducted in the area during 2024. During the draft phase, a landscape analysis is also prepared and the valuable rock area is taken into account when drawing up the plan.
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