Klaipėda residents push for park instead of port cargo terminal

Residents of Klaipėda’s Žvejybos Uostas neighbourhood are opposing plans to build a cargo terminal for imported cars on a 5.4-hectare green space, instead proposing a public park, LRT reports.

Laura and Audrius Domarkai, who live near the noisy port cargo facilities and railway, argue the area—overgrown with grass and trees—should remain a natural space. “We could wish for nothing to be here: no asphalt, no cargo, no port. But something will be built. We want it to be a park,” said Laura Domarkienė.

The couple, members of the Riflemen’s Union, have lived in the district since 1984. They describe constant noise from cargo operations, including container drops at night and the clatter of freight trains. “That’s the reality we live with every day,” Domarkienė said. The issue worsened after a derelict overpass building was demolished, removing a sound barrier between the cargo company and residential blocks.

The disputed land, owned by Klaipėda State Seaport Authority, once held fishermen’s homesteads and a school. An unfinished pharmaceutical warehouse from the early independence era still stands in ruins. Locals now use the area for walking dogs or sunbathing. “People have nowhere else to go,” Audrius Domarkas noted.

A second green space between Strėvos Street and Baltijos Prospect, lined with 223 mature trees—some over a metre in diameter—acts as a buffer against traffic noise and air pollution from heavy trucks queuing for the central terminal. “These trees are the only protection we have,” Domarkienė said. “Cutting them down would make the cargo terminal problem even more complex.”

The municipal council rejected the terminal plan, but the port authority has appealed the decision in court. Residents argue the green space, though neglected, serves ecological functions by retaining heat and mitigating urban cooling. “If it’s all paved over, we’ll have a huge mirror reflecting heat back at us,” Domarkienė warned.