Draft Plan Proposes Housing and Tourism Plots on Half of Härmälä Campsite

A draft detailed plan would convert about half of the Härmälä camping area beside Pyhäjärvi into housing and tourism plots. The proposal is open for public display and comment from 27 August to 24 September 2026.

The plan allocates 25,000 gross square metres of residential building rights, enough for roughly 450 new residents. Parking would be concentrated in a two- to three-storey garage along Leirintäkatu. Camping operations are compressed to a smaller footprint but gain tourism plots: preliminary counts show space for about 70 caravan pitches, 25 cottages, a tenting area, a lakeside sauna plot and a new pier. Lepola villa is mainly earmarked for tourist use, though residential use remains possible.

Planners based the detailed plan on a 2025 ideas competition and on earlier master plan studies carried out between 2017 and 2022. Protected trees and a small elm stand will be preserved, and wooded ecological connections secured. The plan reserves two east-west pedestrian and cycle routes, including the Huvilarannikonraitti, to help complete a year-round Pyhäjärvi shore loop. Tramway construction on Nuolialantie is under way, with service planned to begin in August 2028.

Documents and environmental and heritage studies are on view during the consultation period. An open residents' meeting will be held on Wednesday 16 September 2026 at the Härmälä school cafeteria, Nuolialantie 47, from 16:00 to 18:00, with short presentations at 16:00 and 17:00.

The plan forms part of the city's broader housing planning work to accommodate future growth the city's 2040 housing plan.