The Prague City Hall has called on senators and deputies not to approve the new building law, which passed in the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday. The law should be redrafted and discussed by the political representation that will emerge from the autumn elections. The decision was made late on Thursday evening by city councilors. At the same time, they decided that the law had shortcomings and no support across the political spectrum. The city management has long argued that the norm goes in the opposite direction than is desirable, namely to state centralization instead of greater involvement of local governments in building permits and spatial planning. Moreover, the construction process will not even speed up, according to Prague politicians.
The law was criticized by representatives from all political clubs. The opposition representative and mayor of Běchovice, Ondřej Martan (ODS), described him as “a jerk and a jerk”. “The aim of the law was to stop local governments from interfering in construction proceedings,” he said. According to him, only development companies can benefit from this.
Prague and other local governments criticize in particular that building authorities should move completely under the state and function similarly to, for example, the tax office. Now they operate in the so-called delegated competence of the state administration, so they organizationally fall under the municipal authorities. The law did not include the requirement of local governments to be entirely in charge of the preparation of zoning plans.
The city also demanded that Prague and possibly other large cities be able to have their own building regulations. “The topic of spatial planning is serious and we will meet with it,” said the mayor’s deputy Petr Hlaváček (TOP 09).
The deputies added to the original resolution the proposal of the opposition representative Ondřej Prokop (YES) that the city leadership draw up a schedule for the preparation of the Metropolitan Plan, which is to replace the current zoning plan from January 2023. “In order to have a clear timetable and a plan of what will happen if the recodification of the law either passes or does not pass. Otherwise we put Prague at risk,” said Prokop.
The new law is to replace the current one from 2006 and, according to representatives of the Ministry of Regional Development, is to simplify and speed up construction proceedings. After Wednesday’s approval by the lower house, the law will be discussed by the Senate; if approved, it will come into force on July 1, 2023, with the state starting to recruit officials from January next year. The approved form was criticized by opposition parties, environmental organizations or the Czech Chamber of Architects. On the contrary, the Association of Developers or the Chamber of Commerce described the law as a step in the right direction.
Source: CTK
