The government returns the building permit as the main consent of the state or municipality that a facility can be built instead of the construction application that has been used for the past seven years, and the applicant must receive a response to the request for a building permit within a maximum of 30 days.
These are the main novelties of the draft Law on Construction of Buildings, which has been submitted to the parliamentary procedure. Also, local governments are being given back the authority to issue building permits for buildings up to 3.000 square meters, procedures for the construction of individual family houses are being simplified, while the licensing of professional staff, technical standards and the participation of foreigners from European Union countries in design and supervision work are being harmonized with EU standards and directives,...
The draft Law on Spatial Planning has also been submitted to the parliamentary procedure, where the most significant novelty is that the Government establishes a company for the development of planning documents at the state level, and one or more municipalities can establish a company for the development of local planning documents on their territory. This partially restores the competence of local governments in spatial planning on their territory, which was transferred to the state level seven years ago. Now it used to happen that the investor requested changes to the plans and financed their development, while private companies would design the facilities.
The proposal restores the obligation to pay fees for the development of construction land for four- and five-star hotels, with the possibility for local governments to introduce a discount of up to one hundred percent of the amount of this fee if the investor also participates in the construction of infrastructure for these facilities at their own expense. Until now, these investors, in order to encourage tourism, have been exempted from paying the fee, and the communal equipment of these locations has mostly been financed by local governments or the state budget. It also lists possible discounts that municipalities can give to investors for a whole range of facilities by activity.
Currently, there is one law in force covering construction and spatial planning, and now two laws, in accordance with European standards, envisage the separation of these areas into two separate laws. The third law, which should be prepared soon, and forms a system with the previous two, will relate to a new way of legalizing illegal buildings.
The explanatory memorandum to the draft Law on Construction states that the current solutions in the joint law have not brought the expected contribution to encouraging construction and solving problems in this area.
"Policies of spatial planning, construction of facilities and legalization of facilities have not taken root and the system largely functions through transitional provisions of the legal solution. The focus of public powers in the field of construction of facilities was on the urban planning and construction inspection and, in this regard, the existing solution in terms of fulfilling construction conditions through the application of works has not yielded the expected results. This, primarily in relation to the expected contribution to attracting investments and competitiveness of Montenegro on the investment market," stated the explanation of the proponent of the Ministry of Spatial Planning and Urbanism.
They believe that the areas of spatial planning and construction of facilities should be significantly reformed and constantly improved, in order to create conditions for encouraging entrepreneurial initiative and investment of foreign and domestic capital, for quality construction and valorization of space, and ultimately encourage the comprehensive development of the country.
"Existing legal solutions have not made the expected contribution to the ease of market-based business operations and the efficiency and simplicity of administrative procedures," the explanation states.
The building permit is being restored as the main condition for construction and will be issued within 30 days by an administrative act, which is subject to administrative and judicial protection. For hotels and tourist resorts, facilities of general interest and with over 3.000 square meters, the building permit is issued by the Ministry, and for others, by local governments. The building permit is issued only for the main project, the technical inspection has been introduced as mandatory for all facilities except for family housing. It has been estimated that for family residential buildings, the procedure should be simplified so that the revision of technical documentation, expert supervision and technical inspection would no longer be mandatory, but only a statement by the designer that the project was done in accordance with the law and professional rules, along with a statement by the contractor that it was built in accordance with the building permit, the main project and that it is suitable for use.
In the explanation of the draft law on spatial planning, the Ministry states that the current solutions have led to spatial degradation, and that the new ones are in line with European directives.
"The numerous changes that have occurred in the overall development of Montenegro have been accompanied by consequences that have directly affected the area, bringing with them many very complex problems and conflicts, thus making it more difficult or even limiting the conditions for the further development of our country. Despite the fact that this activity has a special social and state interest, it does not have one in practice, but rather there are still intentions to treat its products as a whole as a commodity, which, among other things, has led to its current degradation," the explanation states.
They plan to solve these problems and introduce European standards through the decentralization of spatial planning tasks, the institutionalization of the preparation of planning documents (through state and municipal enterprises), the reduction of administrative procedures in the implementation of planning documents (the creation of a Geoportal for urban and technical conditions), the establishment of better quality inspection supervision,...
Public hearings will last longer and be more transparent
A significant novelty in the proposed Law on Spatial Planning is that the institute of public debate on planning documents is being raised to a significantly higher level, with much greater rights.
The public hearing will now last at least 30 days, instead of the previous 15.
"The developer is obliged, depending on the scope and complexity of the planning document, to organize one or more public presentations of the draft planning document, in order to explain the proposed planning solutions to the interested public. At the public presentations, the developer is obliged to provide preliminary answers to questions, opinions, proposals and suggestions given by the interested public," the law states.
The public hearing report must be completed within 30 days. The developer will also submit the public hearing report to the plan reviewer for approval. The report must contain detailed responses to all comments submitted.
Until now, it has happened that after a public hearing, the developer almost completely changed the plan compared to the version that was at the public hearing. It is now foreseen that if the corrected draft of the planning document differs significantly from the version that was at the public hearing, a new public hearing must be organized.
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