Will there be an additional deadline for legalization?

The Union of Municipalities of Montenegro launched an initiative to extend the deadline for the legalization of illegally erected buildings and the deadline for the preparation of planning documentation, which requires an amendment to the Law on Spatial Planning and Construction of Buildings.

The Community of Municipalities, more precisely the Committee for Spatial Planning, believe that the deadlines should be until March 31, 2019. According to the recently amended law, the planning documents should have been adopted no later than October 1 this year, and the deadline for the legalization of buildings has expired July 16.

The Minister of Sustainable Development and Tourism Pavle Radulović said after the new law on planning came into effect that there will be no extension of the deadlines.

The members of the Committee, which consists of representatives of Podgorica, Nikšić, Budva, Mojkovac, Pljevlja and Beran, had until yesterday to comment on the proposal of the Community of Municipalities.

The decision on the Initiative to Amend the Law on Spatial Planning and Building Construction was made at an electronic session two days ago.

The initiative calls for the amendment of Article 217 of the current law, which stipulates that planning documents whose preparation and adoption began before the date of entry into force of the Law will be adopted by October 1 at the latest, and that after the expiration of that period, by force of law, they will be their production has been suspended.

The Committee states that a significant number of local planning documents are still being drafted, and they remind that further economic and overall development of the area depends on their adoption. Therefore, as they add, they consider it necessary to extend the deadline for the preparation of the started planning documentation.

"Given that the expected date of adoption of the General Regulation Plan of Montenegro is 2020, and that the available capacities of the state administration will be focused on its adoption, it is necessary to enable the continuity of spatial planning in the areas covered by local planning documents," the Initiative states.

MORT told "Vijesta" that they are not considering the possibility of extending the deadline for legalization. They also add that they deliver new requests that arrive late to the municipalities. They did not explain what the status of those late applications will be.

According to the official data of MORT submitted to "Vijesti", 49.013 requests for legalization were submitted. Statistics of the Real Estate Administration show, as previously announced by the Government, that around 40.000 illegal buildings were built on the territory of Montenegro, while according to data based on the case study, and according to the information available to MORT, this number is significantly higher and ranges up to 100.000 buildings.

Budva Secretariat: Let MORT take responsibility

Member of the Board and secretary for urban planning of the Municipality of Budva, Stevo Davidović, stated that Budva will not support the proposal to amend the law in the part that refers to the extension of the deadline for the preparation of the planning documentation that has already started. He called on the Ministry to take full responsibility in accordance with the Law, against the adoption of which, as he said, the Budva administration fought.

"The initiative to amend the Law on Spatial Planning and Building Construction contains only two proposals - to extend the deadline for the preparation of the started planning documentation for another six months, i.e. until March 31, 2019, and to set a subsequent deadline for submitting requests for legalization to the competent authorities local administration, until March 31 of the following year. The municipality of Budva, in the part of the law that refers to the extension of the deadline for the preparation of the started local planning documentation, undertook activities on the transformation and adjustment of organizational and personnel resources, in accordance with the defined nine-month deadline for the preparation of planning documents. The Spatial Planning Agency, which was in charge of preparatory activities for the preparation and adoption of local planning documents, is in the process of transformation into the Office of the Chief City Architect and, by October 1, 2018, is no longer able to continue with the activities of preparation and adoption of local planning documents. documents", said Davidović.