The Skocidevojka project is by far the most impressive example of greed and unscrupulousness of a group of foreign investors and domestic officials, said the president of the Council of the Local Community "Reževići" Aleksandar Radović.
"The local community of Reževići has been opposing the implementation of the illegal project Skočidevojka for more than two years. We proved before the Administrative Court of Montenegro that the law was grossly violated when giving consent to two conceptual solutions on Skočiđevojka. The local community of Reževići unanimously support the construction of an exclusive hotel that represents all legal norms and conditions, but they resolutely oppose the construction of a residential building 60 meters high and 280 meters long, which will be exempted from paying utilities and VAT in the amount of over 5 million euros through the mixed business model of a 50-star hotel the land at the Skočidevojka location was nationalized for the purposes of the military base. Later in 2005, it was repurposed and sold to an offshore company, which was also illegal. In this case, the plots should have been returned to the previous owners or they should have been compensated, which was not done despite the initiated of the restitution process that have not been resolved to this day, and it is clear to us why!" Radović stated in the press release.
He reminds that the owners of that plot were resold several times, and since there was no record of restitution, the current owner therefore became a conscientious buyer.
"When the megalomaniacal project for the location of Skočidevojka appeared in the media, it was unbelievable to us that it was of such dimensions, which is why we launched an investigation into the procedure for issuing the consent of the Chief State Architect, through free access to information and on the basis of publicly published documents. In that investigation, we learned that the former Minister Ratko Mitrović issued an Expert Instruction that was extremely favorable to his nephew - the designer of buildings on Skočiđevoja, contrary to the current law, and on the basis of which the former Chief State Architect Mirko Žižić issued two approvals for the conceptual solution for the construction of two complexes (one on the lower plot on Morka hridi and another on the upper plot next to the main road) in the scope of the Skocidevojka Urban Planning Project. Following the complaint of the residents and the Ministry of Health, the Administrative Court accepted the argument and evidence presented in the complaint and annulled both consents and recognized the status of the Ministry of Health Reževići in both proceedings, he emphasized. Radovic.
He adds that "a similar scenario is being started again, where the new minister Janko Odovići, the general director of the Directorate for the implementation of state guidelines in the field of architecture and the Chief State Architect Siniša Minić "first release the investor from the obligation to conduct the competition".
"And then, on the basis of the conducted examination procedure for the newly amended conceptual solution for the lower urban plot on the cliff, they come to the conclusion that it was done in accordance with the plan and the law and that the conditions for issuing consent have been met after the statement of the only party in the proceedings of I. Zenović has arrived Our fellow citizen received an invitation to submit a statement of over 600 pages, last Friday at around 14 p.m. with a deadline of three days, which included only one working day, all with the intention of satisfying the appetites and interests of the organizers and participants. "MZ Reževići, although it represents the lowest instance of local self-government, has already initiated new lawsuits against state authorities with new and old evidence," emphasizes Radović.
According to him, the Urban Project of TN Skočiđevojka foresees the obligation to conduct an international public competition for the development of the project, but also the possibility of exempting the investor from this obligation, provided that the Municipality of Budva and the relevant ministry make decisions on such an exemption if an architect who is a winner of the Pritzker Prize is hired or RIBA awards.
"However, the Chief State Architect decided that the investor should be released from this obligation, despite the fact that the Municipality of Budva has not made a decision on this, as evidenced by the written statement of the President of the Municipality. This position is based on the claim that the signatory of the two architectural decisions, Mr. Carlos Ferrater, winner of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) award, which would have been one of the grounds for exclusion, but at the same time no evidence was provided that the Spanish architect had won an RIBA award or medal. which based its findings on legal research and directly requested all information from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), and determined that Mr. Carlos Ferrater does not have and has never received an "RIBA" award and does not appear on any list of recent RIBA awarded architects 100 years. With his act, the Chief Architect excluded the obligation prescribed by the plan to include the Municipality of Budva in the decision-making on the possible absence of the competition, with the wording "for the sake of the economy of the procedure", Radović points out.
The key reason, as he adds, for which he insists on avoiding the competition is the fact that the Urban Project states that the bed capacity proposed by the plan can only satisfy the three-star category and that during the implementation of the competition, the Municipality of Budva can propose smaller parameters for construction in order to achieve five star category.
"At the same time, we see no justification for the silence of the local administration on this matter. By the way, the Administrative Court has already given the same arguments twice before in its decisions regarding the non-engagement of the winner of the RIBA award and the non-inclusion of the Municipality of Budva in the proceedings. Maybe it is not so much for all of us it matters what kind of awards the architect of this project had, but in this case the investor and his helpers are fraudulently trying to avoid an open international competition and without an appropriate level of verification, counting on the "human weakness" of certain officials, to obtain a permit for the construction of a huge apartment complex, instead of of an elite five-star hotel, as foreseen by the urban planning project. By combining the three dimensions of the 'Harmonija' facility on Zavala, we can get an idea of the gigantic dimensions of the projected facility on Skočiđevoja," stressed Radović.
An object of such dimensions, as he emphasizes, does not exist anywhere in Montenegro and probably not even in the region.
"And all this, in the conditions of a complete lack of infrastructure (access roads, electricity, water, sewerage, beach...). in the zone of elite smaller residential and tourist facilities and olive groves. The infrastructure facilities needed for a facility of this size are not even provided for in the current plans, only should be drawn in the plans, and we can only guess at the date of the start and end of their construction! Regardless, the designer declares that the extremely steep, narrow road with sharp curves allows access to the future building! asked how he would transport enormous amounts of excavated material with smaller trucks and vans, bring construction machines and construction materials, and he did not bother with the issue of access to the tourist bus facility, because he only needed access to the smaller vehicles of the future owners of apartments and studio apartments! building, despite the numerous illegalities and humiliation of the profession, was still built one day on Skocidevojca, then there would be a complete collapse not only of its functioning, but also of the existing settlements in the vicinity", says Radović.
He emphasizes that this is not the worst scenario either.
"It would be even worse if, as in the case of many other corruption scandals in the most attractive locations of Montenegro, only a concrete skeleton remains in rough construction works, testifying to human greed, inconsistency and powerlessness of institutions and apathy of citizens! And finally, we want to emphasize , that for a long time, following the example of other "development" projects on the Montenegrin coast and ski resorts, we have been observing how our main asset - natural resources - is being squandered recklessly, unprofessionally and wastefully, exclusively for selfish purposes. The Skocidevojka project is by far the most impressive example of greed and the unscrupulousness of a group of foreign investors and domestic officials. We can understand an investor from Syria who wants to make a lot of money very quickly, leave our country and forget about the environmental, environmental and any other devastation it leaves us. But what motives can Messrs. Odović, Minic, Mitrović have , Žižić, Gvozdenović... for this collapse of the law and the interests of the citizens of Montenegro," concluded Radović.
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