Acting Chief State Architect Siniša Minic gave his consent to the amended and supplemented conceptual design of the future tourist complex with five stars, which the Cypriot company "KDP promotion and investments limited" plans to build on the site of the former military base in the town of Skočiđevojka near Režević.
The agreement came at the moment when the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Property ex officio accepted the initiative of the Municipality of Budva to establish the protection of the military complex at that location. Due to Minic's decision, new criminal charges have already been announced against him and the former Minister of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property. Janko Odović.
"Consent is given to the investor "KDP promotion and investments limited" to the amended and modified conceptual solution for the construction of the Tourist Complex SKD limited - a five-star hotel category, mixed business model, on urban planning plot 1. It was established that it was made in accordance with the urban planning and technical conditions and planning document Urban project "Tourist settlement Skočiđevojka" in terms of architectural design and materialization of the object. The gross developed construction area is 61.132 square meters (the plan specifies 75.543 square meters), occupancy index 0,22 (plan specified 0,23), built-up index 1,22 (plan specified 1,51, the number of floors of the building is basement, basement, ground floor and three floors to the basement, basement, ground floor and ten floors (the plan does not specify the number of floors). The relationship with the construction line and the provided vehicle access to the buildings on the owner's plots is achieved," says the solution, which "Vijesti" had access to.
Previously, the Directorate of the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property conducted an examination procedure, during which it was determined that it was not necessary to call for an international competition, since the architect who worked on the conceptual solution was a Pritzker or RIBBA award winner.
At the end of December 2021, the Chief State Architect gave the company approval for the conceptual solution for the construction of a 5-star tourist complex on urban plot (UP) 1, the gross construction area of the underground and above-ground floors is 80.419 square meters, with seven basement floors, a ground floor and seven floors for the central building and the ground floor and one floor for villas.
Against this decision, the resident of IZ initiated an administrative dispute, and the Administrative Court annulled the consent to the preliminary decision at the beginning of May 2023.
Locals had previously organized protests, and one of the objections was that the mentioned architect was not the holder of the RIBBA award and that the foreign company was obliged to announce an international competition.
Criminal charges were also filed with the Special Prosecutor's Office, and state and local officials were accused.
The amended solution, previously submitted to "Vijesti" by a foreign company, foresees that on urban plot No. 1 with a total area of 49 square meters, the construction of a luxury tourist complex - a 915,00-star hotel, consisting of the hotel and six outbuildings - villas, which operate according to a mixed business model, in accordance with the Tourism and Hospitality Act.
"In the corrected conceptual solution, the number of floors of the hotel building was reduced by the two highest floors, i.e. for 1.645 square meters of gross area. The planned number of floors of the hotel is from basement, basement, ground floor and three floors up to 10 floors. Six outbuildings were designed along the cliff itself - villas, ground floor and one floor. The total realized gross area of all designed buildings is 61 square meters, while according to the UTA, the maximum allowed gross area is 132,22 square meters. Regarding the realized capacity, the total number of accommodation units in the planned facilities (hotel + branch office - villas) amounts to 75 units and 543.00 beds, while according to the UTU the maximum allowed capacity is 349 beds. In one wing of the hotel, a segment with hotel rooms with a total of 724 accommodation units was designed, while in the other wing of the hotel, 1532 apartment-type accommodation units were designed, which resulted in a total number of beds of 140 in hotel rooms and 203 beds in hotel apartments, while in outbuildings - a villa with a total of 246 beds," the project states.
As it is pointed out, special attention during the design of the complex on UP1 is devoted to the relationship with the neighboring plots, and the possible influence of the newly designed buildings on the existing and future buildings in its surroundings.
"The dimensions of the unbuilt buildings were taken in accordance with the urban planning parameters from the SKD Tourist Village Urban Planning Project. From the views given below, you can clearly see the dominant views of all neighboring buildings, which are not obstructed in any way by the complex on UP1. The group of buildings in the bay on the north side has a natural barrier to the south towards UP1 (cliff), while their views are dominantly oriented to the west and north-west towards the sea and Budva. These are also the only plots at the level of the plan whose buildings will be at elevations lower than UP1. The buildings on the other plots will be built at heights higher than the top of the buildings on UP1, and therefore they cannot have a significant impact on those plots", this company points out", said the raije to Vijesti from this company.
Radović: Odović and Minič will have to answer big
The leader of the Budva Democrats, Krsto Radović, said that the level of unscrupulousness and obvious corruption demonstrated by outgoing minister Odović, fortunately for the entire society, had not been seen in the recent history of Montenegro.
"In the photo-finish of his mandate, he backdated the documents and signed the consent for the project on Skočiđevoja, so that he would not have obviously fulfilled his obligations to the investor for which he most certainly received a serious appropriation. This blatant example of corruption with hints of organized crime will have to have a criminal and judicial epilogue, which is why I am forced, as someone who from the very beginning of this affair points to this kind of behavior by the authorities, in accordance with the law and my own conscience and react. He was strongly supported in this work by the state architect Minic, and I regret to state that these two persons during their mandates have done serious damage to the state by spoiling its most precious parts of the territory as prey for quick enrichment. The never-enacted Budva master plan was translated into a plan for its development in terms of spatial planning, precisely because its space was decided by people who were only interested in the fat financial benefits they got, but which will also take them to where they deserve to be. , announced Radović.
The administration will protect, the Cypriots claim that this is an unprecedented pressure
Last week, the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Properties ex officio accepted the initiative of the Municipality of Budva to establish the protection of the military complex at the location of Skočiđevojka near Režević.
The Administration stated that the former military complex "Skočiđevojka" meets the criteria of authenticity and integrity, degree of preservation, and has historical, architectural, landscape, ambient, technical, documentary and other social significance and peculiarities.
Last month, the chief city architect Jelena Lazić submitted the Initiative for the urgent establishment of the previous protection of the military complex - coastal artillery battery "Skočiđevojka" as a cultural asset to the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Assets of Montenegro.
The initiative was supported by the Ministry of Defense headed by Dragan Krapović.
The Cypriot company reacted by stating: "We have witnessed that political actors and interest groups, in the past few weeks, have been exerting illegal pressure of unprecedented proportions on the administrative authorities, with the aim of preventing the development of our project."
"It is precisely the initiative, which was submitted by the city architect from Budva, that is an example of illegal influence, and its real goal is not to preserve cultural property, but only to prevent the development of the project in question".
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