Due to the loudly announced Velje Brdo project, which it advertises as the realization of the "Montenegrin dream", the government has neglected the reality and numerous strategic documents and plans.
The existing Regional Development Strategy emphasizes the need for balanced development of all parts of the country, with a special focus on areas that are lagging behind. The draft Spatial Plan of Montenegro until 2040 (PPCG), which is about to be adopted, clearly emphasizes that residential construction outside settlements should be limited to already established construction areas, without new residential zones.
"This whole story about Velje Brdo, from an expert's perspective, sounds like a farce neither in heaven nor on earth. I can't talk about how many apartments there will be or won't be on Velje Brdo and whether more are needed, when we don't know the economic, demographic, ecological, or spatial side of the story," says Sonja Dragović from the non-governmental organization (NGO) KANA, who if not an architect.
Data from the latest population and household census shows that the population is leaving the north of the country en masse. And a new project in Podgorica, as experts warn, can only contribute to an even greater emptying of the north.
The Velje Brdo project has been included in the Amendments to the Spatial and Urban Plan (SUP) of the Capital City, which has not yet been adopted.
The very fact that the prime minister came up with such a megalomaniacal project just a few days before the local elections in Podgorica, and that the current Minister of Urban Planning determined the location for the new city, the size of Nikšić, by closing his eyes and imagining where it could be, as he himself said, speaks to the seriousness of the approach and the delicate foundations of the entire project, says Rakčević.
The President of the Professional Chamber of Architects of Montenegro (SKACG), Novica Mitrović, explains that changes to the plan are only made for the construction of a smaller facility, such as a school or hospital, but never for an entire new city; such a plan would have to be made from scratch.
"The planned infrastructure is poorly resolved, and it is also worrying that a member of the Traffic Review Council suggests harmonizing the higher plan with the lower one, although the Law on Spatial Planning requires the opposite and recommends a solution through the new Spatial Plan of Montenegro (PPCG). These changes are already clearly defined in the decision on amendments to the SPA of the Capital City," he tells CIN-CG.
Since the announcement of the public hearing on the amendments to the Urban Development Plan in late November 2024, in which the Velje brdo project was proposed, the Center for the Protection and Study of Birds (CZIP) and others from the civil society have repeatedly expressed concerns and pointed out irregularities in the process of adopting the document. They found that the proposed process was not in accordance with the law, that it had no basis in a higher-level plan, that it violated the Constitution of Montenegro, and that the principles of transparency and citizen participation were ignored during the public hearing process, says Ksenija Medenica, CZIP's program director.
Violation of plans, strategies and laws, as well as failure to hold a public hearing, has not prevented the Government from opening a website where citizens can apply to purchase apartments. So far, nearly 10.000 interested parties have applied.
However, the exact number of apartments has not yet been agreed upon; at first they said there would be 11.250 apartments, and later 20. The planned apartments would cost around 1000 euros per square meter, and the area would be between 60 and 100 square meters. It is estimated that the project would cost three and a half billion euros!
The former deputy mayor of the capital, Luka Rakčević, believes that this project is driven by political interests, not strategic urban planning.
"The very fact that the prime minister came up with such a megalomaniacal project just a few days before the local elections in Podgorica, and that the current minister of urban planning determined the location for the new city, the size of Nikšić, by closing his eyes and imagining where it could be, as he himself said, speaks to the seriousness of the approach and the delicate foundations of the entire project," he tells CIN-CG.
The Government's website states that the first apartments should be completed by the end of 2026. Although, it is not clear what magic wand they can use to complete the first apartments in a year, when there is still no plan and no competition for a conceptual design has been announced.
Earlier announcements were revised by Slaven Radunović, Minister of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property, with a recent announcement that it is unlikely that the first tenants will move in until mid-2026, but expects it could happen at the end of that year or during 2027.
CIN-CG has sent a letter to the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and Northern Development for a meeting to answer this and many other questions regarding the new project. However, the government department says it will not make any announcements regarding the Velje Brdo project until the Podgorica Urban Development Plan is adopted.
Demographic risk
According to the latest population and household census from 2023, Podgorica has a population of 180.186, with 64.140 households and 88.431 apartments.
"Planning documentation in Podgorica allows for 112.679 apartments, according to estimates we have more than 20 thousand illegal buildings, the majority of which are not provided for in planning documents, and given that more than 50 percent of households in Podgorica have three to five members, it is clear that Podgorica does not need additional housing construction, especially not in the planned volume," Mitrović told CIN-CG.
Rakčević explains that thousands of empty apartments are off the market due to poor tax policy and unregulated legislation.
Demographic data shows that only three Montenegrin cities are winners of the transition, Budva, Podgorica and Tivat, while all other cities are losers.
In these three municipalities, the population in 2011 was 191.577, or almost 31 percent of the total population of Montenegro. By 2023, the population had increased by 31.616, or 16 percent, to 223.194, which is approximately slightly over 35 percent of the total population of Montenegro, while almost 22 percent of the total population lived in the other 65 municipalities.
Podgorica already has a problem with water pollution. 20 years ago, Mareza was unfit for drinking only after extreme rains, while today, turbidity occurs even after minor rainfall. Instead of working on remediation, development is being planned that will further endanger this key water source, says ecologist Vuk Iković
"There are over 10 people working in Podgorica who come from Cetinje, Bar, Budva, Nikšić, Danilovgrad, and Kolašin. They will all try to get apartments on Velje Brdo. The project may attract the sympathy of citizens due to favorable housing conditions, but it carries significant risks for Montenegro, which has lost its demographic balance," demographer Miroslav Doderović told the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro.
When asked whether the construction of a new settlement and popular apartment prices would encourage a new wave of immigration to Podgorica, which would negatively affect regional development, but also life in Podgorica itself due to overpopulation, Saša Mujović, the mayor of Podgorica, said that this is not an obstacle posed by the new settlement either.
"You can't move to Podgorica just to breathe our air. You have to have a job, you have to have the conditions to ensure your existence. If someone has a job in Nikšić, I'm not sure they will give it up just to live in Velje Brdo," Mujović tells CIN-CG.
Environmental risk
In 2019, part of Velji Brdo became an integral part of the Zeta River Nature Park, as it connects and protects the river and the complex of springs on Mareza.
"Podgorica already has a problem with water pollution. 20 years ago, Mareza was unfit for drinking only after extreme rains, while today, turbidity occurs even after minor rainfall. Instead of working on remediation, development is being planned that will further endanger this key water source," ecologist Vuk Iković told CIN-CG.
The Amendments to the Urban Development Plan state that in order to provide the necessary quantities of water for the planned settlement of Velje Brdo, it is necessary to build a system of pumping stations and a distribution pipeline from the existing Mareza water source.
Currently, the consequences of this project on the biodiversity and ecosystem of the area are not foreseeable, because it has never happened that a completely new city for 40 thousand inhabitants was built in the immediate vicinity of a nature park and in part of the third zone of a protected natural asset, warns CZIP.
Such a large settlement would produce around 6.000 tons of wastewater per day, which would have a negative impact on the Morača River, explains Iković.
Mujović requested that the Capital City have an influence on the dynamics of construction and the structure of constructed facilities.
"I want to avoid any situation where buildings are built without accompanying school, health, and sports and recreational facilities. This is the only way we can avoid the new settlement becoming a burden on the already built-up part of the city."
His proposal was accepted at a meeting of the Coordination Body formed by the Government. Guarantees were also obtained that adequate road infrastructure would be built to the settlement, as well as that the sewage system would be connected to the new wastewater treatment system, the secondary sewage network of Tološa, Mujović explains.
The amendments to the PUP state that the main component of the project is the construction of a new wastewater treatment plant about five kilometers downstream of the existing one and on the other, left bank of the Morača River. The existing plant will be deactivated and demolished, and in the existing area the Capital City plans to carry out rehabilitation, preliminary removal of construction materials and construction waste, sludge removal, soil treatment and removal of hazardous materials, and land reclamation.
Environmentalists are skeptical of these idyllic promises.
“We can assume that the Zeta River could suffer changes in hydrological characteristics due to increased water use, surface water drainage and possible discharge of untreated wastewater,” says Medenica.
Cheap apartments - political points
The planned housing facilities are primarily for young families, or newly established families who will, under favorable conditions and with the efforts of the state, achieve the right to an apartment, according to the Amendments to the PUP.
"Velje Brdo is an example of how urban planning is used for political points, and not for long-term sustainable development of the city. The project was adopted without clear analyses, the impact on the Mareza source was not investigated, there are no realistic estimates of infrastructure costs, nor the possibility for the city and the state to do it adequately and within the planned deadlines, and initial estimates suggest that they could be many times higher than announced," says Rakčević.
In his opinion, this idea is being pushed along political lines, regardless of the consequences, which will result in spending a huge amount of Montenegrin citizens' money on the preparation of project documentation and maintaining an illusion timed to coincide with parliamentary and local elections, which in the end will not and cannot come to anything.
"If the Government of Montenegro declared part of Velje Brdo a nature park five years ago, then that decision must be implemented. Making a decision to urbanize that area would be a direct violation of nature protection regulations. That's why this project should remain just a 3D simulation - and nothing more," says Iković.
The SKACG proposes that the development of amendments to the Capital City's Spatial Planning Plan be stopped, as well as that this planning document be abandoned, and that after the adoption of the new Law on Spatial Planning in the Montenegrin Autonomous Region, in accordance with the new law, the development of a new local self-government Spatial Planning Plan should begin, which will be regulated by a new methodology and with goals that respond exclusively to the demands and needs of society and the public interest.
"I hope that the current government will not resort to the desperate move of adopting such a PUP, which, despite Velji Brdo, contains huge shortcomings and would open the door wide to the permanent devastation of our city from Gorica and Ljubovići, to the part of the city of Preko Morača and new residential neighborhoods," says Rakčević.
Podgorica Mayor Saša Mujović does not agree with the problems listed by experts, although, as he says, he understands them. "The market is a regulator of needs. In Podgorica, there is a constant need for new housing. During the period when the city government was in a technical mandate, the issuance of permits for communal equipment was slowed down, which affected the increase in rental prices for apartments and newly built apartments. Simply put, nothing new was being built, and the needs were growing."
Violation of the law, illusions, the market, and needs, for now, it all looks like Velje Brdo will remain just a dream.
"We have no data, and everything we can guess without detailed measurements shows that this project is not possible," says Sonja Dragović.
Religious objects
Among other things, the amendments to the Urban Development Plan have included a religious building on Velje Brdo, measuring 1.527 square meters, on state-owned land measuring 15.270 square meters. In addition, the capital will receive 17 new religious buildings.
A total of 12 facilities for members of the Christian faith and two for members of the Islamic religion. Four religious facilities are not defined by the PUP.
In numerous criticisms of the Draft Urban Development Plan for Podgorica, sent by the professional organization KANA, they warned of disproportions in the planning of religious buildings in relation to basic public services.
"18 new religious buildings are planned, while no new schools or increased capacity for educational or health institutions are planned," KANA pointed out.
They are a large and concrete example of the promotion of religion at the expense of education:
"A church is planned in Zabjelo on a small area within the block where the school and kindergarten are located."
And while the spatial plan is like that, another strategic document - the Reform Agenda from 2004 to 2027 - promises that many educational facilities will be built in Podgorica, mainly with money coming from the European Union. The list envisages the reconstruction and upgrading of numerous schools and kindergartens in Podgorica, as well as the construction of new kindergartens on Tuški put, City kvart, Old Airport, Zlatica, new schools in Zabjelo, City kvart, Old Airport, the construction of a second gymnasium...
The Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral (MCP) of the Serbian Orthodox Church submitted its comments on the Draft Urban Development Plan of Podgorica in April last year, listing 10 locations that they found interesting. The MCP therefore asked that the urban development plan “draw up one temple, if possible,” in the City Quarter.
In this neighborhood, despite promises, it has not been possible to build a kindergarten, school, health center, or any cultural facility, only cafes, boutiques, pharmacies, and betting shops.
At the end of June last year, Metropolitan Joanikije visited the Capital City Assembly where he spoke with the President of the City Parliament Jelena Borovinić Bojović. Ahead of the 2022 local elections, Borovinić Bojović, as the leader of the Democratic Front (DF) list, announced in one of her campaign spots the construction of a monastery in the center of Podgorica, at the confluence of the Morača and Ribnica rivers.
The Serbian Orthodox Church did not respond to CIN-CG about which of their proposals were adopted.
What is known for now is that the construction of a church-monastery complex with buildings covering an area of five thousand square meters is planned on the slope of Velji Brdo in Tološi.
In Sadine, on the current site of "Plantaža", a future residential settlement is planned, including a religious building that has not been included in the planning documents so far.
In Zagorič, on Piperska Street, a new religious building is planned on a 5.469 square meter plot of land owned by the Government, which, according to the current DUP, is planned for central activities, i.e. for administrative buildings, administration, business, services, healthcare, local community office... Another religious building is planned in the same settlement near the "Branko Božović" elementary school, on land owned by two families for which the transfer to the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral is in progress.
On Zlatica, next to the existing archaeological site of the old monastery, space is planned for the construction of a new religious building.
In the same settlement, between the FK Kom stadium and HD Laković, on a plot of 9.273 square meters, there is an opportunity to build a religious building with an area of about a thousand square meters.
In Zabjelo, in the immediate vicinity of the "Vuk Karadžić" Elementary School, the construction of a religious building is planned on a 2.230 square meter plot owned by the Capital City.
The construction of a religious building, a 150-square-meter chapel, is planned for the new city cemetery in Ćemovsko polje. The new religious building is planned near the PU “Kakaricka gora”, on land owned by the Government of Montenegro, on a nearby hilltop near the sports field.
The construction of a church, a parish house with accompanying facilities is planned at the Cerovice site in Piperi.
In the Old Town, on Spasa Nikolić Street, a religious building is planned to be built. Near the Church of St. George, under Gorica, the plan defines the construction of a memorial park with a memorial ossuary and a crypt (chapel) in which religious ceremonies dedicated to the victims of the bombing of Podgorica in World War II would be held, and their cemetery would be arranged.
In Konik, at the location near the Health Center, the proposed plan confirms the earlier solution for the construction of a religious building, which was envisaged in the existing DUP "Konik - Sanitation Plan".
Between Donja and Gornja Gorica, near the existing church, the new plan provides for the possibility of building a parish house, with a ground floor and one floor. The construction of the parish house is planned near the cemetery in Donji Kokoti, as well as near the existing church in Momišići.
In Medun, in Kuči, the construction of a monastery complex with accompanying facilities, facilities for performing religious rituals, and the construction of an access road are planned. This complex, as specified, is divided into several functional units, a guest house, a monastic, an economic part, a church, a cemetery..., along with areas for agricultural activities. One part of this complex has already been illegally built, and is planned on land that is now owned by the Metropolitanate, the state, and the Capital City.
The Islamic community is not satisfied
"The Islamic community has proposed several crucial facilities that are necessary for the normal development of infrastructure that will help solve the deficit of religious and cultural and educational content. We did not include demolished or permanently confiscated waqfs or endowments such as madrasas, mosques and cemeteries in these facilities, but focused only on basic facilities without which Muslims in Montenegro cannot function. We did not 'mark the territory', nor did we plan religious facilities where they do not belong and where there is no Muslim population," Podgorica imam Džemo Redžematović told CIN-CG.
The Islamic Community's proposals have not been fulfilled to the extent that there were realistic conditions for their implementation, says Redžematović. He adds that since 2012 they have been waiting for the expansion of the construction capacity of the Islamic center in Konik, where only 36 square meters of 700 acres have been registered for the construction of a religious facility.
"To put it simply, on almost 30 acres of land we can freely let sheep run free or tie horses," says Redžematović, adding - so much for fairness.
According to the changes in the Urban Development Plan, at the aforementioned location, at the exit from Podgorica towards Tuzi, the construction of an Islamic center with accompanying facilities is planned. This is the location across from the Dekar gas station. Previously, the Government ceded this plot of land with an area of 30 thousand square meters to the Islamic Community.
The proposed plan provides for the possibility of building a new mosque in Konik, on Braće Ribar Street. The existing DUP envisages a building of 750 square meters, while the new one envisages 2.500 square meters.
"Given that the PUP has not yet been adopted, we do not officially know what is allowed or planned for us so that we can plan activities in that regard, therefore we appeal that the Islamic Community be consulted in all future planning and draft plans so that we can explain to people in a transparent manner what our priorities are," says Redžematović.
In the last ten years, one mosque has been built in the capital. It is the Hadrović Mosque, which is the first mosque built in Podgorica after the Osmanagić Mosque, which dates back to the 18th century.
"So, there are almost 300 years between the two," emphasizes the Podgorica imam.
The Catholic Church in Podgorica has not built a single building in the last 10 years. The draft plan envisages a Catholic church on Fundina, the construction of which has already begun without a valid plan. We were unofficially told by this church that they are in negotiations with the administration of the Capital City about a location for construction.
Across the street from the Čepurci cemetery (towards Morača), there are plans to build a 707-square-meter facility for the Evangelical Church Riječ Božija, a religious organization that has existed in Podgorica since 2001.
We received the following answers to our questions about religious buildings in the Capital:
"The work on the development and adoption of the Regional Urban Plan of the Capital City of Podgorica is being carried out by the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property. The development phase after the public hearing is underway, which includes the Processor's responses to the comments from the public hearing, or acting on them. Answers to specific questions cannot be given at this stage."
The final number of newly planned religious buildings will be known after the preparation of the Plan Proposal, or after its adoption, the Ministry told CIN-CG.
"During the public debate on the Draft Plan, religious communities expressed interest in the construction of religious facilities, while other users of the space expressed the least interest in these facilities, not counting the sporadic interest of NGOs, which represent their interests in their programs," they explained.
They also added that "as for the issue of building religious buildings, or the expressed need for this type of building, we point out that these are issues that do not fall within the domain of spatial planning policy, which is within the jurisdiction of this ministry."
Bonus video:
