Bar Municipal Council: Spatial Planning Institute established, opposition concerned about lack of professional staff

A new local company in Bar, the Spatial Planning Institute, was established at today's session of the Bar Municipal Assembly, with the votes of 18 councilors from the ruling majority who adopted the proposed decision to establish this company, while nine opposition councilors were against.

The primary activity that this company will engage in is architecture, "which includes urban and spatial planning and landscape design, or the preparation of local planning documents."

This is stated in the Decision on the establishment of the limited liability company, the Institute for Spatial Planning Bar, which was presented by the Acting Secretary for Urbanism and Spatial Planning, Branko Orlandić.

In addition, it will also engage in architectural and engineering activities and engineering testing and analysis, which includes performing physical and other analytical tests, including obtaining data, materials and other documents necessary for the preparation of a planning document.

It will inform the public about the preparation of the planning document, correct technical errors in it and perform other tasks determined by law and the founding act.

As stated in the document, it will have two bodies – an executive director and a board of directors. The board of directors will have three members, it is envisaged, and will be appointed for a period of four years.

Supervision of the work of this company will be carried out by the local government body responsible for spatial planning, in this case, the Secretariat for Urbanism and Spatial Planning of the Municipality of Bar.

The explanation of this decision, signed by the competent secretariat, states that the goal of forming the Society is for the Municipality of Bar to manage its greatest resource - space.

The legal basis for making this decision is contained in Article 34 of the Law on Spatial Planning, which stipulates that local planning documents are prepared by a company established by the local self-government assembly.

URA Movement councilor Ferida Peročević questioned the fact that the proposed decision on establishment did not define that members of the board of directors should be experts in the field of spatial planning, traffic profession... She said that this document, in the way it was drafted, is the basis for new political recruitment.

The head of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) councilors' club, Asim Andrić, replied that they would discuss it "when they see the names" and that there should be no prejudgment about how and who would be employed.

The Vice President of the Bar Assembly, Ammar Borančić (Liberal Party), said that defining professional requirements for the board of directors is foreseen in the law on the work of that body, so he thinks there is no need in the decision to state which profession its members must be from.

Miloš Rajović (CIVIS) assessed that the decision should have specified which persons would be appointed to the board of directors.

"Through the assembly's conclusion, we can foresee that these individuals will be from a certain profession that is closely related to this body, such as architects, an environmental protection expert and an expert in spatial planning," he said.

He emphasized that such action would prevent the current and future government from being able to act politically in such an important domain for citizens and Bar.

This initiative was supported by Peročević and Milena Božović (Biram Bar), and the opposition requested a short postponement of the vote in order to make such a conclusion during the session, which the head of the Bar assembly, Branislav Nenezić, refused because, as he said, "they had 20 days to prepare for the session."

The decision on its establishment was adopted without that conclusion, and Orlandić, on behalf of the proponent, assessed that it should be adopted in its current form and that after it enters into force, they will discuss professional staff.