The concept of the Spatial Plan of Montenegro (PPCG) received a positive opinion from the Review Council, so it can be expected that its draft will be made in the first quarter (January-March) of the following year, after which it will be sent to the Parliament for adoption.
This was announced by the Minister of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism at the consultative hearing of the Parliamentary Spatial Planning Committee yesterday. Ana Novaković-Đurović.
"PPCG has been completed in the concept part, the council has now given a positive opinion and next week we will go to the procedure of public participation and getting comments on the concept, in order to come up with a draft", she stated.
Previously, in October, the Audit Council gave a negative opinion on the PPCG concept, which should be adopted for the period until 2040, while the current plan was valid until 2020.
The contract on the preparation of the PPCG was concluded on August 6, 2020 with the head of the expert team for the preparation of the document Svetlana Jovanović and according to him, the state should pay the expert team half a million euros for this work.
The contract defines that the money will be paid in five installments to the managers and members of the professional team, namely 20 percent after submitting the analysis of the current state of the organization, arrangement and use of space, 20 percent after submitting the PPCG concept, 30 percent after submitting the PPCG draft, 20 percent after submission of the PPCG proposal and 10 percent after the adoption of the PPCG Proposal.
Drafts by the end of the year
The basic text of the Decision on the preparation of this document provided for a deadline for the PPCG to be completed within one year from the appointment of the plan manager, so that deadline expired on August 6, 2021. Then the deadline is moved to March 7, 2022, and then to December 31 of this year. In parallel with the changes to the decision where the deadline for amending this document is moved, the contract with the manager of the plan development is also annexed.
The MPs and the minister agreed that the current Law on Spatial Planning and Building Construction is not good, because the responsibilities of municipalities in the area of planning documents and spatial planning have been reduced to a minimum.
The minister stated that four new laws will be made from the existing one, which will refer to spatial planning, legalization of space, construction of buildings and the engineering chamber.
"These four legal solutions will be partially completed by the end of the year, and adoption is expected next year," she said.
Member of the Democratic Front Dejan Djurovic, who initiated the hearing, stated that it is necessary to introduce local planning documents for which the municipal authorities would be responsible, and for which approvals would be given by the relevant ministry. He suggested that municipalities form special agencies for planning and spatial arrangement, and he also believes that stricter conditions should be created for responsible planners and designers in terms of professional qualifications and exams.
Speaking about the draft Law on Legalization of Buildings, he stated that it must be fixed for five years.
"If there is no deadline for the law, it means that we will have the possibility of legalizing buildings forever. Everything that is not legalized in that period could not be legalized again," said Đurović.
The minister replied that the draft of the new law envisages the division of planning documents into national and local ones.
"Documents will be prepared by newly formed state and local agencies, not private companies. Local documents will definitely be controlled by a state agency," she said.
Speaking about the draft Law on the Legalization of Buildings, she announced that in the next ten days it will be known how long it will take.
"Our intention is to entrust state and local agencies with legalization work in order to speed up the process because we currently have a big delay because we do not have a list of facilities that the municipalities were supposed to deliver," she said.
She added that everyone will pay compensation for legalization, and that the release of utility equipment for high-category hotels will be abolished.
She concluded that the new law on the construction of buildings will introduce mandatory building permits and mandatory technical inspection as well as a use permit for all buildings.
Without making a plan of the General Regulation Plan
Asked by a Democrat MP Tamara Vujović what is happening with the General Regulation Plan (GRP), the minister said that the PPCG concept envisages a division into local and state planning documents, which implicitly excludes the preparation of GRP.
"If there is an argument that the creation of the PGR is a systemic approach that should be taken, the working group will look at it," she said.
The department headed by "Vijesti" announced earlier that two million euros were allocated from the state budget for the preparation of the flow document, and that 400 euros had been paid on that basis by mid-October.
The PGR was supposed to be completed in October this year, but since it was certain that this would not happen, the Assembly voted in July to amend the Law on Spatial Planning and Building Construction, which postponed the deadline for the preparation of the PGR by one year.
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