The American company "Stratex Group", which is the owner of the residential complex of villas on the Zavala peninsula, between Budva and Bečići, sent an urgent request to the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism, requesting the immediate dismissal of two members of the Audit Council, accusing them of "not having the authority to to do much simpler jobs in the domain of their profession, and not more complex ones".
According to the valid Urban Planning Project of TN Zavala, in addition to the settlement with built villas, the construction of a 141-meter-high skyscraper, a 40-story hotel is planned, which the previous owner of Zavala, the Russian "Mirax Group" of the failed billionaire Sergey Polonsky, named the "Jedro" hotel. "Jedro" is drawn on the undeveloped, green part of Zavala, which is owned by the Municipality of Budva.
"We received the third Report on the revision of the Draft Amendments and Supplements of the Urban Project "Tourist Complex Zavala" (ID UP TK Zavala) for which five members of the Council gave their consent to go into the further legal procedure. The member covering the field of electric power made suggestions for the technical improvement of the plan, and two members of the Council did not agree due to their arbitrary and subjective opinion that the existing garage should not be reconstructed into a five-star hotel. In the end, the Council's conclusion is negative, contrary to the individual majority votes of the Council, which gave their consent for the plan to go into a further legal procedure, that is, to be put to a public debate", it is stated in the letter to the department headed by Ana Novaković Đurović sent by the president of "Stratex Group" Neil Emilfarb.
The letter states that "how absurd the attitude of those two members of the Council is, is also shown by the fact that from the aspect of urban planning, the better solution for them is to remain in force the existing UP TK Zavala, which allows the construction of a total of 103.040 square meters of gross construction area (BRGP), and not to adopt the amendments that allow the construction of only 63.550 square meters. Therefore, it is a question of remedial changes to the plan, which cancel the planned construction on Cape Zavala by almost 50 percent, but even this important key factor is not enough to motivate the members of the Council, who are in charge of this area, to give their consent. We are asking for an immediate response from the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism, as the developer of the plan, to dismiss the members of the Council", the letter states.
In the "Stratex Group" they say that "as the name suggests, it is the Council that should improve the plan - an advisory body, and not an inquisitorial body that, with its questionable opinions, annuls the decisions of the developers of this plan - the Ministry and the Government of Montenegro and prohibits further the legal procedure of the plan".
They also claim that one of the members of the Council is not even a member of the Engineering Chamber of Montenegro and that "thus he does not have a valid license, that is, he does not meet the conditions for issuing a license as an act authorizing engineers to perform activities in their profession".
An engineer who does not have a license, or whose license is not legal, as in this particular case, cannot even perform the tasks of creating technical documentation of facilities, and not be a member of the Audit Council.
The Stratex Group points out that the conceptual design of the hotel is incorporated into the planning document, from which it is determined that there are no apartments in the hotel, but hotel rooms are designed.
"This means that it is a classic hotel that will operate throughout the year, without a mixed or condo business model. "Stratex Group", the investor of the "Dukley Gardens" complex, has the sole goal of reconstructing the concrete garage, which lies in the heart of the complex and spoils its appearance, and not to make a profit by selling apartments, which are not in the hotel. This investment will return to "Stratex Group" in a minimum of 15 years, according to official economic indicators. The "Dukley Gardens" complex employs more than 200 people, whose number will increase with the construction of the hotel. Therefore, in accordance with the program task, a hotel with a viewpoint is planned as a new attraction for the municipality of Budva, as well as for the investor "Stratex Group", which has already proven its credibility and contribution to Montenegro and Montenegrin tourism. We emphasize that the existing unfinished concrete garage on the seashore is being renovated into a hotel at a height up to the level of the highway, which does not affect the space with its dimensions. As a responsible group, we independently engaged the professional community and professors and doctors of architecture, in order to review the compliance of the planning of the hotel in the subject position with the plan of a larger order, and they all determined, as explained and proven in the textual part of the Draft IDUP TK Zavala, that the same is fully aligned with the PPPNOP, which is the only argument against the hotel used by these two members of the Council, apparently with mutual agreement", stated the Stratex Group.
Looking at the report, as they claim in the "Stratex Group", it is obvious that the signatures on the Council's conclusion were scanned.
"And there is a reason to suspect that the signatures of Council members were inserted on the conclusion, especially considering the fact that five members voted positively. It is doubtful that a member of the Council gives a positive individual opinion, and a negative conclusion, within the same document. According to the law, the report on the revision of the planning document must be signed by all members of the auditor, and it is obvious that in this particular case the conclusion was not signed by all members, because the signatures were scanned and are not original signatures, nor was the original document submitted. From such a document, there is a well-founded suspicion that there are elements of a criminal offense in the actions of individuals, because the Criminal Code prescribes special cases of falsification of a document and that it will be considered falsification of a document if someone deceives another about the content of the document and the latter places his signature on that document, considering that he is signing other content or when a person has put his signature on a document that is filled out without authorization with a certain statement that has value for legal relations", the memo states.
Bearing in mind the passage of time since the drafting of the first draft submitted to the Ministry in December 2022, which could not be submitted to a further legal procedure, i.e. to a public discussion, due to the opinions of unauthorized and biased persons, it is founded and justified that the plan should immediately be submitted to a public discussion , and in the course of the public debate, the Ministry adopted a new decision on the appointment or replacement of members of the Audit Council. The previous practice of the Ministry as a processor of plans has shown that the opinions of the Audit Council do not affect the further course of adoption of the planning document, so individual planning documents, even with the Council's negative opinion, were put on public discussion. Such a decision of the Ministry is completely legal", they state from the "Stratex Group".
Positive opinion of the Municipality of Budva
The representative of the Municipality of Budva, on whose territory this planning document is applied, agrees that the plan will go through further legal procedures.
"Which means that the Municipality has recognized the interest of building an object of general interest, a high-category hotel with five stars. The conceptual design of the hotel has been changed several times and coordinated with the representatives of the Municipality of Budva since the day of the decision on the creation of the ID UP Zavala, and the Conceptual design of the hotel with which the Municipality agrees has been incorporated into the draft. The positive opinion of the representative of the Municipality indicates that the remedial importance of this plan is also recognized, that is, that the possibility of future construction is reduced by 50 percent at the level of the plan, partly on plots owned by the Municipality", emphasizes the company that manages the complex in Zavala.
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