Liberec and Plzeň will probably not have the right to issue their own building regulations

Prague - The statutory cities of Plzeň and Liberec are unlikely to gain the right to issue their own regulations in accordance with the building law. The parliamentary committee for public administration took a negative stance on two amendments to the government bill on the building law, which would have granted these two cities the right to issue building regulations. The Ministry for Regional Development also disagreed with the proposals in the committee. The proposals were introduced by Liberec MP Jan Berki from STAN and Culture Minister and former Plzeň mayor Martin Baxa (ODS), who emphasized that he presented the proposal as a member of parliament. The Chamber of Deputies will decide on both proposals when it votes on the amendment on Friday, March 24. The committee discussed the individual amendments and made its recommendations on them.

The current building law from 2021 allows not only Prague but also Brno and Ostrava to issue their own building regulations. These are implementing regulations to the building law, whereby the legally specified cities can set detailed requirements for defining land, placing buildings, and technical requirements for construction, differing from the nationwide regulation.

In justifying his proposal, Baxa stated, among other things, that Plzeň faces equally complex problems as Prague, Brno, and Ostrava when it comes to placing buildings, as these locations have similarly complicated urban structures and infrastructure. MP Berki and his party colleague Jarmila Levko state in their proposal's justification that the enumerative solution of the given provision of the building law is not the most suitable. "If this solution has already been preferred, we propose, while respecting the effort to sensibly limit the number, that the enumeration include the five largest cities," their reasoning states. They add that these cities in the agglomeration face similar problems and have a similar need for specific rule settings in their development.

Former Minister for Regional Development Klára Dostálová (ANO) had previously advocated in the Chamber for independent building regulations to remain only for the three largest cities. According to her, this number should serve as a trial, and if the Ministry for Regional Development finds no issues with them, the number of cities could be expanded. However, she warned against expanding the number of cities with independent regulations at this time.

On the other hand, the committee supported the proposal by Róbert Teleky (KDU-ČSL) that building regulations in the mentioned cities should not be allowed to deviate from the requirements for building technical infrastructure. He justified this by stating that technical infrastructure must meet uniform requirements, primarily for reasons of ensuring safety, reliability, and technical feasibility of the infrastructure.