Some large cities still have reservations about the proposed construction law

Prague - Representatives of Prague, Brno, Plzeň, and Liberec agreed that the proposed draft of the new building law, which will be approved by the government, deserves adjustments from the perspective of local governments. The representatives of the municipalities stated this to reporters today after a meeting that took place at the residence of the Prague mayor. This is to be the first of a series of similar meetings on topics that larger cities share. The new building law is being prepared by the Ministry for Regional Development (MMR), which claims it will shorten the approval process. The proposal faces criticism from a number of organizations and interest groups.

Prague's councillor for legislation Hana Marvanová (for STAN) said that the attending politicians agreed that although the recodification of building law is necessary for speeding up the approval process of constructions, the current draft of the law's conceptual design has flaws. The councillor is worried, for example, that the proposed separation of building offices from municipal offices will diminish the position of local governments.

"We all basically have very similar problems," stated Brno councillor Filip Chvátal (KDU-ČSL). Among these are complex approvals of zoning plans. Liberec's mayor Jaroslav Zámečník mentioned that his city has been trying to approve a new one for 12 years and is far from finished. New zoning plans are also being prepared in Prague and Brno.

There has been a comment procedure regarding the proposed new building law, which Prague participated in as a region. A total of 1,641 comments were received. "So far, I have not been very satisfied with those outputs," stated Marvanová, adding that it would be good for the proposal to be further adjusted according to the comments of local governments. "Now the ball is in the government's court and the Minister for Regional Development to ensure that not only the marketing goal of approval is achieved, but that there will actually be a real change," added the Prague councillor.

The meeting was also attended by lawyer Stanislav Kadečka, who is involved in the preparation of the new law. After the meeting, he stated that his team's aim is either to maintain the influence of local governments on spatial planning at the same level or to strengthen it. He added that even if the government approved the conceptual design in its current form, it would still be possible to incorporate the reservations of local governments into the legislative text based on further negotiations, provided that the Ministry for Regional Development agrees.

According to the MMR, the new building law should shorten the building approval process from the current average of 5.4 years to one year. However, critics argue that the proposal favors developers, undermines public interests such as nature protection, and opens the door to corruption. The Environment Commission of the Czech Academy of Sciences also raised concerns that the law is being prepared by entities that are supposed to be regulated by it. The conceptual design of the new building law has been prepared by the Czech Chamber of Commerce, which includes major construction and development corporations among its members.

The proposal includes a number of changes. Zoning procedures, building procedures, and assessments of environmental impacts will be merged into a unified approval process, and a Supreme Building Authority is to be established, which will be part of the state administration and under which local authorities will fall. The draft also stipulates that if the relevant office does not respond within 30 days (or 60 days in more complex cases), the so-called fiction of consent will apply. Another contentious point is the so-called fiction of decision. This means that after the relevant deadline, a positive or negative decision regarding the placement of the building based on the submitted documents would be generated by a computer system, not by an official.