Experts: Prague does not need separate construction regulations

Publisher
ČTK
07.10.2015 23:05

Prague - According to the Czech Chamber of Authorized Engineers and Technicians (ČKAIT), Prague does not need its own building regulations. A quality nationwide standard with modifications for heritage-protected buildings is sufficient. The chamber's chairman, Pavel Křeček, stated this to journalists today. Prague's building regulations are an implementing regulation for the Building Act. Developers argue that the absence of their own regulations will complicate construction.
    Prague submitted the regulations to the Ministry of Regional Development (MMR) for comment after a competency dispute between Mayor Adriana Krnáčová (ANO) and her deputy Matěj Stropnický (SZ/Trojkoalice), and wants to send them for notification to the European Commission at the end of October.
    "I believe that there should generally be uniform technical requirements for the entire republic. Or let us create them for each region and each statutory city," Křeček stated. According to him, the proposed regulations have many errors, and the Prague City Hall does not know how to work visionary.
    On the other hand, the CEO of the developer group Trigema, Marcel Soural, believes that according to nationwide regulations, construction in Prague can only be very complicated. "Sometimes arguments are made that Brno is also building according to nationwide regulations, but it has exceptions. If nationwide regulations were to apply in Prague, it would take several months or years to negotiate exceptions for the capital. There will always be a period of uncertainty during which we will be unable to prepare new projects because we will not have a basis for their preparation. And if we do, it will be based on a bad regulation, which will cause our projects not to be economically viable," Soural counters, noting that it is important for something to be valid for a long time and to be binding for everyone.
    The CEO of Central Group, Dušan Kunovský, criticizes mainly the entire process of adopting the new regulation. "The story of the Prague Building Regulations is yet another specific example of legislative chaos, inconsistency, and unpredictability in the public sector in creating conditions for business and investment. The entire process has two main and very negative effects on private investors - unnecessary increases in costs associated with preparing new projects and particularly the significant prolongation of already lengthy and complicated approval processes. Just consider that in the last year, there were a total of six versions of legislation regulating construction in Prague - the originally valid OTP, a total of four versions of PSP, and nationwide regulations," Kunovský pointed out. He too would welcome clearer and long-term binding rules for the market.
    The regulations proposed by Krnáčová were approved by the city council in early August, and by August 31, city halls, municipal departments, and professional chambers had time to raise comments. Over 2200 comments were received, more than 800 of which were marked as fundamental. The city aims to reach alignment with the MMR's opinion by October 23. Prague wants to send the regulations for notification to the European Commission on October 26.
    Disputes over the regulations have led to a rift in the city council coalition, with ANO and ČSSD calling on the Trojkoalici to dismiss Stropnický. They refused. The Pirate Party's council club subsequently claimed that the PSP did not originate in the mayor's secretariat, as Krnáčová had asserted. The mayor rejected their claim, stating that her version is based on the original text prepared by former mayor Tomáš Hudeček, which the ministry suspended in January.
    Building regulations, which are an implementing regulation for the Building Act, generally define the requirements for land use and technical requirements for buildings. The original building regulations' effectiveness was suspended by the MMR in January for 15 months. Prague has had its building regulations as the only city in the country for over 100 years.

Experts: Prague does not need separate construction regulations

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