The Heritage Inspection of the Ministry of Culture criticizes the draft building law

Prague - The draft building law, including the paragraph version currently in the commentary process, contains provisions threatening the care for cultural heritage. This was stated today by Martin Zídek, director of the Heritage Inspection of the Ministry of Culture, at the conference on the Restoration of Historical Monuments. One of the issues is the insufficiently defined buffer zone around UNESCO-listed sites. The buffer zone is supposed to prevent construction in their vicinity. According to Zídek, whether a cultural asset is listed on UNESCO and where its buffer zone extends is legally non-binding information in the current draft of the law.

For years, the buffer zone concerning the historic center of Prague, which is listed, has been a topic of discussion. According to UNESCO representatives, Prague could actually face being listed as a site at risk due to its inadequate care for the listed asset and the construction of high-rise buildings nearby.

Prague is listed as a heritage reserve, and Zídek reminded that out of 14 Czech listings, nine are listed as heritage areas, i.e., reserves or zones, while only five are individual buildings. Another problem that Zídek sees in the draft building law is that the safeguard of review proceedings, which allows for a second-instance examination of decisions made by heritage care authorities, only applies to individually declared cultural monuments, and not to historic city centers.

The proposal for the new building law aims to speed up and simplify the approval of constructions. The approval process for buildings is expected to be reduced from the current average of 5.4 years to one year under the new law. Since the beginning of its discussion, the law has faced criticism, with some officials from the Ministry of Regional Development (MMR), which presents it, also criticizing it. Critics argue that it favors developers, denies public interests, such as nature protection, and opens the space for corruption. In terms of cultural heritage care, the proposal has been criticized by heritage experts, cultural heritage specialists, academics, and the Czech National Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).

Experts also point out that the building law should be developed in coordination with the preparation of the heritage law, which has been awaited for years. Zídek noted today that the Ministry of Culture requested this year to exclude the new heritage law from the legislative plan and is currently awaiting the building law. According to Zídek, its proponent declared that he would respect three international conventions concerning architectural heritage, archaeology, and UNESCO world heritage. The director of the Heritage Inspection stated today that, based on the draft law from this October, this is not the case; he has not yet fully examined the current form of the proposal. The Ministry of Regional Development stated that the remarks of the Ministry of Culture have been reflected in the new version of the law.

However, according to Zídek, the paragraph version, like previous proposals, anticipates the introduction of a fiction of consent in the building process, meaning that if the respective authority does not express its opinion within 30 days, the so-called fiction of consent will apply, and the construction will be permitted. According to an earlier statement by Václav Girsa, president of Czech ICOMOS, the abolition of the binding opinions (of heritage specialists) and subordination of heritage care to the decisions of building authorities would effectively end the independent activity of heritage care authorities.