Prague wants to maintain the involvement of developers in public construction

Prague - Prague is striving to maintain the possibility of involving developers in the construction of municipal infrastructure. The Ministry for Regional Development wants to abolish this with an amendment to the Building Act. The capital city demands the preservation of so-called planning contracts as well as independent Prague building regulations in the comments it sent to the ministry. The municipality informed about this in a press release today.
According to Prague, the option to conclude a contract with an investor for the construction of transport and technical infrastructure should be preserved. "The scope of planning contracts should conversely be expanded from the current transport and technical infrastructure to public amenities," stated the deputy mayor for urban development Matěj Stropnický (SZ/Trojkoalice). Contracts could relate to things like sewage systems, roads, parks, or kindergartens.
Stropnický also dislikes that Prague would lose its own building regulations due to the amendment of the law after more than 200 years and would only have to adhere to nationally applicable standards. "National regulations are too general for Prague, as the places that make decisions are not as visible as in smaller towns or villages. Therefore, Prague's building regulations strictly regulate even what can elsewhere be addressed by the considerations of the building authority," he stated.
Prague's building regulations have sparked a heated debate in Prague for several months. The effectiveness of the original regulations was ultimately suspended by the Ministry for Regional Development in January due to objections. This happened after a media fallout caused by the billboard lobby regarding the advertising regulation that the regulations introduced. The ministry justified the repeal of the regulations by stating that they have formal deficiencies and lack notification from the European Commission. In June, Prague councilors approved an amendment to these regulations that addresses all the ministry's objections.