Prague will send comments to the ministry regarding the proposed building law

Prague – The Prague city council today approved the city's comments on the new building law during its extraordinary meeting. The leadership of the metropolis is particularly concerned about the removal of some powers from local governments. This was stated today by Deputy Mayor Petr Hlaváček (for TOP 09) and Councilor Hana Kordová Marvanová (STAN) to the journalists. They also criticized the, in their opinion, too short deadline for commenting. The city hall will send its comments to the Ministry for Local Development this Friday.

"We point out the significant curtailment of local government's rights, especially in the area of spatial planning. We believe that some provisions could even be unconstitutional, as they guarantee the rights of municipalities and regions to self-government,” said Marvanová.

The city leadership also criticized the fact that in case of inactivity, an automatic decision on the construction would be generated after 60 days. This could be contrary to public interests. "Such decisions would not meet the requirements for administrative decisions and would undoubtedly be annulled by the courts,” Marvanová stated.

Prague has also discussed its comments on the draft law with other cities, such as Brno, Ostrava, Plzeň, and Liberec. "Surprisingly, we have a very similar opinion on this. Cities are starting to become significant economic spaces, there are more and more residents in them, and the law must somehow take this into account. As it has been prepared, the law has taken significant powers away from cities, especially in spatial planning. We have unity across cities and political parties on this,” said Hlaváček. The law is also criticized by heritage conservationists.

City representatives are also bothered by the fact that institutions were given less than a month to prepare comments on the extensive law. "Such a short commenting period, in my opinion, does not allow for the law to be of high quality,” said Marvanová. Hlaváček added that, for example, the draft of the new civil code could be commented on for almost a year.

The draft law stipulates that spatial planning, building permits, and environmental impact assessments (EIA) will be merged into a single permitting procedure. According to the Ministry for Regional Development, an important component is the digitalization of construction administration from spatial planning documents through a digital technical map, project documentation for buildings, to the electronic files of building authorities. A Supreme Building Authority is to be established, which will be part of the state administration and under which local authorities will fall.

The substantive draft of the new building law was approved by the government in June and is expected to come into effect in 2021, which, according to some experts, is not realistic.