The court will have to reconsider the lawsuit regarding Šantovka Tower

Brno - The Olomouc Regional Court will have to deal again with the complaint of the public defender of rights against the zoning decision on the placement of the Šantovka Tower building in Olomouc. The Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) annulled the decision by which the regional court rejected the ombudsman's complaint, concluding that the public defender of rights did not demonstrate a significant public interest in its submission. NSS informed about it today on its website.

NSS rejected the argument of the regional court, which stated that it should rely exclusively on previous court decisions that had previously dealt with the ombudsman's complaint regarding the Moldava photovoltaic power plant. In that case, the court found a significant public interest because, at the time of the complaint against the decision to permit the construction, the legally required exceptions to the prohibition of activities in specially protected areas had not been granted, among other things.

The chairman of the deciding panel and reporting judge Ivo Pospíšil stated that "these previous decisions only concerned one of the examples where a significant public interest exists for the public defender of rights to file a complaint. However, they did not establish any minimum and non-negotiable threshold that must be met for the complainant to be actively processually legitimized to file a complaint in the public interest."

The NSS panel subsequently concluded that in the current case, the requirement of significant public interest is fulfilled by the ombudsman's assertion regarding the systemic risk of bias among the deciding officials. According to NSS, it undoubtedly threatens the public interest concerning the impartial decision-making of the state administration body, which can be considered sufficiently significant for the ombudsman to file a complaint.

According to NSS, the regional court should have conducted the evidence that the public defender of rights proposed to support its claims. It will be up to the regional court now to carry out this evidence and assess whether there really existed a systemic risk of bias in the matter.

The building is to be created in the vicinity of the urban heritage reserve in Olomouc. The 74-meter-high Šantovka Tower has been discussed in Olomouc for years. It is opposed by heritage conservationists and some experts, who argue that it would damage the historical panorama of the city. Entrepreneur Richard Morávek stands behind the project, who argues that the panorama of the center of Olomouc is not threatened.