The territorial decision for the relocation of the train station will be addressed by the court in Brno

Brno - The lawsuit of Děti Země against the zoning decision for the relocation of the Brno railway station will be handled by the Regional Court in Brno. Activists originally filed the lawsuit in Ostrava, where a special panel for large transport constructions operates. However, the Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) confirmed in June the transfer of proceedings to South Moravia, despite the Brno Regional Court also expressing a preference for proceedings in Ostrava. In the lawsuit, Děti Země argues, among other things, the absence of a binding opinion on landscape protection.

"While the Regional Court in Brno supported our view that disputes over the placement and permitting of large linear constructions should be resolved by a special panel at the Regional Court in Ostrava, the NSS pointed out that the zoning proceedings did not take place according to the law on expediting linear constructions, so the lawsuit will ultimately be decided in Brno," said Miroslav Patrik, chairman of Děti Země, in a press release today. He expects the verdict in three months.

If the Regional Court in Ostrava were solely locally competent to decide on lawsuits against decisions that were not a result of proceedings conducted under the law on expediting construction, it could lead to its rapid overload, said the NSS. Thus, there would not be a speeding up of judicial review, which was the aim of the amendment effective from January 2018.

The zoning proceedings for the relocation of the station in Brno began in December 2005, and the zoning decision was issued by Brno-střed office in September 2013. Last December, the South Bohemian Regional Office confirmed the decision.

"In the lawsuit, we argue the absence of a binding opinion on landscape protection and the illegality of the binding opinion on noise protection, as it is based on a poor noise study from 2012, which purposefully underestimates higher noise levels around the tracks, especially in Židenice, and illogically takes into account old noise pollution," Patrik stated.

The first zoning decision from 2006 was previously annulled by the Regional Court in Brno. At that time, the lawsuit was filed by Děti Země, the Stará Osada - Židenice association, and residents of Židenice. The second zoning decision from July 2010 was annulled by the Brno city council in November 2011. The court will thus now consider the legality of the third zoning decision, which Děti Země claims is technically and structurally unusable.

Brno plans to build a new station at the site of the current freight lower station, about a kilometer south of the current main station. The costs are estimated at approximately 50 billion crowns, while the city will have to build infrastructure costing around three billion crowns to enable transport services to the station. The city and the region also wanted to construct an underground railway in a north-south direction, which the government did not take into account in its decision.

The Ministry of Transport does not want to announce any timeline regarding the modernization of the Brno railway hub and the relocation of the main station. Transport Minister Vladimír Kremlík (ANO) said in June that he first wants to familiarize himself properly with the situation.