Senators of TOP 09 and ODS are ready to turn to the Constitutional Court due to the construction law

Prague – The draft building law, as adopted by a majority of the coalition government consisting of ANO, SPD, and Motorists in the Chamber of Deputies, is, according to opposition parties, so poorly prepared and insufficiently assessed by the professional community that it cannot be supported in the Senate. The ODS and TOP 09 senators’ club is prepared to take the proposal to the Constitutional Court. A member of the club, Tomáš Třetina, told reporters ahead of the session of the upper chamber, which will assess the regulation. According to the chairman of the STAN club, Jan Sobotka, the law has unconstitutional elements and he may join in filing a complaint. Critics say the regulation favors developers and is against municipalities. A complaint to the Constitutional Court can only be filed after the law has been approved through the entire legislative process. There will be other clubs in the Senate opposing the proposal besides the governmental ANO movement.

According to the government coalition, the law is supposed to simplify and expedite building approvals. The amendment primarily introduces a centralized network of state building offices. A single combined building procedure led by one office, finished with one stamp, should suffice for building approval. All three Senate committees that assessed it have recommended to the plenary to reject the coalition proposal. Senators claim that the proposal presented as a House bill is confusing and incomprehensible, with unpredictable impacts.

Senators from the ODS and TOP 09 club support all measures that will lead to the acceleration of building proceedings, greater efficiency, quality spatial planning, and good state administration, according to the club's prepared resolution. However, the draft law has significant shortcomings.

"It can be briefly characterized as, firstly, the privatization of spatial planning and bending of self-governments; secondly, legal fictions at the expense of citizens; thirdly, the legalization of illegal buildings and noise as silence; fourthly, temporal schizophrenia and IT paralysis," Třetina listed. According to him, the proposal does not address problems associated with digitalization and will cause personnel crises at all levels of building offices. Moreover, the role of the chairman of the Office for Spatial Development represents an unprecedented concentration of power without accountability, with enormous room for corruption, he stated.

Senators point to problematic provisions allowing for the legalization of illegal buildings, changes in the relationship between municipalities and spatial plans, or amendments to noise limits. Critics say the law gives considerable power to developers. Senator Zbyněk Sýkora (ODS) pointed out the possibility of exceptions to the rules for barrier-free building.

The Economic Guarantee Committee proposed a complementary resolution, according to which the Chamber should call on the government to submit a comprehensive amendment to the building law through proper legislative channels. According to the chairwoman of the ANO club, Jana Mračková Vildumetzová, the law is not perfectly written, but something needs to be done to expedite building proceedings. She described January 1, 2028, when the new central office is set to operate, as the biggest test awaiting the Czech Republic after the change.

She also reminded that this is an older and therefore previously discussed proposal by former Minister for Regional Development Klára Dostálová (ANO). "In 2021, we rejected the proposal for a new building law by Minister Dostálová with all present members. Even then, it contained stateization, and the Fiala government very wisely removed that stateization of building administration from the law," said the head of the STAN club, Sobotka. According to him, the law is now returning in an even worse state because, besides the erroneous transfer of building proceedings under the state, it favors large developers.

"They have the advantage of being able to utilize expedited proceedings in the case of projects for large complexes, which is very unequal in relation to other builders who, for example, need to renovate a house or build a small house. One cannot see any significant public interest in that. It is precisely large development projects that can fundamentally affect the rights of neighbors, the rights to environmental protection, or heritage conservation, and I see no reason for expedited proceedings here. That is why this law is also referred to as lex developer," said Senator from the SEN 21 club and Pirates, Adéla Sucharda Šípová.