<p>The fighters against the relocation of the train station in Brno have another success in court</p>

Brno - Fighters against the relocation of the railway station in Brno have recorded another success in their court dispute. The Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) granted the cassation complaint of Děti Země in a case regarding an exception from the basic conditions for the protection of specially protected species during the reconstruction of the railway hub. Last year, the South Moravian Regional Office halted the proceedings regarding the exception, concluding that specially protected species would not be threatened. According to the NSS, however, officials should have decided on the substance of the matter in some way, and not just halted the proceedings. The objections of Děti Země must be reassessed by the Municipal Court in Prague, as reported by ČTK based on the NSS's decision.
    According to the NSS, the officials made a mistake, and due to their approach, the question of the necessity of the exception remained completely unanswered. The exception is necessary in the zoning procedure for the placement of the construction. "The Supreme Administrative Court emphasizes that halting proceedings on the grounds that the request has evidently become irrelevant results in no substantive decision being made regarding the request. The question of the necessity of the exception (...) thus remains unresolved," wrote the senate, with chairwoman Marie Žišková.
    The request for an exception from the Nature and Landscape Protection Act was submitted by the company Brněnské komunikace along with the Railway Administration in December 2009. It concerns the impacts of the reconstruction of the railway hub on the territory of 20 Brno cadastres. The regional office halted the proceedings based on a biological assessment of the exception as irrelevant. It concluded that the construction would not violate the conditions of any specially protected species.
    Děti Země unsuccessfully defended itself with a lawsuit to the Municipal Court in Prague. The court there did not recognize the environmentalists' right to file such a lawsuit at all. This was followed by a cassation complaint - this time successful. The environmentalists pointed out serious deficiencies in the so-called biological assessment. They claimed, for example, that a study on the migration of amphibians in the autumn months was notably missing.
    In addition to amphibians, there was also a dispute over the summer colonies of bats. The environmentalists presented findings and opinions from court expert Mojmír Vlašín, a long-time protector of nature in Brno and a regional politician, against the author of the biological assessment. According to him, bats and even protected amphibians occur in Brno at least seasonally. The region argued in the proceedings, for example, that the affected area is part of a large city and is heavily affected by human activity.
    The Supreme Administrative Court did not examine the arguments of both sides in detail. It limited itself to the finding that the legal conditions for halting the proceedings had not been met. Addressing the details would be premature, according to the NSS. "It cannot be anticipated what documents the administrative bodies will gather in subsequent administrative proceedings regarding the exception and on the basis of what factual state they will decide: this may significantly differ from the factual state now established," stated the administrative court.
    The reconstruction of the Brno railway hub, which includes the controversial relocation of the station from the city center, should, according to a recent statement by Mayor Roman Onderka (ČSSD), obtain a zoning decision this year. Municipal officials are currently deciding on appeals against the zoning decision issued last year by the construction office in the Brno-střed district. The process for issuing the decision and appeals has already taken place once, at that time the municipality rejected the objections and issued the decision. However, it was later annulled by the court.
    The reconstruction of the railway hub is the largest construction project in Brno in recent decades, containing more than 1000 construction objects with a budget of up to tens of billions. The investor of the construction is the Railway Administration. It has so far completed the first phase of building a new depot. Part of the investment of 3.3 billion crowns included, for example, a washing facility for rail vehicles.