Small building authorities will remain with municipalities, agreed Dostálová and Lukl

Prague - The Ministry for Regional Development will amend the draft building law so that officials responsible for building proceedings at the municipal level will not be transferred to the new state model. Originally, 13,500 officials were to be taken under the state, now it will be about 7,000. Minister Klára Dostálová (for ANO) told reporters after today's meeting with Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) and the head of the Union of Towns and Municipalities František Lukl. According to Lukl, the concession is a compromise to which other critics of the new legal regulation will also listen.

The law should now maintain building authorities at the municipal level. "For the average citizen, everything would remain as it is; the first point of contact would be the municipal building authority," said Dostálová. However, decisions would be made by state-controlled regional offices and the headquarters. Linear and large public benefit constructions should be addressed directly at the state level.

The original draft of the law was criticized by the Ministry of the Interior for high costs related to moving officials and archives. Today's agreement was welcomed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Jan Hamáček (ČSSD). "Building authorities will remain in the combined model of state and public administration; the new state building administration will ensure integration of stamps. The building law has moved in the right direction," he stated on Twitter.

According to Dostálová, Babiš insists that the law, which is intended to simplify and expedite building approvals, come into effect on January 1, 2021. The minister wants to address comments on her proposal by the end of March. After today's meeting, the Union of Towns and Municipalities no longer insists on the law being withdrawn but is satisfied with its refinement. The draft law has many critics who claim it is tailored for large developers and does not adequately defend the public interest.

The Ministry for Regional Development (MMR), which is responsible for the law, has merged the terms of validity and effectiveness of the law during the preparation process, according to some analysts. Therefore, it often appeared that the law was to be valid from 2021 and simultaneously effective. However, according to experts, this is not possible for such a complex legal norm. For example, for the Civil Code, this was about two years. Last week, Dostálová told ČTK that the new building law is to be effective only from mid-2023. The transitional period will serve to allow the affected parties to familiarize themselves with it.

"We have prepared a proposal for a solution that the institutional model will not be disconnected. This means that the common model of state and municipal administration at the municipal level would be preserved. Alongside this, state administration and self-government would be created to address public benefit buildings or linear constructions," said Dostálová.

According to Lukl, municipal archives of building authorities will also remain. According to the Ministry of the Interior's criticism, substantial additional costs would arise from any potential relocations. "They will not be moving anywhere," Lukl said.

Conservationists will have the main say in decisions regarding building permits for national cultural monuments, reservations, and monuments protected by UNESCO. "In protection zones, where the largest number of projects falls, conservators will be included under the highest building authority, primarily in order to comply with deadlines and ensure the representativeness of officials," added Dostálová. "I have assurances that the opinions of conservationists will be binding and that our comments will be incorporated," said Minister of Culture Lubomír Zaorálek (ČSSD) to ČTK regarding the agreement. In protection zones that protect the broader surroundings of reservations - for example, the reservation in central Prague at Pankrác - the opinions of conservators will not be binding; they will only have the option to express themselves, Zaorálek stated. "That is a concession on our part," he stated. It will be up to the Ministry of Culture to find a way to address this.