The amendment to the building law is delayed, MMR received 1779 comments

Prague - The preparation of the amendment to the Building Act is falling behind schedule, the Ministry for Regional Development (MMR) has received 1779 comments. Of these, 1450 were marked as essential, and therefore the office must discuss and address them. This was stated today at a meeting with journalists by Marcela Pavlová, director of the Building Code Department at MMR. The amendment, which combines all processes of the building approval into one, will thus be sent to the government office only during October. The original deadline was the end of June.
    The amendment is currently in so-called interdepartmental comment proceedings. "The deadline for submitting comments expired on July 21. By Wednesday noon, we had received 1779 comments and others are still coming in. Even though it is after the deadline, we will address them as well," said Pavlová.
    In addition to the large number of comments, the ministry also has a problem with the fact that there were up to five comments on some points of the amendment that are completely contradictory.
    Although four people are working on addressing the comments and other colleagues are helping them, the preparation of the amendment is falling behind schedule. According to the original timetable, the government office should already have had the final version available. "The minister is asking the prime minister for approval to extend the deadline for submission until the end of this October. Consequently, the anticipated effectiveness of the amendment will also be postponed until the end of next year or January 2017," added Pavlová. The amendment was originally intended to take effect by the middle of next year.
    The most significant change that the planned adjustments bring is the merging of the approval process into one procedure. In the so-called coordinated, according to an earlier working version of the unified, approval process, the now separate zoning procedure, building procedure, and environmental impact assessment, the so-called EIA process, would be combined. According to the ministry, this is expected to significantly expedite the approval of constructions.
    The ministry also hopes that the amendment will ease the burden on small builders. For example, it will allow self-help construction for all types of family houses without specifying the built-up area. On the property of a family house or a house designated for recreation, anyone will be able to build a pool or a greenhouse solely based on their placement without subsequent approval.
    All urban planning documents will be mandatory published online, which will allow the public better oversight over the entire process.