The basic principles of the building law were presented by the MMR in September 2017

Prague - The main theses of the new construction law were presented by the Ministry for Regional Development (MMR) in September 2017. The ministry hopes that the law, which will be discussed by the government on Monday, will significantly accelerate and simplify the construction process. The main principles include a single procedure before one building authority, fixed deadlines, and the integration of affected agencies into building authorities. The draft has had and still has a number of critics during the comment phase. This concerns, for example, the protection of monuments or inadequate fire protection. MMR rejects these objections. ČTK brings an overview of the most important milestones and a list of the most significant comments on the law along with reactions from the Minister for Regional Development Klára Dostálová (for ANO).

Milestones:

- September 2017 - Minister for Regional Development Karla Šlechtová (for ANO) presented the theses of the new construction law.

- October 8, 2018 - Minister for Regional Development Klára Dostálová signed a memorandum of cooperation on the new construction law with the Czech Chamber of Commerce. The reason was to maximize the acceleration of the preparation for the recodification of construction law so that the Chamber of Deputies could adopt it in three years.

- June 24, 2019 - The government approved the material concept of the new construction law.

- November 25, 2019 - The draft wording of the new construction law was sent into the comment process. Commenting authorities sent approximately five thousand comments to the draft construction law and two thousand comments to the amendment law to MMR.

- January 13, 2020 - At the prime ministerial level, MMR agreed with the Union of Towns and Municipalities (SMO) of the Czech Republic that building authorities would remain in municipalities in delegated authority. Dostálová described this step in an interview with ČTK as the most difficult compromise, which deviated the law's form from the material concept.

- February 7, 2020 - The Chamber of Commerce distances itself from the construction law in response to the agreement with SMO CR.

- The deadline for addressing comments has been postponed several times due to their high number and measures against the spread of coronavirus.

- End of May 2020 - The revised draft law based on the resolution of comments was submitted to the Legislative Council of the Government.

- End of June 2020 - The Legislative Council suspended discussions on the new construction law.

- August 7, 2020 - The Legislative Council discussed the new construction law again and recommended that it be approved by the government after incorporating some comments.

- August 18, 2020 - MMR received the final opinion of the legislative council, and the law is headed to the government.

Selection of the most important comments that appeared during the comment process::

- The planned adoption of the new construction law to be effective from 2021 is considered by analysts to be very ambitious. It is more likely that the deadline will be postponed and the wording of the law will be adjusted during the legislative process. According to them, this is one of the most necessary legislative changes from an economic point of view. Some fear the misuse of the so-called fiction of consent, where inactivity of the authority within 30 days will be considered a consent opinion:

- Dostálová: "The main aim is to ensure that the law is of high quality. Following agreement with the Prime Minister, we extended the resolution of the comment process until the end of March, to make the law as consensual as possible. No one needs to be alarmed about a collapse of permitting; the law will come into effect in the second half of 2023, to allow enough time to transition the current model to an independent system of building authorities led by the Supreme Building Authority subordinate to the government." Note: Ultimately, the resolution of comments was extended several times due to their high number and measures against the spread of the coronavirus, allowing commenting authorities enough time to express their opinions on the law again. The comment process extended over five months.

- The establishment of the Supreme Building Authority will be costly and require several billion crowns:

- Dostálová: "The Ministry for Regional Development currently has an entire construction section, which will transfer to the Supreme Building Authority. We do not expect any enormous influx of officials. People from the ministry would simply automatically transition to the Supreme Building Authority, remaining in Letenská street, where the entire construction section is located today. Nothing will change. We need to maintain a hierarchy - a single system of building authorities. This is the only way to ensure the substitutability of officials, which is not possible today."

- The proposed construction law significantly limits the protection of cultural heritage in the Czech Republic, according to some experts on cultural heritage and academics. The approval of all constructions only relies on documentation for zoning proceedings, which they argue does not cover all aspects of monument restoration. Additionally, the proposal states that a binding statement from heritage officials would not be necessary for construction permits:

- Dostálová: "There will be no threat to monuments; the Charles Bridge will not be demolished, there is really no reason to be afraid of that. Heritage officials will continue to defend their interests through the heritage law during the permitting process and will have the opportunity to effectively protect their legitimate interests."

Note: Dostálová led negotiations with Culture Minister Lubomír Zaorálek (ČSSD) during the resolution of comments. They agreed that heritage care authorities would be integrated partially, specifically in protective zones of monuments.

- The proposed new construction law is conceptualized poorly. Because it was prepared by the Czech Chamber of Commerce, it clearly favors investors and does not take into account, for example, environmental or monument protection:

- Dostálová: "The proposer of the draft is the Ministry for Regional Development. We collaborated with dozens of experts from various market areas, including experts on cultural monuments and environmental issues. The perspective of people from practice is very significant in such a complex regulation. It is not true that the law is tailored to developers. All builders need an acceleration of disproportionately long proceedings. They will also welcome the simplification of excessive and very complicated regulations, which will certainly be appreciated by the authorities and municipalities as well. The resulting form of the construction law represents a balanced compromise between public and private interests. About five thousand comments were submitted on the original proposal, which MMR resolved with the departments responsible for nature or cultural heritage protection."

- The Czech Union for Nature Conservation (ČSOP) stated that the proposal denies nearly everything, from public interests such as nature protection or heritage care to the rights of neighboring owners. Therefore, the Union recommended rejecting the presented material concept as a whole during the comment procedure. According to ecological organizations Arnika and Zelený kruh, the new construction law curtails the rights of municipalities and individuals:

- Dostálová: "The rights of nature conservators will not be curtailed. Nature protection will continue to be one of the public interests asserted in the approval of plans. It should also be guaranteed that the law's preparation involved the law firm Frank Bold. This is a well-known firm in conservation circles. It has one of the largest legal teams in the country with expertise in construction law and environmental law. The involvement of Frank Bold was primarily in the part of the planning agreement, environmental protection, and soil protection. The authorities that ensure nature protection will be integrated into the state building administration, but that in no way means that these public interests will be overlooked. The main change will be that the law will no longer provide space for obstruction by organizations that exploit the endless possibilities offered by the administrative code to block public benefit constructions for years. Everyone will have the right to appeal, but only once in the entire process and cannot continually assert the same objections again and again. This has nothing to do with nature protection anymore."

- The construction law is rushed and overall not well prepared, stated Pavel Křeček, chairman of the Czech Chamber of Authorized Engineers and Technicians in Construction (ČKAIT).

- Dostálová: "The situation in permitting constructions is in crisis. Not only is the permitting of small, for example, residential buildings stalled, but also public benefit and linear constructions. Without radical change, we will never complete the missing parts of the highway network. The situation where it takes five or more years to permit a regular construction threatens the country's competitiveness. The fact that we rank a disgraceful 157th place in the World Bank’s ranking deters foreign investors who prefer to invest their money elsewhere. If we failed to prepare a reforming law during one election term, that would be a very bad signal for citizens."

- The Czech National Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) stated that the proposal favors developers' interests over the