In Otvoren, a lively discussion about the new regulation of space planning

The parliamentary opposition is very critical of the package of laws concerning spatial planning and construction. They believe that it still favors private investors, and they do not rule out protests to stop the law from being passed. The government responds: the main goal is faster construction of apartments for affordable housing. Branko Bačić, Minister of Spatial Planning, Construction and State Property, Anka Mrak-Taritaš, Member of Parliament (GLAS), Rajka Bunjevac, President of the Croatian Chamber of Architects, and academic Nikola Bašić, architect, spoke about what the new spatial planning regulation will bring in Otvoreno. HRT

Bunjevac: Neglected basics of urban planning

Bunjevac said that they have been monitoring the existing legal framework since its adoption in 2013, and says that it only entered into actual application two years ago. 

– Two years ago, we initiated the adoption of a new legal framework, especially in the area of ​​spatial planning, and of course the amendments to the Construction Law and the separation of the Construction Law into two laws, namely the Construction Law and the Energy Efficiency Law.

She emphasized that the controversial concept is that the hierarchy of spatial plans and what we all learned in the basics of urban planning, that some plans must be strategic and some plans are implementation plans, have been completely ignored.

– Plans, based on which construction documents are later issued, and higher-level plans are strategic plans, generally consider spatial interventions, but do not prescribe the method of implementing these spatial interventions. Both the current legal framework and this proposed legal framework, despite our efforts to develop these two layers of plans, still leave room for the possibility of implementing spatial interventions directly from the law, or from higher-level plans, she explained. 

Rajka Bunjevac, President of the Croatian Chamber of Architects

Bačić: 30% of objections adopted

Bačić confirmed that the draft law on spatial planning received around 1700 objections during the public consultation, of which around 30% were adopted.

– This set of laws is a reform package that governs three basic state developments. It is space, construction and energy. We pass a law on spatial planning, a law on construction by which we regulate construction and an energy law by which we contribute to Croatia’s energy self-sufficiency, he said.

He stated that the existing law well establishes that Croatia’s strategic priorities are determined from the state spatial development plan and that construction permits for projects of national importance can be issued directly from that document, without changes to lower-level plans.

He gave an example – for an important infrastructure project such as the Rijeka – Hungarian border railway, a permit could be issued directly from the state plan. At the county level, the basic document is the county spatial plan, from which permits are issued for projects of county significance, while the rest are defined by the plans of cities and municipalities.

– This is the position we have advocated from the beginning and which we believe accelerates the implementation of key projects, he said.

He emphasized that the Government has set three goals in the mandate, among others, digitization, demography, and decarbonization. 

– With our package of laws, we are contributing to digitalization because as of January 1, the entire spatial planning and construction system has been completely digitalized. We are contributing to decarbonization, reducing fossil fuel consumption through energy efficiency in building construction, by prescribing how our buildings should look by 2030 and beyond. My ministry’s contribution to demography is enabling affordable housing. In order to make this housing affordable, we must, in accordance with our national housing policy plan adopted in March of this year, enable the rapid construction of new housing units. If we do not enter into these laws and do not pass laws that will enable the entire professional planning system to be propulsive, we will not achieve our basic goal of quickly providing affordable housing to our fellow citizens who do not have access to affordable housing.  

Branko Bačić, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Physical Planning, Construction and State Property

Mrak-Taritaš: A big burden for small municipalities and cities

Mrak-Taritaš said that permits of state significance had been issued before.

– Permits of state importance were for important infrastructural interventions in the area, such as highways, railways, such as important infrastructure. If we had stuck to infrastructure with this bill, it would have been different later. In the period from 1994 to 1998, we had the possibility of planning on one plot. We called it and we still call it point urbanism or urbanism on one plot, which is not urbanism. And that had drastic consequences in the area, which we see even today, she said.

She emphasized that construction should not be done just anywhere, and that spatial plans must protect the primary purpose of the space.

He says that today an investor can, under certain conditions, build affordable housing in an economic zone, and the Ministry will issue a permit. The local level resolves property and legal relations, the investor pays a communal contribution and uses it to build infrastructure. If the contribution does not cover the costs of more serious infrastructure, the difference will be charged through a communal fee, which can be a great burden for small municipalities and cities. We warn against this.

“I understand the importance of affordable housing, but we need to look at the broader context,” she said.

She stated that if a thousand rental apartments were built annually, there would be ten thousand such apartments in the state portfolio today. 

Bačić: Only the public sector can build

Bačić pointed out that there is no private investment in affordable housing and that only the public sector can build it – the Croatian Government, counties, cities, municipalities or their institutions such as the APN.

He also said that neither the current nor the proposed law opens up space for private investors, but exclusively for public developers. He said that they want to pass the law by the end of the session so that a new process of digital transformation of spatial plans and simplification and acceleration of the issuance of building permits can begin on January 1.

Bašić: Space is a national asset

Bašić sent an open letter to the Government on behalf of the Scientific Council for Tourism and Spatial Planning of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, requesting that the proposal for this law be withdrawn for further development so that it does not go to adoption now.

– It is about something that is a primordial civilizational achievement, and that means thinking and creating space, he said.

He believes that this law does not answer the key question – how to protect the Croatian space, how to develop it further and develop its identity, preserve its soul in the sense in which it represents a common and common good, and how to manage it wisely in the conditions of an open market economy.

– This law and all previous laws respond to that routinely or respond according to some schemes of certain agendas that come to us from the European Union, which we rewrite, and now we rewrite them in the preamble of our laws, although some are already 15-20 years old, and we are now putting them as a basis for creating a new tool with which we will manage space. Therefore, there cannot be a good law that is not preceded by a good vision, a good idea, a consensus on what to do and how to manage our greatest national good, which is space. This is where we have to start and when we agree on that, we need the law as a means, as a tool to preserve our ideas, our intentions, our determination to preserve this space of ours as a real and metaphorical heritage for the benefit of our community, and especially for the benefit of those who have not even been born yet. That’s the problem, and we don’t have an answer to that question either in the profession or in politics. “I just want to ask you all, have you heard of any Croatian party, whether from the right or left spectrum or the middle, that has in its program a vision of the development of the Croatian space in conditions of an open economy,” he said.

Urban compaction

Bunjevac said that urban land consolidation does not mean expropriation; purchase is only possible when the plot is too small. The profession supports the solution, but warns against caution due to possible favoritism towards interest groups.

She also added that urban compaction, if properly prescribed, is a very good tool and enables solving very complex spatial planning situations.

– What was associated with urban land consolidation in the parliamentary debate, in which we could not and did not want to participate, was that it was associated with the concept of expropriation, which is the subject of another law, she said.

Bačić added that this is a tool used to convert non-construction plots into construction plots to enable construction, which he often has to explain further in Parliament.

Bašić: I’m disappointed, people are being told they are second-class citizens

– It is crucial that we stop perpetuating these patterns and that this kind of show does not devote so much time to political bickering between the current minister and the former minister, and to talk more about the substance. When I hear that it is for affordable housing, that it is a topic that is resolved by the spatial planning law. It’s funny, it’s a measure that doesn’t matter, or it does matter, but only at some extreme level as an element of spatial planning, because in this way you are in fact announcing solutions to the issues of the weakest, which are young Croatian families, so that you ghettoize them in some areas that are not commercially attractive, which are peri-urban, suburban, etc. that practically demographically a negative effect is produced to tell people that they are second class citizens of their own country, that is really sad to hear.

– Further, this way of building outside the civil area in any zone, without any qualifications as to what kind of area and what kind of nature it is, because you have a large parcel and only because it is your ownership identification, so that is inadmissible. This is an attack on Croatian space by all those speculators who, in uncertain times, want to turn abstract figures from their accounts into material value, into real estate, into land. And when you say that you will allow construction because there are so many hectares, you have in fact announced the sale of wealth number one, which is space. Therefore, I would say – space is not a commodity, space is the last form of common dignity and if we leave it to the element of the market, we have left ourselves to that element as well. I am very disappointed that today the government confirmed the bill, because I don’t think it is ready for adoption in the Croatian Parliament. I am disappointed that the Government did not show strength, fearing that it will appear weak if it withdraws the law, and with this gesture it would show its maturity, he concluded. 

Source: HRT

Photo: PGK Archives