Senate economic committee may recommend the Senate to reject the new building law
The Senate Economic Committee may recommend to senators to reject the draft of a new building law. The committee's rapporteur on the proposal, Jaroslav Větrovský (for YES), said yesterday that he had a negative resolution ready for Wednesday's committee meeting. But he did not want to speculate whether the committee would agree with his proposal. The chairman of the committee, Vladislav Vilímec (ODS), said that the law could not be amended and that he did not perceive the support of this law in any of the senatorial clubs. The new building law has been in preparation for many years, and the government promises a faster construction procedure from it.
The Senate will meet on the Building Act on Thursday, July 1. Before that, it should be dealt with by the Constitutional Law Committee and the Territorial Development Committee or the Rural Development Commission. If the Senate rejected it, the Chamber of Deputies would have to meet again and enforce it by a majority of at least 101 votes. He passed five votes in the previous approval. In addition to YES deputies, he was supported by the SPD club and only three Social Democrats, some deputies of the ruling CSSD even voted against him.
In the Chamber of Deputies, the version in which the building authorities were moved to the state and the Supreme Building Authority with regional building authorities and their territorial workplaces was finally won against the original government proposal. The building authorities would no longer remain under the municipalities. This has already been criticized by the opposition in the House.
Větrovský said that the establishment of the state building administration and its separation from cities and municipalities is a fundamental problem for him as an aged mayor. According to him, this can mean a fatal separation of public administration from people in the countryside. However, Minister for Regional Development Klára Dostálová (for YES) has previously rejected these concerns. She assured that she would try to negotiate with the mayor so that the officials would remain where they were. They could help each other in cases where several applications for building permits meet in one place.
"I consider the bill to be uneditable in terms of content, it is more or less a mistake," said Vilímec. In his opinion, this is not an honest effort to simplify the construction procedure, but rather an effort to create a giant central body of state administration subordinate directly to the government. If it were an honest effort to simplify the procedure, then some things, such as digitization or the principle of appeal, would be incorporated by the government into the current system of delegated powers, says the chairman of the committee.
However, the Ministry of Regional Development emphasizes that the new law will ensure, for example, compliance with deadlines. According to him, it will not be necessary to build a new office on a green field or recruit new officials.
For example, the regions do not agree with the approved form of the Building Act. The approved form has previously been criticized, for example, by environmental organizations or the Czech Chamber of Architects. On the contrary, the Association of Developers or the Chamber of Commerce described the law as a step in the right direction.
Source: CTK
