Although at the beginning of October the moratorium on construction for the entire area of Bečići and the exclusive part of Budva by the sea, from “Avala to Zavala” was officially lifted, investors, and there are quite a few of them, cannot register construction until the Government has adopted a spatial and urban plan (PUP) for Budva.
This was clearly presented by the Minister of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism, Ana Novaković Đurović, in a letter to the Budva Secretariat for Urban Planning and Sustainable Development, which asked that government department for clear instructions as to whether the ban on construction stipulated in the decision on the creation of the PUP is still in force.
After the deadline given by the Government of Zdravko Krivokapić expired on October 5, leaving a year for the preparation of the PUP, and it introduced a moratorium on construction for the areas covered by the detailed urban plans of Budva center and Bečići, the Secretariat for Urban Planning was practically overwhelmed with requests for issuance urban-technical conditions (UTU), by citizens and companies.
Although the relevant ministry has given the green light for the local administration to issue the UTA, the first paper in the procedure for obtaining a building permit, the minister obliged the municipality that when issuing the documentation, they are obliged to “inform the investors that they cannot submit a construction application and start construction, until the PUP is adopted due to the possibility that the spatial plan may determine other conditions for construction in relation to the conditions determined by the Budva center DUP and the Bečići DUP”.
- The ban on construction established by the decision on the development of the PUP was applied until October 5, and after that date it ceased to be valid. As the PUP Budva is in the drafting phase, it is necessary to inform potential investors about this when issuing the urban planning and technical conditions, and in this regard that the construction application is not submitted to the competent inspection before the adoption of the PUP Budva, in case planning conditions are foreseen at that location and space arrangements that do not correspond to the previous ones – says the minister’s explanation, which Vijesti had access to.
This made it virtually impossible for anyone to start a construction operation that was in hibernation a year and a half ago for the most attractive construction areas of the metropolis of tourism.
Prime Minister in technical mandate Dritan Abazović told Vijesti at the beginning of October that the Government, at the request of the local administration, lifted the moratorium on construction for the area of Budva by the sea and Bečići, pointing out that in the final stage the development of a spatial and urban plan (PUP) for the metropolis of tourism, which will be put an end to “construction rampage”.
Abazović then said that the Government does not want to make decisions that are contrary to the request of local administrations, so in the case of the moratorium, which was in force for a year, it accepted the request of the Municipality of Budva. However, the administration of the President of the Municipality, Milo Božović, did not request that the moratorium be lifted, but apparently the Government referred to the letter of the previous mayor, Marko Carević, who strongly opposed the introduction of the moratorium, stating that the municipal coffers would be deprived of four million euros.
Carević’s forecasts practically came true, because it was the area of Budva and Bečići for which the moratorium was introduced that brought the most money to the Municipality from utility bills. And while in previous years they collected five to six million euros from these areas alone, and the total annual collection for the entire area of the municipality exceeded ten million euros, this year the local administration will barely collect a little more than 4 million euros.
Namely, the rebalancing for this year foresees that 4.03 million EUR will be collected from utilities, even 1.5 million less than what was foreseen in the original budget plan for 2022. If the plans had been valid, the utility bill, like in all previous years, would certainly have exceeded ten million euros.
The government of former Prime Minister Krivokapić made a decision on the creation of the PUP of the Municipality of Budva, Article 4 of which prohibits construction on part of the area within the limits covered by the decision on the adoption of the Budva center DUP and the decision on the adoption of the Bečići DUP. The construction ban will be applied, as it was said at the time, until the adoption of the PUP Budva, and no longer than 12 months from the date of signing the contract with the manager of the development of the planning document. The contract on the development of the PUP was concluded with the manager of the Plan development on October 5, 2021, for a period of 12 months.
The drafting of the PUP Is reportedly nearing completion and is in the draft stage.
Carević’s administration was clear, and strongly opposed the introduction of the moratorium.
- We believe that it is by no means good to unilaterally make a decision to prohibit construction in the entire coverage of the Budva center amendment and amendment DUP and the Bečići DUP. Given that it is a decision with far-reaching consequences for the future functioning of the Municipality of Budva, we believe that the decision should only be made in consultation with the representatives of the Municipality. Article 4 of the draft decision is extremely harmful to the Municipality of Budva, taking into account that the program of investment activities and the program of spatial planning are directly related to the collection of fees for communal equipment of construction land, and according to the budget of the Municipality of Budva for 2021, it amounts to EUR 5.5 million, which represents a total of 15.3% of the annual budget of the Municipality – said Carević at the time and requested the urgent formation of an expert team, which was not adopted, local media reports.
