The Czech Act No. 183/2006 Coll., on Town and Country Planning and Building Code, commonly know as the Building Act, constitutes a key legal regulation for preparation and construction of public and private investment projects. Its recent version in force is generally accused to produce very complicated planning permission and building permit procedures with insecure results. It is no exception that some procedures for larger projects last even more than five years, while those of large transport and energy infrastructure projects may last even about twelve to fifteen years. Such state of things undoubtedly ranks the Czech Republic among European countries with the slowest pace in public and private investment, which undermines Czech aspirations to converge to the level of more developed EU countries. This fact has brought about efforts to prepare such an amendment to the Building Act that would effectuate a substantial simplification and acceleration in permitting and accomplishing building projects.
The aforementioned delicate task was undergone by the Ministry of Regional Development (Ministerstvo pro místní rozvoj) that was entitled so by its legal powers and competencies. Its work at the text began in early 2014. The proposed amendment forms certainly a complex and integral legal regulation, which can be proved by the fact that it provokes also an amendment of further 34 related acts.
A key part of the proposed legislation is represented by shortening of the whole process through the so-called coordinated procedure, which is to combine planning and building permit procedures, including the process of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The result should be the release of a unique coordinated permit, equally for an individual building as well as a group of buildings. For selected special projects – construction of roads a road administrative authority is to be competent for the coordinated procedure (local authority of a municipality with extended powers, a Regional Authority or the Ministry of Transportation), in the case of rail track construction a rail administrative authority, for energy projects the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and for waterworks the appropriate water authority. Further, among others, more deadlines for specific procedures are to be shortened.
The amended Building Act should also bring about a simplification of the permit process for small private projects like family houses, swimming pools or glasshouses.
On the other hand, it is necessary to mention that there are also factors that may act against potential beneficial effects of the proposed legislature. One of them is the recently introduced EIA legislature allowing the so called affected public to appeal against the results of the permit process in a broader extent and in more stages. Another complicating element is the legislature dealing with industrial emissions (Act No. 76/2002 Coll., as amended) which may concern especially projects in manufacturing and waste incineration plants. Only practice might show to what extent these stipulations could offset the shortening and simplifying effect of the new building legislature.
The initial version of the amendment was submitted for intra-governmental discussion in June 2015. The discussion harvested incredible 2,142 comments, of which 1,601 material ones. It was very often objected that the proposed amendment stayed behind initial intentions and the improvement in the permit process was insufficient. Differences concerned often conflicting ideas on proposed powers of administration bodies, e.g. the coordinated procedure for waterworks as parts of larger projects, or the proposed annulment of the authorization for specific building rules for the City of Prague, as well as the potential exclusion of the right of the affected public to appeal against the project within the EIA procedure, but without previous participation in the building permit procedure. Comments also frequently emerged that the amendment does not sufficiently support strategic projects of top importance like motorways, railway lines or energy networks.
After a truly painstaking work of the Ministry of Regional Development with assessing the comments and complying with some of them, the adjusted text of the amendment proceeded to a discussion at first in selected working committees of the Government, and then to that in the Government Legislative Council in June 2016. Thereafter, the documentation of the amendment of the Building Act is to undergo a regular discussion in the Government. Insiders’ estimates say that the amendment will be put on the Government’s table at the end of this August or at the beginning of September. At the time this article is published the gentle reader will already know whether the amendment of the Building Act reached the meeting of the Government on time, and if so, with which result. If it is positive, the bill will then proceed to the Parliament.
It sometimes happens that such useful and more or less positive proposals of legal regulations wage a genuine long and winding road before their materialization. And it is not certain that their final version will be fully consistent with initial intentions. Hopefully this will not be the case, and we will live to see a better regulation of public and private construction projects at least at the beginning of 2018.
By Emanuel Šíp, Partner, Asociace Allied Progress Consultants