MANS reveals how concreting the bank of Moraca was planned
The draft urban plan “Recreational and cultural zone on the bank of Moraca – southern part” envisaged eight floors of the facility that the businessman from Podgorica, Zarko Buric, will build on the bank of Moraca. However, in the final version of the plan, that provision was deleted and Buric was given the right to define the height at his own will. On that occasion, the locality of the high-rise was divided into land plots that enabled Buric aquire the valuable plots through a direct agreement with the Capital, without the public tender.
The end of September 2012, the then mayor of Podgorica, Miomir Mugosa, organized a public discussion on the aforementioned document. The Decision of the Draft Plan lays down basic planning parameters, including the maximum number of floors. The maximum number of floors, which is ground level plus six floors, were envisaged for the eco-building, already constructed, and for the facility on the land plot, where Zarko Buric is currently building the 13-floor high-rise.
The detailed urban plan, which was valid at the time, envisaged a facility containing an underground level, ground level and five floors, while the amended version increased the number of floors by two.
During the public discussion, which lasted until mid-October 2012, the Capital had seven complaints: by PE “Sportski objekti”, “Normal Tours”, “Crnogorski Telekom”, EPCG and, Ljiljana Radević, sister of the architect Svetlana Kana Radevic.
The report from the public discussion, made by the then Acting Secretary for Spatial Planning, Oliver Markovic, states that “Normal Tours” had a single complaint regarding boundaries of the plot occupied by the Podgorica Hotel, and that there were no other requests whatsoever.
Ljiljana Radevic was against construction of a facility right by the Podgorica Hotel, while EPCG and Telekom required an increase of number of floors of the existing facilities which those two companies occupied.
EPCG required the increase of its facility (building of “Elektrodistribucija”) to the ground level plus seven floors, but the request was partially met, so EPCG was granted the ground level plus five floors.
“Crnogorski Telekom” also wanted the increase of its facility to the ground level plus seven floors, but the request was denied because “the Telekom building, due to specific floor heights, is already equal in height to the neighboring facilities that have seven floors.”
Concerning the plot next to the Podgorica Hotel, where the construction of a facility of the ground level and seven floors was planned, there was no objections, at least not those that had been made during the public discussions through official channels.
In the version adopted by the local parliament, there was no maximum number of floors defined for the plot where the high-rise is being built. It was stated that it would be defined by a separate architectural document, which later resulted in the aforesaid high-rise on the bank of Moraca.
As no one officially required deletion of the maximum number of floors for the high-rise of “Normal Tours”, it is still vague whose the initiative to amend the draft plan that permitted Buric to build the 13-floor high-rise was.
When asked if he had had any direct communication with the mayor Miomir Mugosa over the adoption of the aforementioned document, Buric sad that, as a businessman, he knew Mugosa as a public person, but he did not give any precise answer with regard to their communication. We asked Miomir Mugosa the same question, but we still have not received any answer.
Parcellation in order to avoid tender
Adopting the detailed urban plan “Recreational and cultural zone on the bank of Moraca – southern part” not only opened a space for planning the height of the high-rise arbitrarily, but also enabled forming a new urban plot UP9, which consisted of the plots owned “Normal Tours” and the Capital of Podgorica. The newly formed plot let Buric initiate the purchase of town’s plots without a public tender, through a so-called request for extension of urban plot.
What matters here is that Buric did not need all the plots belonging to the Capital for the high-rise in question. Yet, during the adoption of the plan, he decided to form the UP9, which enabled him to buy additional land for construction without a tender.
When sending such request to the Capital, Buric had 231 square meters within the UP9, and he requested buying additional 1,312 square meters from the Capital, in order to get hold of the whole plot. The request was approved by the Capital, and after the appraisal that MANS wrote about a day ago, the land was sold to Buric.
The similar mode of purchasing construction plots, avoiding public tender, was applied by Miomir Mugosa and Cedomir Popovic. On that occasion, in order to form one of the urban plots on Stari Aerodrom, the Capital sold state-owned land to the “Carine” company, thus inflicting around €11 million damage to the state budget.
The parliament of the Capital made the decision on transferring the land to “Normal Tours”, but it is curious that the local administration never considered buying from Buric his part of the land, which was considerably smaller, and amending the plan document in a manner that would enable it to better valorize the said land.
With regard to the aforesaid, the Capital explained that “construction of a facility of public interest was not envisaged on the land in question, which is why the Capital did not have any grounds nor obligation to acquire the rest of the plot and use it for a general purpose – interest.” Instead, through the amendment of the plan documents, Buric was even sold the land that he did not need for the construction of the disputable facility.
Buric: If anyone else bought the land, the entrance to Podgorica Hotel would be blocked
Commenting the purchase of the plots without a tender, Buric said that “as the owner of a part of the parcel, he was aware of the possibility of extending the plot, as it is set out in positive legal regulations, which allow such purchase. If anyone else bought the plot UP9 which is in front of the hotel, the access to the hotel would be blocked and it could not work as such, as the plot in question has completely taken the road and the parking in front of the hotel,” said Buric.
However, an insight in the currently valid document shows that the existing entrance into the hotel cannot be blocked the way Buric explained and the parking will keep serving its purpose.
Construction continues despite the void permit
Initiation of the high-rise construction was marked by a strong resistance from the expert public, led by young architects belonging to a Facebook group KANA, who were the first to point to the problem with the construction permit.
The urban inspector filed a proposal for cancellation of the construction permit to the Secretariat for Spatial Planning and Environmental Protection in March. As it was explained, by overviewing technical documents based on which the permit had been granted, the inspector found that the documents had not been in line with the plan document Amendments of the detailed urban plan “Recreational and cultural zone on the bank of Moraca – southern part”.
The Secretariat refused the proposal, explaining that “the decision to grant the construction permit was not questioned by a complaint within the legal deadline, which is why it became final.” The Inspection Directorate complained over the Secretariat’s decision to the Head Administrator, stating that in case the complaint was not adopted, the case would be filed to the Administrative Court.
Yet, the floors have kept on appearing one after another next to the Podgorica Hotel, although the Inspection Directorate announced it would ask the Administrative Court to cancel the construction permit a month ago.
This text is created with the support of the European Union within the project “Zero Tolerance to Corruption”. Network for Affirmation of Non-Governmental Sector – MANS is solely responsible for the contents of this article, and the views taken herein shall not in any case be considered as those of the European Union.
Dejan Milovac (MANS)
Tina Popovic (Vijesti)
