New laws on spatial planning and construction will replace the nearly half-century-old 1976 Construction Act in Slovakia. The National Council of the Slovak Republic approved them on Wednesday with a large number of changes compared to the original form, along with a related amendment to the Competence Act, reports webnoviny.sk.
Thanks to the newly approved act on spatial planning, a new central Office for Spatial Planning and Construction of the Slovak Republic will be established, which will take over the competences of the Ministry of Transport and Construction in the field of spatial planning, construction and expropriation. The proposed entry into force of the laws on spatial planning and construction, originally from 1 January 2023, was extended by MPs to 1 April 2024; a new information system in this area is also to be introduced.
Simplification of processes
According to Deputy Prime Minister Štefan Holý (Sme rodinina), the spatial planning process is to be significantly simplified. This is to be made possible by the procedures themselves, but also by the significant computerisation of spatial planning, which will be based on the gradual digitisation of data on the territory, new spatial planning documentation in a unified form. Electronicisation is the basis of the Act on spatial planning. The existing stages of individual spatial planning documentation will be maintained, but a new type of documentation will be added - the micro-regional spatial plan.
Black buildings must be demolished
The Construction Act should contribute to the professionalisation of the state administration and to reducing the administrative burden in this area. It should also simplify building permits, in particular by computerising processes and digitising data. Additional legalisation of black buildings should no longer be possible, and if such a building is built, it must be demolished. The decision-making power for building permits is to be changed. Building permits will be managed centrally by the new Planning and Building Authority.
The competence of the existing building authorities in towns and municipalities will be transferred to the building authorities, or to the offices of the newly established authority with defined territorial competence. The latter will have eight regional offices. The competences of the existing special construction offices will be maintained, except for the specialised construction offices for the construction of motorways, railways and airports.
Authorisation of construction under the new system
According to Deputy Prime Minister Holý, building permitting should be through the information system for spatial planning and construction and with professionally competent persons who will procedurally ensure building permitting for the builder. The simplicity or complexity of the procedural procedures will depend on the category of construction, according to the proposal. The possibility of notification and thus simplified building permitting for certain categories of construction will be maintained. In general, building permits will be based on the issue of a building plan decision by the regional planning and construction authority. A professionally qualified person - the planner - will be responsible for the discussion and commenting procedure on the draft construction plan of all the affected entities for the builder.
