site.btaPresident Radev Imposes Partial Veto on Amended Spatial Development Act

February 5 (BTA) - President Rumen Radev Friday vetoed certain revisions to the Spatial Development Act adopted on January 27, his Press Secretariat said.

Radev stated that he supports the efforts to improve the statutory framework concerning spatial planning, development-project design and construction. However, the revisions do not guarantee sufficiently the exercise and protection of the rights of natural and juristic persons, according to the President. The newly introduced option to appeal against master plans is unjustifiably restricted both in terms of time and of the scope of the entitled persons.

The new provisions do not guarantee sufficiently that the municipalities will perform their responsible and socially important task of implementing compulsory purchase procedures strictly, on time and in the public interest. Instead, the provisions create prerequisites for curtailing certain rights of various subjects, according to the President.

The presidential veto comes a day after the Chamber of Architects in Bulgaria asked Radev to veto certain revisions to the Spatial Development Act, arguing that they infringe on owners' constitutional rights to dispose of their property and build on it. The Chamber's Chairman Vladimir Milkov told a BTA-hosted news conference on Thursday that the organization objected above all to an amendment under which the owner of a property may not be issued a building permit before the municipality has acquired all parts of properties on which a street is planned to be built.

In a letter to the President, the Chamber of Architects argued that many provisions of the amending bill would impede the development-project process and add to the costs and complexity of administrative services. They also breach essential principles of relations in spatial planning, development-project design and construction and unconstitutionally restrict fundamental rights of citizens and municipalities. NV/DD
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