5 DECEMBER 2023
5 DECEMBER 2023
Author of the article
PARTNER
SENIOR ASSOCIATE
The reform of building legislation will end the validity of the Building Act that has been in force for almost 50 years (Act no. 50/1976 Coll. on spatial planning and building regulations). On 1 April 2024, new regulations on spatial planning (Act no. 200/2022 Coll.) and a new Building Act (Act no. 201/2022 Coll.) will enter into force. The most important changes of these reforms are summarized below.
The Office for Spatial Planning and Construction of the Slovak Republic was established on 1 June 2022, and at the beginning of the year 2023 it assumed the role of the central authority of the state for construction and spatial planning. One of the basic tasks of the Office for Spatial Planning and Construction of the Slovak Republic is the operation and management of the planned spatial planning and construction information system to be known as URBION. It is expected to be the digital interface within which all construction and spatial planning proceedings will take place.
In addition to the digital interface enabling the course of proceedings, URBION should contain all relevant information about the territory of the Slovak Republic in digital form. The aim of the information system is to gradually enable the full digitization of building proceedings so that they contain all of the relevant information from public and other registers. URBION should therefore contain spatial planning documentation and binding opinions of spatial planning authorities. It should also include data from the real estate cadastre and other public registers.
The previous stages of spatial planning documentation have been preserved. The novelty is the new micro-regional zoning plan .
A micro-regional zoning plan is procured by a self-governing region on the basis of the designation of the territory in the territorial development concept of the region. It can also be procured upon agreement at the request of several municipalities. If the defined territory includes several self-governing regions, they will agree on which of them will procure the zoning plan. The micro-regional zoning plan is also interesting because although every municipality is obliged to have its own zoning plan, this obligation shall cease if the entire territory of the municipality is part of the micro-regional zoning plan.
Municipalities must concentrate on creating their zoning plans. If a municipality has approved spatial planning documentation by 31 March 2024, it must be replaced by spatial planning documentation according to the new regulation by 31 March 2032; otherwise it will lose its validity from 1 April 2032. A municipality that does not have a zoning plan is obliged to procure and approve one by 31 March 2032. If a municipality does not have an approved zoning plan, it will only be authorized to issue a statement in the process of permitting construction and permitting activities, which will only be of a recommendatory nature.
The creation of spatial planning documentation can now be summarized in four phases. The first phase involves the procurement and processing of documents. The second phase involves the preparatory work and the processing of the assignment. The third phase involves the procurement and processing of the draft spatial planning documentation. The entire process ends with the fourth phase, i.e., the discussion and approval of the draft spatial planning documentation.
The most fundamental changes are contained in the third phase during the processing of the draft spatial planning documentation. The so-called fiction of approval is introduced in the opinions of the concerned authorities and legal entities. The spatial planning authority shall set a time limit for the submission of opinions and statements, which shall not be shorter than 30 days. If they do not comment within this time limit or, if they do not request the spatial planning authority to extend the time limit by a maximum of 30 days, it shall be assumed that they have no comments on the draft spatial planning documentation.
The regulation of proposals for changing existing spatial planning documentation was also changed. The spatial planning authority evaluates proposals as either justified or unjustified. Only those proposals that clearly cannot be implemented due to conflicts of public interest will be considered as unjustified. The spatial planning authority shall inform the person who submitted the proposal of its decision within 30 days of its submission. The failure to assess the proposal or the inactivity of the spatial planning authority can be reviewed by the office within 30 days.
As of 1 April 2024, the authority of building authorities will be transferred from municipalities to the state. According to the new rules, the so-called regional building authorities (based in regional cities) and other detached workplaces (established as needed) will perform the activities of the building authorities. However, proceedings that were initiated and not terminated in municipalities by 1 April 2024 will be completed by the current building authorities according to the currently valid "old" building act.
The current state of permitting building, which featured proceedings according to the EIA Act, then the zoning proceedings, the building proceedings and then the approval proceedings, is coming to an end. The new permitting process completely omits the zoning proceedings. The compliance of the construction plan with the zoning plan will be analysed during the building permitting process.
The entire permitting process will begin with the submission of a construction plan proposal, which will be uploaded to the URBION information system. Concerned authorities, legal entities, municipalities and other participants in the proceedings will subsequently submit comments and opinions on this proposal. After the submission of comments, the discussion phase of the proposal begins, in which these comments are evaluated and attempts are made to eliminate any conflicts that have arisen. The process will conclude with the preparation of a report on the discussion.
The builder only comes into contact with the building authority in the third phase, when submitting a proposal for the issuance of a decision on the building permit. In this procedure, after the building authority resolves any conflicts, it issues a decision on the building permit and determines the decisive parameters for the building project. The builder then develops a building project with the designer. Construction may only commence after the project has been verified.
The new building act preserves the proceedings on the trial operation and the premature use of the building. However, if the builder does not carry out these proceedings, the building will be subject to the approval process, where the approval certificate is issued. The new building regulations should also follow the cadastral acts, and approved buildings should automatically be recorded in the real estate cadastre.
The advantage of the new building act was supposed to be the acceleration of the permitting process. For this reason, the EIA proceedings should have been integrated in the permitting process in one proceeding, and the role of the building authority was supposed to be taken over by the state body that carried out the assessment process according to the EIA Act.
However, the amendment of the EIA Act (Act no. 272/2023 Coll.) brought an unpleasant surprise for many. Whether the EIA proceedings will be integrated into the building permitting process should be decided by the proposer itself (the builder). This possibility completely disrupted the original concept of the new building regulations. They did not account for the fact that the builder itself could choose the jurisdiction of the building authority, or that it could independently decide on whether or not the building permitting process would take place together with the EIA proceedings. This possibility, as well as some unclear legal wording, can be seen as one of the biggest weaknesses of the new legislation.
The new regulations have brought many challenges. One of them will be the timely processing of the URBION information system, without which it will not be possible to initiate new permitting processes as of 1 April 2024. Its timely processing will be equally important for the initiating of the new regulations, as no changes that completely disrupt its original concept and purpose are implemented into the new regulations. Therefore, in the coming months it will be necessary to focus on improving the current wording of the new regulations to ensure that they can enter into force functionally and on time.
Šimon graduated in law at Comenius University in Bratislava and his heart is administrative law. He specializes in construction and environmental regulation, litigation and public procurement. Šimon also advises organisations and initiatives promoting sustainable construction and energy efficiency in construction projects. He also enjoys pro bono work, i.e. free legal assistance to non-profit organizations in the field of sustainable construction and human rights protection. He is a co-author of our regular monthly construction and environmental law newsletter.
Jakub graduated in law from the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice and completed his PhD studies focused on construction contracts and FIDIC contract terms. He is our expert in real estate and construction. Jakub is also an author of professional publications focusing on risk allocation in the process of contracting or dispute resolution.
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