The councilors again stopped the construction plans above the “Kartala” district

For the third time, the Veliko Tarnovo Municipal Council stopped the intentions of a capital company to build in the 38 decares of forest above the town. The decision was made at today’s meeting of the local parliament. The company “Real Estate Enterprises” JSC submitted a request for approving an assignment and giving permission for the development of a project for a partial amendment of the General Development Plan.
The company owns a piece of land in the northern part of the neighborhood and insists on the removal of a “manifest factual error” and a change of the zoning category from (Oz2) “Forest Park in territories with special territorial-structural protection” to (Oz1) “Forest Park” . The opinion of RIOSV – V. Tarnovo was also presented, according to which the properties owned by the company do not fall into a protected territory, but border it.
So far, the City Council has rejected the request twice. The first time was in 2020, after which an appeal followed in the Administrative Court – V. Tarnovo, which canceled the councilors’ decision. The decree was also confirmed by the Supreme Court. Thus, the company again filed a request to reconsider the matter in accordance with the effective court decision, but in 2021 it was also rejected.
Now the advisers have once again resisted the investor’s request. One of the reasons is that in the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court of 18.03.2022 it is stated that the Municipal Council was referred with a request and a proposal from the investor for permission to develop a project to amend the General Development Plan in the part of the land property , due to an obvious factual error made in it, with a view to its inclusion in the Oz2 zone for “Forest Park in territories with special territorial-organizational protection”. In practice, there is no request in it to establish and eliminate an obvious factual error.
It was also stated that there are no factual prerequisites for changing the purpose of the land property from a forest to a property for the construction of residential buildings.
However, it turns out that the Acting Minister of Agriculture, with his order dated 09/01/2022, has changed the purpose of this very land, and the councilors learned about it from the materials for the session. However, there is no data in the file about the applicability of § 5, paragraph 1 of the previous and final provisions of the Law on Amendments and Supplements to the repealed Forest Law, on the basis of which the order was issued.
Thus, the municipal councilors rejected the investor’s request with 28 votes “for” and none against and abstained.
Vesela BAICHEVA