Hobbymarket Hornbach has received the green light from Olomouc again

Olomouc - The construction of the Hornbach DIY store in the Olomouc district of Hodolany, against which dozens of local residents and the Hnutí Duha (Friends of the Earth) have protested for years, has received the green light from the city hall again. The construction department of the city council has issued the zoning decision for the second time. The first one was annulled by the regional court a few months ago. This was reported in today’s edition of the mid-Moravian Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD).
Residents of Hodolany appealed against the original zoning decision to the regional office and also filed a lawsuit against the regional court. According to them, the authorities did not give people the opportunity to adequately express their opinions about the construction. The court acknowledged the objections and annulled the zoning decision.
“The building authority re-evaluated the submitted and modified proposal and based on this assessment issues a decision on the placement of the construction,” said Miloš Hlaváček from the building department to the newspaper. He did not want to comment on the decision, referring only to a written justification. The more than fifty-page document this time responds in detail to all objections from the dissatisfied residents of Hodolany. However, it rejects most of them.
The people from Hodolany are disappointed. “Officials do what they want. We do not want to give up. We will appeal again, I have already written to the Ministry of the Environment and I am also considering filing a criminal complaint,” said Jiří Skopal. The residents of Hodolany oppose the DIY store near their homes because they fear an increase in traffic and especially noise, which in some places already exceeds the permitted limits. This was evidenced by a recent independent noise measurement in the area.
However, the building authority did not recognize this objection either and continued to rely on a three-year-old noise study commissioned by the investor. “The content of the noise study was not the reason for the annulment of the decision by the Regional Court in Ostrava. In the subsequent zoning proceedings, which continued after the return of the file to the building authority by the regional office, all opinions were updated or newly documented. No one from the relevant bodies of state administration requested a new noise study,” said Hlaváček.
The sales hall with the gardening center will take up 11,642 square meters on the outskirts of Olomouc. The store expects a daily attendance of about 1,000 cars.