If the officials do not respond within 60 days, it will be considered approval

Prague - Officials should have a period of 60 days to express their opinions during the building permit process. If they do not express themselves within that time, it would mean automatic approval. This was stated today by the Minister for Regional Development Klára Dostálová (for ANO) at the conference that opened the For Arch construction fair. She wants to present a proposal to introduce the so-called fiction of consent for binding opinions into the building law to the government this autumn.

"Officials will have to have deadlines for expressing opinions. It is not acceptable for hygiene authorities to take two years to respond, and other authorities to take another three quarters of a year, and so on. According to our proposal, the deadline will be 60 days. If the office does not respond, it will be assumed that they agree," said Dostálová.

The sluggishness of offices and non-binding deadlines are, according to most builders, investors, and experts, one of the main reasons for the excessive duration of the building permit process. According to last year's data from the World Bank, the Czech Republic ranked 127th out of 185 countries in the processing of building permits. In some cases, the initiation of larger development projects takes up to ten years.

Since the beginning of this year, a new amendment to the building law has been in effect in the Czech Republic, aimed at simplifying and speeding up the approval process. However, the Ministry for Regional Development is working on the preparation of a new building law. Dostálová wants to present its substantive intent by October 2019. "Our ambition is one office, one stamp, one permit," said the minister. According to her, it will be necessary to change 80 related laws.

Dostálová also wants to create a national investment plan, which would enable strategic investments, for example, in transport, the environment, or energy. "This documentation would be binding for local self-government. Today, all strategic state investments are dependent on the territorial plans of self-governing units. And that is a problem because it takes several years to update the existing one or to develop a new one," noted Dostálová.

According to Minister of Transport Dan Ťok (for ANO), the building process is also prolonged by frequent challenges to binding opinions from environmental associations. Therefore, he proposes mandatory deposits for these appeals. "If someone is sure that an official made a mistake somewhere, wants to challenge the opinion, and requests the relevant office to confirm it, we will require a deposit for such submissions to each office, say 50,000 crowns. If they succeed and find the mistake, the deposit will be returned," Ťok said.