Citizens do not report illegal constructions, they do not trust the actions of the institutions and the outcome of the report

Forum for illegal constructions/ Photo: Sloboden pechat

In Kisela Voda Municipality, 14 requests for the legalization of illegal constructions have been submitted since the entry into force of the Law on Dealing with Illegally Built Buildings, as of January 958, 1. All requests were acted upon, but it is not known how many of them were decided positively, and how many were rejected because the Register of the Municipality does not contain such information, but is kept by name, surname and address of the applicant.

In the period from January 2019 to the end of December 2022, the Municipality acted on 2505 previously submitted requests in 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018. There is no information in the Register about how many of these 2505 requests are for illegally built facilities on private land, and how many on state land. Of these, a decision on legalization was made only for 887 requests for which payment was made, while for the remaining ones, an urban planning consent and a conclusion for payment of compensation for establishing the legal status of an illegal object was made and issued. The submitted requests refer to the legalization of family houses, business facilities, additions and upgrades to buildings.

These are some of the data that were presented at today's forum dedicated to illegal constructions, which was organized by the Association for the Protection of Animals and the Environment E.D.E.N., and where the legal framework for determining the status of illegal constructions was discussed the built facilities and its implementation, as well as the process of legalization of illegal constructions in Kisela Voda Municipality.

1 denars were added to the municipal budget in the period from November 2021, 1 to December 2022, 11, on the basis of fees, i.e. compensation for the legalization of illegally built buildings. At the same time, the Kisela Voda Municipality has not made a decision to define the borders of potentially unstable zones, despite the fact that in the LEAP for the municipality for the period 902-422 it is determined that the land in the settlements of Pripor, Usje and Pintija is susceptible to erosion and landslides - he said. Milka Dokuzovska, one of the presenters at the forum.

Speaking about the legal framework for determining the status of illegally built buildings and its implementation, Ana Petrovska, spatial planner and former director of the State Environmental Inspectorate, pointed out part of what is outlined in the Law on Dealing with Illegally Built Buildings.

 According to the Law, facilities that are built on the land on which the construction of a traffic structure is planned can be legalized, if the Municipality makes a decision that foresees the cancellation of the construction or dislocation of the traffic infrastructure. The municipality can pass a decision on the legalization of an illegally built building located in a protected coastal belt of artificial lakes and riverbeds, if it can fit into an urban plan - Petrovska pointed out.

The association E.D.E.N. in the previous months, he also conducted an online survey to examine the public opinion of the citizens of the Municipality of Kisela Voda on the subject of illegal constructions in the municipality and the ways in which the municipality deals with them.

The results of the survey showed that the citizens have knowledge about illegal construction and legalization, but still about 75% of the respondents never reported illegal construction. The reason for this attitude is that 83 percent of those who did not report, do not trust the actions of the institutions, as well as the outcome of the procedure.

The forum was organized within the project "Support to Electoral Reforms" of the Government of Switzerland, implemented by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems.

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