Mavrovo attacked with forks and axes
In the area next to the Radika Hotel, next to Mavrovo Lake, 87 holiday homes are being built intensively. The concrete rush intensified especially after the announcement of the bill for legalization of illegal buildings, which was withdrawn after the head of state did not sign it. Local authorities say the facilities are illegal, but do not know if they will be legalized in the future. How can they know when the government has yet to define what illegal construction is and which of the legalization requests will be approved.
Following a debate on what the finalization of the withdrawn law should look like, the government said in July that it was necessary to make a "real distinction between private housing and those built as for-profit residential buildings". He also announced that illegally constructed buildings in protected areas, such as national parks and the like, will not be covered. Mavrovo was declared a national park by the National Assembly of the People's Republic of Macedonia in 1949.
Speaking of the protected zones, Elektrostopanstvo na Makedonija (ESM), the company responsible for the artificial lake in Mavrovo and responsible for granting construction consent, in June 2020 responded negatively to the company from Gostivar that prepared the urban plans and requested to correct a part of the plan that enters the protection zone of 50 meters from the maximum elevation of the reservoir, determined by the Law on Waters.
This was not emphasized by Medat Kurtovski, mayor of Mavrovo-Rostuse, in a statement for "Free Press", although he said that "the houses will not be able to be legalized until the wastewater treatment plant is built." The Mavrovo National Park, on the other hand, says that last August they asked for permission to clear the vegetation in the area where the villas are now being built. "Given that this is a private property, which had bushes and several fruit trees, mainly cherries and apple trees, we gave that approval," said Samir Ajdini, director of NP "Mavrovo".
Maybe in the future a treatment plant will be invented that will reduce the harmful effects of the so-called concreting of our forests and parks, since the only problem so far for the illegal constructions in Leunovo, according to Kurtovski, is its non-existence. But if in this municipality until June this year are legalized about 2.000 illegally constructed buildings according to the law of 2011 (municipalities did not answer how many of the illegal buildings that are legalized are in the forbidden zone of NP "Mavrovo"), will anyone make a problem for 87 holiday homes tomorrow they will bring profit to the hotel "Radika", from where they are silent for now. And I really wanted to ask them if the cut cherries and apple trees gave birth poorly, so they realized that they will have more charcoal if they expand their capacities with new facilities.
The topic is not for laughter and irony at all. But, let's not be fooled - holiday homes like these, even those in Popova Sapka, are not for socially endangered families because of which the withdrawn law was proposed, in order to solve the life issue of many families. Objects that are penetrated are problematic in many ways. Such illegal builders are criminals, because illegal construction under Article 244-a of the Criminal Code is a crime and punishable by three to eight years in prison.
On Popova Sapka, they hurried to finish the illegal constructions before Shar Mountain was declared a national park. It is symptomatic that the construction offensive and the issuance of building permits are always accelerating before the end of the term of the local government.
The two largest winter resorts in Macedonia, Popova Sapka and Mavrovo, overnight, will increase the number of beds for future visitors to the ski resorts. The fact that the 90 summer houses already built in Sapka and the 87 under construction in Mavrovo are illegal constructions, is a problem only of a temporary nature. Such are solved by the state by passing laws for their legalization every 10 years.
Once the concrete is "cemented" in the national parks, those who are now silent will ask the state and the municipality to build the necessary infrastructure, because they will want to develop tourism. Which is just a later stage of the project that "investors" usually start with axes and end with villas.