More options to build outside zoning areas
The Environment Ministry is standing firm behind its decision to encourage construction outside zoning areas as the final draft of the new regulations will be put out for public consultation in the next few days, with minor variations, despite the outcry from the scientific community.
The most prominent of these variations is the requirement of having two homes within 2 kilometers of the plot to be built on.
The law also opens a window for the reintroduction of building on parcels of less than 0.4 hectares.
As a counterbalance of sorts, the ministry is freezing construction outside zoning areas on the island of Mykonos for a few months, excluding large tourist investments it has licensed.
The draft law has more than 120 articles on urban planning, environmental, energy and administrative issues.
Through the bill’s provisions, some 10 planning laws will be amended.
The primary objectives of the legislation is to change change the framework for the demolition of arbitrary buildings, the regulations for construction outside zoning areas, the new forest management system, as well as the operation of the water management companies.
Plots “created” between 1985 and 2003 may be built on if they have a 25-meter frontage on a road that appears in aerial photographs from 1977 and has somehow been indirectly “recognized” by the state (e.g. paved).
This is also where the new “restriction” of at least two dwellings within a distance of 2 kilometers comes into play.
Homes can be built if they have a frontage of even 3.5 meters on a road that was “recognized” in the same way until 1977 and located within 250 meters of another home.
The inclusion of a minimum distance from neighboring buildings is clearly meant to prevent new houses from being built “in the middle of nowhere,” but it has little practical impact given the prevalence of off-plan construction.
Building is also permitted on plots “formed” prior to 1985 for which pre-approvals, building licences or revisions thereto have been granted or sold during the last five years, and the notarial deed certifies that they are complete and buildable. In these circumstances, almost no additional criterion (other than soundness) is necessary.
