The time for reform in Urban Planning Services has arrived. “Just as gov.gr doesn’t ask who you are to serve you, Urban Planning Services will function properly tomorrow!“, Kyriakos Mitsotakis emphasized in his latest speech to the New Democracy Parliamentary Group.
Everything changes in urban planning services: Government plan for modern and transparent procedures
For some time now, the government has been planning a radical change regarding Building Services (YDOM), aiming to better serve citizens and businesses, while restoring order and transparency. The transfer of YDOM to the Hellenic Cadastre, creating a unified organization for real estate and construction, with municipalities retaining part of their responsibilities (e.g., street planning and urban planning), will be presented tomorrow, Thursday, with details by the Minister of Environment and Energy, Stavros Papastavrou, during the Cabinet meeting.
“Let me make a special reference to local building services. They receive low grades. This particularly concerns us. They receive even lower grades where there are, obviously, indications and now evidence of illegal licensing by local networks“, Kyriakos Mitsotakis recently emphasized in his speech during the presentation of public service evaluation results by citizens and internal evaluation of public employees. “However, a drastic intervention is expected from the government and the relevant ministry regarding how building permits are now issued. I believe this system has reached its limits and must be reformed in a much more drastic way“, the prime minister added in that intervention.
Goal is the creation of a unified digital archive
Alongside the reform to be detailed tomorrow, the government’s goal is to accelerate and improve digitization, enabling citizens and entrepreneurs to complete the entire required process electronically. The project, with a budget of 160 million euros, involves 3.5 million files (over 80 million pages and drawings) from urban planning services and aims to create a unified digital archive, immediately accessible to engineers, citizens and administrative authorities. Through digitization, citizens will be able to search for permits and urban planning documents without physical presence, while engineers will be served immediately for transfers or unauthorized construction declarations. The platform will be interconnected with the Cadastre and e-Permits, paving the way for complete electronic service.
Already last April, a few weeks after taking office, Mr. Papastavrou, in his interview with “Parapolitika“, stated that “the 2010 law, which transferred Urban Planning Services to municipalities, objectively did not bring the desired results either in terms of transparency, subsidiarity -decisions to be made close to the citizen-, or effectiveness“.
He revealed that the relevant redesign was already underway: “We are planning, together with co-responsible ministries, initiatives that will enhance transparency, restore Urban Planning’s credibility with citizens, and achieve social cohesion. We are examining possible remedial solutions – the government is already intervening with strictness when pockets of lawlessness are detected to suppress them“, were Mr. Papastavrou’s characteristic words.
Even before the corruption phenomena that emerged in the past year (such as the network for issuing illegal construction works and permits in urban planning services in Halkidiki, the scandal with Rhodes urban planning service, etc.), but also before citizens’ negative evaluation, the problem with urban planning services had been highlighted many times by the Ombudsman. In a report months ago, he pointed out major delays in handling urban planning cases, a large number of pending cases and understaffing of services. He emphasized that the administrative support model for municipalities lacking building services did not function effectively, due to minimal staffing of metropolitan municipalities called to support them, resulting in “extreme maladministration problems, constituting violations of the principles of Legality and Good Administration“.
