His decisions Ministry of the Environment for the major, as it happened, the issue of the maximum height of buildings, he decided to wait Municipality of Athens. However, the municipality’s building department has now stopped accepting applications for building permits for taller buildings – based on the new building legislation – to avoid the possibility of an appeal. On the contrary, to its subject Hotel Cocomat in Makrigianni the municipality will act immediately, starting next week the process of registering the upper floors as unauthorized.

The municipality is not so much concerned about the decision of the State Council regarding the hotel in question, but that its arguments are repeated in the recent decisions of the Athens Court of Appeal regarding two apartment buildings in Ampelokipi that were discovered. by “K”. In particular, the Court of Appeal directly referred to the decision of the SC, noting that the royal decree of 1955, defining the conditions for development throughout Athens (specifically by sector), was still in force, and therefore the (general) provisions of the new one could not apply building codes for construction of a higher building.

Waiting for instructions

The Construction Service of the Municipality of Athens a few days ago unofficially stopped processing requests for building permits, which used the bonus of the new building regulation in terms of height and additional square meters. According to the information, during the discussions held in the previous period in the municipality, it was decided to maintain this position for a few more days, pending the intervention of the Ministry of the Environment and the provision of instructions. It should be noted that a month ago, the Deputy Minister of Planning, Nikos Tagaras, issued a decree in which he indicated that the specified provisions of the NOC apply everywhere, with the exception of some special cases (traditional settlements or parts of the city, etc.). .). However, the decision of the Court of Appeal is the opposite, and a number of municipalities express their intention to “conflict” with the state on this issue. Characteristically, the municipality of Filothei-Psychiko, as K found out, by a decision of the municipal council prohibited the issuance of permits against NOK even in Neo Psychiko, which is not regulated by the same urban regime as Filothei and Psychiko. (which were built as garden cities).

Instead, the municipality of Athens decided to act quickly – after avoiding the issue for two years – on the Cocomat case. The decision of the Council of Europe Compliance Council, promulgated by “K”, gave the municipality a period of 3 months to proceed with declaring part of the building unauthorized and proceed with its demolition. The municipal building service is to perform an autopsy next week and send an abuse report to the Decentralized Administration for demolition. However, sources in the Decentralized Administration note that the first person responsible for the demolition of urban violations, according to the law, is their owner himself. If the demolition is carried out by a Decentralized, then its cost must be passed on to the owner of the freehold.