The Metropolitan City Hall unblocked the development of the new General Urban Plan, which had been blocked since 2014. Mayor-General Nikushor Dan announced on Tuesday that he had signed an additional act allowing the resumption of work. The first version of the new PUG will be ready by the end of 2023, and approval will begin in 2024, and it will be approved, promises Genmer.

“As you know, in 2013, the capital’s mayor’s office signed an agreement with a consortium led by the University of Architecture on finalizing the city’s General Plan. Unfortunately, in 2014, the implementation of this contract was blocked, there was intense correspondence, the Court of Accounts also came, it was a legal situation that seemed to have no way out. We managed to unblock this situation and at the end of 2022 we signed an additional act to update the PUG so that we can start operations in January 2023,” said Nikushor Dan during a press conference.

The additional act stipulates that this consortium, led by the University of Architecture, will produce the first version of the new General Urban Planning Plan during 2023, so the deadline for delivery is December 2023, the mayor-general said.

“From 2024, this documentation will go for approval. We want this process to be as quick as possible, so that we have the appropriate legal document as soon as possible,” said the mayor.

According to the contract signed between the city hall and the University of Architecture and Urbanism in 2013, Bucharest was supposed to receive a new urban master plan in 2016.

In recent years, designers have said that the municipality cannot provide all the data necessary for the development of documentation, since the signing of the contract, 4 mayors have changed.

Currently, Bucharest is being built according to the General Urban Planning Plan approved in 2000, i.e. more than 20 years ago.

In the absence of a new PUG, the sectoral town halls have initiated coordination urban plans that regulate each sector separately and in which each town hall has established its own rules. They were approved in 2018-2020, but they had big problems, they allowed the concreting of hundreds of hectares of green spaces, blocks between houses and densification of many separate areas. PUZs were suspended by the court, and some were canceled. For sectors 3, 5 and 6 were cancelled. There are cancellation processes for sectors 2 and 4.

In addition to this situation, we remind you that in June 2022 the Bucharest Court annulled the General Urban Plan of the capital from 2000 and on the basis of which it was built during the last 20 years, on the grounds that it was approved illegally. The decision has been appealed, the trial is ongoing.

What does the cancellation of MOPS mean? Nothing at the moment, because the court decision does not indicate that the document is also suspended. In the event of its final cancellation, construction permits in the city center will be granted on the basis of the zoning code of the protected building, approved separately by the PUG. The legislator also provides that permits can be granted on the basis of the approved RUs and some newly developed RUs. Otherwise, nothing can be allowed directly, Dumitru Dobrev’s lawyer explained to HotNews.ro.

The final repeal of the pUG, if it happens, will mean the repeal of the existing building regulations. From the city’s perspective, this has both good and bad sides. For example, several towers were placed in PUG in the central part of the city. Some were built, some were not. This means that where they were not built, they can no longer be built. It also means that a few greens lose the protection afforded by the PUG, while others will be protected, for example, if the PUG approved in 2000 allowed concreting of certain greens. We will be back with analysis.

The general urban planning plan was approved by Decision 269/2000 and was valid for 10 years, i.e. until 2010. By this time, a new PUG should have been made, but it is not ready even today, the PUG of 2000 was extended by several decisions of the General Council.