For more than 2 years, work has been stopped on the 9th floor on Vasyl Laskar Street. The building has reached the 7th floor. The building permit was issued in March 2019 by the Firea administration, and the beneficiary, according to the site board, is Ciuclea Georgescu Dumitru, son-in-law of Supercom boss Ilie Ciuclea, former PSD senator, then UNPR vice president.

Planning permission for the block has sparked much controversy, with neighbors outraged at how permission was granted for a block of such height between old heritage houses and within meters of their windows. Why was the construction site abandoned? Neighbors and two heritage organizations put the building permit on hold, eventually getting it overturned late last year. The process of demolishing the building has begun.

The process of revoking the building permit was filed by two NGOs, Salvați Bucurestiul and the Association for Integrated Conservation of Natural and Cultural Heritage, in 2020. The process was lost in court in March 2021, but on appeal the court ruled in favor of the two NGOs and revoked the permit.

“Partially satisfies the summons request. Cancel building permit No. 174/1714471/28.03.2019, issued by the Mayor of Bucharest. Denies the remainder of the subpoena. Final”, this was the sentence handed down by the Bucharest Court of Appeal on 12/21/2022.

Earlier, in September 2020, also at the request of two NGOs, the court suspended the construction permit, but the works would continue until the city hall stopped them in January 2021, as announced by the general mayor Nikushor. Dan, at that time.

At the same time, neighbors affected by the mastodon, which takes away their light, also applied to the court to cancel the building permit, but their process was suspended pending the consideration of the legal process initiated by the association Lex Civica, One Modrogan and the Association for Urban Law to cancel the decision. of the General Council, which protects the old districts of Bucharest with historical buildings and does not allow the construction of blocks between them.

Why did the appellate court cancel the construction permit? Speaking to HotNews.ro, General Mayor Nikushor Dan says there are several illegal ones.

• “In 2000, the PUZ – protective zones were approved, then the PUZ of sector 2 was approved in 2003. Although it was explicitly written in the PUZ sector 2 that the provisions of the protected zones of the PUZ enter the protected areas by abuse. , City Hall Sector 2, in those years, granted a PUD in 2007 and a building permit in 2008 for a 9-storey block, on this land, based on the provisions of the Sector 2 PUZ.
• The permit was granted until 2009, then the permit for protected areas was transferred to the capital city hall. This permission was not fulfilled.
• This is a provision of the law that says that if the conditions do not change, a permit with the same content can be granted. And on the basis of this article, in 2019, the Firea administration gave a construction permit for this land of the same content as the one that the City Hall gave to Sector 2 in 2008,” Nikushor Dan explained.

However, the Court of Appeal found that building legislation had changed radically between 2008 and 2019, and building permits could no longer be issued in the same way, says Nikushor Dan.

• “When they initiated the legal process in 2020, two associations (no. Save Bucharest and Association for the Integrated Conservation of Natural and Cultural Heritage) submitted a request in which they asked the court to recognize that we are not in the hypothesis of the law that they have changed the conditions and a permit of the same content cannot be granted, but in the alternative, the 2007 PUD and the 2008 permit are revoked and the 2019 permit is based thereon.
• They also demanded the cancellation of illegal construction. They lost in court, a very controversial provision of the law was used that said a design document cannot be attacked after 5 years, so the PUD would have been legally approved, as would the permit. But they won the appeal.
• The Court of Appeals said that we do not reach the hypothesis relied on by the reauthorization because the conditions have changed, first of all, there is an Act 50 restriction that says you are not allowed to give a CUT above 4 except through a PUG, and then you have a permit from 2008 for nothing, because there is this legislative change, and the permits must comply with the new national regulations.
• Then the PUD that granted the permit in 2019 expired. And it is normal that the Court of Appeal decided, because otherwise we could revive the permits of the 20s and 40s. But the court did not make a decision to demolish the building, I don’t know why,” Nikushor Dan explained.

What will happen to the block on Vasyl Laskar

Currently unknown. The block has already reached the 7th floor out of 9 authorized ones. For some time, no work is being carried out on the construction site, and the court will decide whether the building will stand or not.

In connection with HotNews.ro, Mayor General Nikushor Dan said that after the cancellation of the construction permit, since the court did not issue a demolition order, a new demolition process should be started.

How a mastodon appeared on Vasyl Laskar

The capital city hall, led by Gabriela Firea, allowed the construction of a 9-story block on Vasile Laskar Street in the center of the capital among buildings that are over 100 years old. The street is a conservation area with several historic landmark buildings and the tallest building around has a maximum of 4 floors. Work began in 2020, then HotNews.ro wrote about it.

How could such a height be allowed in a protected area?

The City Hall of the capital, headed by Gabriela Firea at the time, replied to us that the building had been re-permitted, with the first permit being granted by the Sector 2 City Hall in 2008, during the tenure of Neculai Ontsanu, and that the law would have allowed it.

• “For the building on Vasile Laskar Street No. 73-75, sector 2, construction permit No. 174/2 Construction permit No. 174/28.03.2019 was issued in accordance with Art. 7 p. (5^2), p. 3 of Art. IV of the EXTRAORDINARY RESOLUTION No. 7 of March 16, 2016, published in the OFFICIAL GAZETTE No. 204 dated 18.03.2016: “Failure to start or complete work within the established time limits leads to the loss of validity of the permit, as it is necessary to issue a new construction permit.
• In a situation where the characteristics do not change compared to the initial permit, it will be possible to issue a new construction permit without the need for a new urban planning certificate,” reads the response sent by the Metropolitan Municipality to HotNews.ro. request, in January 2020.

The capital’s mayor’s office said that the construction permit was issued legally.

• “The technical documentation, which was the basis for granting a permit to perform construction works, complies with the provisions of the legislation in force on the date of issuance of the construction permit. It should be noted that the designer and the beneficiary are responsible for the reliability and truthfulness of the data and documents contained in the documentation, which is the basis for issuing a construction permit.
• The authority that issues the permit is not responsible for any further damages caused by the existence at the time of issuance of the document of legal proceedings in the courts regarding the building (land and/or buildings), for which the applicant is responsible, in accordance with the provisions of Art. 7, par. (9) from Law No. 50/1991 on building permits, reissued with the following changes and additions.
• Therefore, construction permit no. 174/28.03.2019 issued by the Mayor’s Office of the Municipality of Bucharest on the basis of and in accordance with the provisions of the current legislation,” reads the response sent by the Mayor’s Office to the request of HotNews.ro at the address time.

Nikushor Dan, then deputy and vice-president of the “Save Bucharest” Association, stated that the construction permit was issued illegally.

“The mayor of Sector 2 gave an illegal permit in 2008, which the beneficiary did not implement. He came to the general chairman in 2019 and asked to issue a permit identical to the one in 2008. Genmer had a duty to check whether the 2008 permit complied with the law. It is absurd to interpret that he was obliged to issue a copy-paste permit with the one from 2008. According to Art. 1 paragraph (6) of Law 554/2004, if the authority discovers that it has itself issued an illegal act that it cannot cancel, it must go to court to demand its cancellation,” Nikušor Dan explained to HotNews.ro since January of 2020.

The City Hall of Sector 2 allowed the construction of a 9-story block (S+D+P+8E+E9etras) on Vasyl Laskar Street no. 73-75 of May 22, 2008, the beneficiary is Ciuclea Georgescu Dumitru.

On March 28, 2019, the capital city hall renewed the construction permit.

The plot on which the 9-story block is being built is part of the protected territory of Vasyl Laskar. According to the provision on the website of the capital’s mayor’s office, the territory has the maximum level of protection: “architectural and urban planning, historical and natural values ​​are protected in full: street injuries, built environment, character and urban significance; interventions that preserve and enhance existing values ​​are allowed.”

The interventions allowed by the regulation are: the preservation of valuable buildings and existing created spaces, the restructuring of some areas to enhance continuity along the entire route, the acceptance of the difference in height by means of connecting formulas and the prohibition of violations of scale/gauge.