NGOs win the day in legal battle over Bucharest's mini-Versailles Gardens

The Bucharest Tribunal has suspended the building permit issued by Bucharest general mayor, Gabriela Firea, for the construction of a four-storey compound on the green space at 45 Kiseleff Blvd., an area known as the Bucharest "Versailles Gardens", independent deputy Nicusor Dan, who is also running for city mayor, announced on Friday. In a press briefing near the location, where the construction works have already begun, Nicusor Dan said that this is the 166th urbanism, construction, environmental or heritage protection lawsuit won by the Save Bucharest Association. On the respective land plot sit two interwar buildings dating from 1920 - 1930, and a miniature copy of the Gardens of Versailles. The building permit for three apartment blocks has been issued in 2017 by mayor Firea, although the land was classified as green space in the urban city plan for protected areas, said Nicusor Dan. The ruling of the Bucharest Tribunal was handed down in response to the action taken by the Save Bucharest Association and the Eco Civica Foundation; the December 30 ruling may be appealed, but it is enforceable, so that the holders of the permit must halt the works. Nicusor Dan mentioned that the owner of the land plot is real estate retrocession lawyer Lucia Chereches. "In 2017, when the permit was issued, the project was already subject to two ongoing lawsuits, one over the Detailed Urban Plan, the other for the environmental approval. The Mayor's Office was perfectly in the know about the permit's legality issues, therefore issuing the permit was an absolutely heedless act," said Nicusor Dan. President of the Save Bucharest Association, Oana Poenaru, said that the main reasons why the permit is illegal are its being based on an illegal Detailed Urban Plan (adopted in 2014), on an illegal decision of the Environmental Protection Agency, that it provided for the destruction of a green space with "an important aesthetic function", and the absence of an opinion of the Ministry of Culture and of the Sector 1 Mayor's Office. "Apart from this lawsuit where we obtained the suspension of the permit, we have another one under way, in which we request the cancellation of the building permit and the restoration of the land plot to the initial condition," Poenaru added. Vice-president of the Eco-Civica Foundation, Dan Trifu, said that the real estate project is in breach of Art. 78 of OUG 195/2005, which prohibits the change of the destination of green spaces, complemented by Law No. 24/2007. "This land plot stands under double protection, both under environmental and historical monuments law. As such, we are dealing with a crime here, because removing the vegetation from land arranged or intended as green space is covered by the Forest Code, as vegetation outside the forest fund. So this is a criminal offence under both the law on the protection of monuments, and the Forest Code, which prohibits taking down or breaking shoots or trees in urban areas intended as green spaces. Under the Forest Code such deeds are liable to six months to four years in prison. (...) The owners displayed a brazen attitude, because when the Local Police fined them in response to a complaint filed by the Eco-Civica Foundation, they said: 'Had we known the fine is so small, we would have cut them down long ago," said Dan Trifu. AGERPRES (RO - author: Irinela Visan, editor: Catalin Alexandru; EN - author/editor: Simona Klodnischi)