The Ministry of Environment and Energy is preparing new regulations which will put a “brake” on the issuance of building permits in the caldera of Santorini and will allow the conversion of existing buildings into hotels in the historic center of Athens and in other areas of the Attica Region which are protected with special Presidential Decrees.
These will also include a “cutter” in the derogations currently in force for the construction of tourist facilities in non-plan areas of the country, as well as provisions for the suspension and exemption from the demolition of arbitrary public buildings located on the seafront.
Suspension of construction in the Caldera of Santorini
The bill which is being prepared by the political leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is expected to be submitted for public consultation in the next period (probably at the beginning of September), will also include a provision for a new suspension of the issuance of building permits in the Caldera area of Santorini.
More specifically, until the approval of the Special Town Planning Plan for the island, which is currently being prepared and is expected to be completed by the end of December 2025, the issuance of building permits for new buildings as well as the expansion of existing buildings and swimming pools will be suspended. It is noteworthy that a suspension (based on extensions) in the issuance of building permits, but in the non-planned areas of Thira, applies from 2020.
The suspension of construction activity on the island is also a request of the Trade and Professional Association of Thira, which for a long time has been asking that not a new bed, nor a new building be erected until the issuance of the new PES, at the same time requesting the implementation of a study on the carrying capacity of the tourist businesses, so as to put a brake on their anarchic development.
In addition, for the owners of all existing tourist infrastructure (hotels and other tourist accommodation) and shops of health interest (restaurants, cafes, bars, etc.) in Thira, the Ministry of the Interior will stipulate the obligation to prepare a static adequacy study by the end of 2025. Otherwise they will lose their license to operate.
It is noteworthy that, for a long time, scientists have sounded the alarm about the safety of the infrastructure on the island as due to overbuilding, the subsoil now looks like … hollow earth. “Vima” had done an extensive report on the matter already in 2012.
At the same time, the political leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is expected to set narrow margins, probably until the end of 2024, to the Building Service of the region for the control of all the building permits that have been issued in the last five years in Santorini and in particular in the Caldera area.
By way of exception, hotel use in buildings in Attica
Especially in the area of competence of the regulatory plan of Attica, i.e. throughout the Region, including the municipalities of Aegina, Troizinia, Kythira, Agistrio, Salamina, Spetses, Hydra and Poros, as reported by officials of the Ministry of the Interior, it is expected that regulation will be promoted that will allow, according deviation, the use of a hotel in legally existing buildings, without giving the possibility of changing the outline of the building and its volume.
The possibility will be given to areas whose uses are regulated by special protection decrees, as for example happens in the Historical Center of Athens. For the change of use, a decision of the Minister of Environment and Energy will be required, after an opinion of the Central Council for Urban Planning Issues and Disputes (KESYPOTHA), and under the following conditions:
- the buildings should fall into building blocks in which mixed uses have been determined by urban planning, excluding exclusive residential blocks. Previous regulation of 2014 concerned buildings that faced streets or boulevards in which mixed uses have been determined by urban planning.
- the buildings face a street, boulevard, square and generally public and non-buildable space, on the opposite side of which the use of tourist accommodation is permitted by the urban planning or there is a public green space. It will even concern buildings that have a face in a common and non-buildable space, within the special protection decrees that touch the boundaries of the specific buildings. Today, it is allowed to change the use of a building into a hotel when on the opposite side of the street or avenue, the use of a hotel is permitted by urban planning.
Constitutional issues
In any case, as legal circles report to the “Economic Post”, the legislator should, before promoting this regulation, take into account the relevant jurisprudence of the Council of State (StE). The supreme judges of the Eth Division of the Supreme Court of Cassation of the country, in their decision 2460 of 2022, had raised issues of unconstitutionality when examining a case of changing the use of an office building in the area of Agia Irini Square, within the Historical Center of Athens, to a three-star hotel. The building is located at a distance of approximately 250 m from the boundary of the archaeological site of the Acropolis and is approximately 600 meters, in a straight line, from the northern slope of the Acropolis.
In particular, the supreme judges referring to article 24 (par. 1 and 6) of the Constitution which establishes the increased protection of the natural and cultural environment, the existing Greek legislation and also the jurisprudence of the CoE point out, among other things, that “the construction activity and the installation and operation of commercial businesses, such as tourist businesses, near ancient monuments or archaeological sites that are World Cultural Heritage monuments, such as the Acropolis, is permitted after approval by the Minister of Culture, which is issued after the opinion of the Central Archaeological Council”.
“Cutter” in deviations outside the building plan for hotels
Regarding the minimum completeness in areas outside the plan for the construction of tourist accommodation, special tourist infrastructure facilities and other tourist businesses, the intention of the political leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to “lock” the minimum area that the plots intended for the construction of hotel infrastructure must have so that they are buildable on the eight acres.
That is, as the official of the ministry stated in the “Economic Post”, they intend to abolish the possibility currently given by law 4759/2020 (article 34, paragraph 1) for the construction of tourist infrastructures on smaller plots of four hectares outside the plan for the construction of hotel accommodation, as long as they meet energy, environmental or urban planning criteria (defined by decision of the Minister of the Environment). It is noteworthy to point out that the restrictions on off-plan building do not apply to strategic investments on private or public real estate, that is, to ESCHASE and ESCHADA (Special Spatial Development Plans for Strategic Investments and Public Real Estate respectively).
Exemption from the demolition of public structures on the seafront
For real estate owned by the State (over 50%) and managed by the State Real Estate Company (ETAD) or public enterprises in which the State owns the whole or more than 51%, as well as for real estate that is or will be come into the ownership of ETAD, regulation will be provided for the legalization of any arbitrary parts thereof. In the event that a part of a public building is located within a seafront and an old seafront, it may be subject to the provisions of suspension and exemption from demolition by paying the fee corresponding to its surface area and the uniform special fine for unauthorized persons. A condition will be the positive opinion of the Central Council of Urban Planning Issues and Disputes regarding the technical impossibility of its demolition, based on a special engineer’s report.
Source: ot.gr
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