December 9, 2018 - A special police team working with the Special State Prosecutor's Office has asked the Kotor Municipality to submit the complete documentation regarding the procedures of local government in connection with the issuance of building permits for investors, the company "A-Y Montenegro" from Kotor.
"Dragan Radonjić, leader of the team as per the instructions by SDT on November 15th, requested from the Municipality of Kotor insight into the complete documentation and files of the cases related to the administrative procedure in relation to the application for issuing construction permits to the company “A-Y Montenegro”. "From this, I assume that this investor filed a criminal complaint against me to SDT because these permits have not been issued to them till today," said the Mayor of Kotor Vladimir Jokić (Democrats).
"AY Montenegro" submitted in September or November 2016 a total of eight requests to the Kotor municipality for the issuance of construction permits on the plots owned by that company in Kostanjica, and requested the approval to construct as many as thirty new residential tourist and auxiliary facilities, a total area of almost 8,700 square meters. They asked for this, referring to the controversial, amended DUP Kostanjica from 2009, which on the then untouched area from the Turkish cap to Kostanjica, is registered dozen of new objects of "tourist purpose". This DUP was brought to the time when Kotor was the ruled by the local DPS-SDP authority for the mandate of Mayor Marija Ćatović.
Boka Kotorska – photo Boka News 2018.
In 2009, the Regional Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments gave a negative opinion on the proposal of amendments to the DUP Kostanjica, but the opinion, however, was expressed after the deadline of 15 days of how long the institutions have to send their approval on the proposed planning document. Therefore, the Municipality of Kotor, managed by Ćatović at that time, adopted DUP Kostanjica, formally declaring that the Institute did not pronounce its opinion within the deadline, which is considered to be a tacit consent. In the meantime, according to this planning document, several tens of thousands of square meters of housing facilities in Kostanjica have already been built, which has already destroyed the image on the islands of Our Lady of the Rocks and St. George from Perast. UNESCO warned that further construction in this area would certainly jeopardize the survival of Kotor in the list of protected sites of the world's natural and cultural heritage under the UNESCO patronage.
Kotor – photo Boka News
The current ruling coalition made by the Democrats-DF-URA-SDP, with the parliamentary support of the SNP, was put in an unenviable position because the government allegedly trying to keep Kotor on the UNESCO list, and a year ago introduced a moratorium on a new construction in Kotor Bay, but simultaneously, through the mouth of Minister of Sustainable Development and Tourism Pavle Radulovic (DPS), told the local authorities to "act by law" and issue all the building permits for which the requests were submitted before the entry into force of the moratorium. Among them are the demands for some very controversial projects that, according to the UNESCO expert's viewpoint, could jeopardize the status of Kotor as natural and cultural heritage, especially in the area of Kostanjica, Dobrota, and Glavati.
"The purpose of all this with the SDT is now to put pressure on me to issue these building permits to this investor," Jokic said, reminding that in the meantime, Minister Radulovic recommended Jokic in several public appearances "that these permissions should be rejected", and such opinion was signed even publicly in front of RTCG cameras by the then director of the Directorate for the Protection of Cultural Property Anastazija Miranovic, when the Mayor of Kotor offered it to her.
None of the leaders of the state, except Radulovic who officially said that he "acted according to the law," did not respond to the letter of the mayor Vladimir Jokic, who in December 2017, from Prime Minister Dusko Markovic, the president of the Assembly, Ivan Brajovic, the then president of the state, Filip Vujanovic, and several other competent state institutions, demanded that the state takes a stand on the issue of further construction on the locations identified as critical ones by UNESCO, including Kostanjica. The government also ignored the invitation to the Council for the Management of the Natural and Cultural-Historical District of Kotor, which in January asked the Government to urgently, at its next session, to take a position what the Municipality of Kotor should do regarding the application for issuing construction permits for the new mammoth construction in the area of Kostanjica. The same request to the Government in March was also unsuccessful, sent by SO Kotor. The approval of such construction would definitely bring Kotor out of the list of protected heritage, which would have unreasonable negative consequences for both the town of Kotor and the state of Montenegro.
Vladimir Jokić – photo Boka News
"We are asking the state and all competent institutions to get involved in resolving the issue of Kostanjica. This is not a question of today's coalition government in Kotor, nor the authorities that will come tomorrow. This is the issue of preserving the space that we have to keep, this is the issue of preserving Kotor on the UNESCO list. The "permanent silence" of the state is astounding. I think it is time that we in this town finally get an answer to the question of whether the state of Montenegro intends to preserve the status of Kotor on the UNESCO list or not. Both of them are legitimate, but we need to know where we are "- mayor Jokic said at a session of the SO in March this year. He called on the state to "stand by its authority and power" on behalf of the town.
"What I assure you is that even if the state remains silent if the legal procedure does not change drastically, the Municipality of Kotor, while I am at its head and while this team is in the local executive power, will not allow such a devastation of space. We will not allow someone to mock at what has remained in the heritage of this generation to be protected," Jokic concluded.
Gospa od Škrpjela (Lady of the Rocks) and Kostanjica March 2018.
The 'fruits' of his decision to not allow the further continuation of the destruction of Kostanjica, and to preserve Kotor for UNESCO, Jokic brought in front of SDT led by Milivoje Katnic, who sent a special police team to Kotor to inspect all the documents regarding the requests by the company “A-Y Montenegro”. In the meantime, this company appealed first to the Chief Administrator of the Municipality, and then to the Administrative Court, which ordered the Municipality to "decide upon the request" for building permits. Since the permits have not been received even to this day, "A-Y Montenegro" has addressed Katnić.
Text by S.L., on December 8th, 2018, read more at Boka news
