June 27, 2019 - The Municipality of Tivat addressed Prime Minister Duško Marković with the request to take measures to deter certain parts of the coast of Tivat as a public good, withholding them from leasing through the Sea Property and remaining on the management of the city, of which they are a crucial part.
It is the town's waterfront Pine, the town port of Kalimanj and the largest Tivat public beach of Ponta Seljanova. About ten days ago, the Sea Property leased the town's harbor and the Pine promenade over a public bid to a private company for 58,380 euros a year, which led Tivat's local company to lose the right to manage the town's row. Tivat became a rare example of a city on the Adriatic that lost its waterfront and the city dock. Ponta Seljanova has also recently been leased to companies settled on Russian capital, and there is also a relative danger that something similar would happen to Tivat's city port of Kalimanj, which is about to be launched via public bid for the choice of a tenant of the port of local importance in the state ownership.
"Certain localities in the territory of our municipality are of great importance to Tivat and are located in the area of the Sea Property. We are addressing the request and the desire to protect them in such a way that they are not subject to any leasehold practices followed by public tendering procedures," says a letter Tivat Mayor, Sinisa Kusovac sent to the Prime Minister Duško Marković a few days ago.
In the correspondence prepared by Tivat's Secretary for Sustainable Development and Planning Tamara Furtula and the municipal manager, Marko Petričević, Pine, Ponta Seljanova and Kalimanj are located on the shores of particular public interest for Tivat.
The municipality has indicated in the letter to Markovic that the shore of Pine, which Sea Property signed the lease contract for five years with a new leaseholder, entrepreneur Pavle Mićunović, is "the heart of the city" and "the most important location in our town." They have reminded that the local administration has been demanding that for years to come to the coast of the center of Tivat on the move from the building of the Port of Captain from Pine to Belane.
"Riva Pine, the most vulnerable location in our town, according to the plan - the promenade of the Lungo Mare has recently been reconstructed by the project solution obtained through the competition, and any interventions opposed to the project are not desirable. In light of the fact, it is the center of the city with well-kept city baths and a seafront promenade. In previous years, our Utility Company concluded a contract on the use of the sea property to manage the pier at the location of Pine and managed in the best possible way this part of the coast that was available to all, primarily to Tivat citizens, respecting the terms of the contract. The "Jadran" was berthed here as a recognizable decoration of Pine," reads the letter to Markovic who was informed by the Tivat Municipalities that the private person "offered an unrealistically high price for the lease of Pine," which caused the Commune to lose bids in the Sea Property.
"Now the connection of the "Jadran" ship to this location is under the sign of the question, as well as the interests of the citizens of Tivat. In the tourist offer of the city, all the art and cultural events took place at the location of Pine, which is now also questionable." The Tivat Mayor reminded the prime minister of one of the principles of the recently adopted Spatial Plan of Special Purpose for the Coastal Area, saying that it is the necessary respect for traditions and acquired rights.
"There is also a public good in the coastal area, along the shore of the public interest, which has the significance and character of communal property - a space that is entirely in the service of the local community and has a general nature. Such areas can be excluded from the sea property area, and this applies to city parks along the coast, city walkways, which at the same time have the function of accessing the beach and the sea," quotes the memo of this principle from the Spatial Plan of Special Purpose for the Coastal Area.
Tivat's ousters now demanded from Prime Minister Markovic "to recognize the public interest of the citizens of Tivat" and to help them "protect it."
"Please take the necessary steps to keep these essential localities (Pine, Kalimanj and Ponta Seljanova) in the service of the local noise and keep the public character," concludes Kusovac's speech to the Prime Minister.
To the problem of gradual privatization and excessive commercialization of the almost complete Tivat coast, otherwise, for years in that city warned the opposition, and the local DPS-SD-HGI authority so far has dismissed such objections and pleaded with the city's lack of expertise in planning and using its seashore. The right to self through the centralist laws was invoked exclusively by the state. Tivat's DPS and HGI, which have their representatives among the deputies in the Criminal Defense Department of Montenegro and ministers in the Government, have so far failed to advertise and try to prevent fundamental executive forces from giving critical local resources such as Pine, Ponte Seljanova and Kalimanj to the Sea Property tenders.
Interestingly, though they sent a letter to the prime minister on 19 June asking for the Government to suspend the leasing of three key locations on the Tivat coast, DPS Tivat did not want to accept the request of coalition partners from the SD a day earlier, to discuss the problem of privatization of the city waterfront at a local parliament session.
