In the State Gazette, issue 13 of 7 February 2017, the Act for Amendment and Supplement to the Spatial Development Act (SDA/Act) was published. The amendments attempt to alleviate the administrative burdens in investment design and construction and address the main problem areas hindering investment growth. At the same time, the legislator expects the novelties to increase the responsibility of the municipal administrations and the administrative control over their activities, as well as the role of the non-governmental sector in the face of design industry organisations of architects and engineers and consultants.

Important highlights of the amendments to the Spatial Development Act:

• In relation to the requirement to provide visibility and accessibility to acts issued by the Minister of Regional Development and public works and by regional governors, as well as to the approved by them zoning plans, Art. 3 and 4 introduce a requirement the respective administrations to maintain public registers and to publish the approved zoning plan projects on their websites;

• The elaborated zoning plan project shall be announced by the municipality to stakeholders with a notice which shall be sent for promulgation in the State Gazette in 10 days of the receipt of the project in the municipal administration;

• In order to prevent overbuilding under the new regulations construction on restituted land shall be permissible only if the property is large enough and meets the requirements for distance from neighbouring objects. If this is impossible, part of the property shall receive the status of green space;

• A limit of the height of the fences in the residential complexes, resorts and villages is introduced;

• Land property could be divided into two or more newly regulated properties upon the owners’ request;

• Land plots that do not meet the requirements for minimum size of face and surface according to the development zone in which they fall, might be combined into one or more new regulated properties owned by the same persons;

• A new paragraph to Art. 84 is introduced according to which all owners of built real estate shall be obliged to join the constructed water supply and sewerage networks at their expenses;

• The construction permit loses its legal action when the construction has not begun for three years after its entry into force and the rough construction has not been completed in five years from the commencement of the construction works;

• Chief architects shall now coordinate Investment projects only and exclusively for compliance with the approved detailed zoning plan, the zoning indicators and positioning of the construction in the property. This means that refusals and returns of documentation due to all sorts of other reasons shall be eradicated;

• In case of an issued construction permit at phase “Preliminary design”, the next phases are not considered as changes during the construction, if the urban planning indicators and dimensions of the building are preserved. In practice, an order under Art. 154 shall no longer be issued and it shall not be announced in the Directorate for national Construction Control, which shortens the timeframe with at least 21 days;

• On the other hand, in case of change during the construction, the chief architects shall coordinate the filed investment projects solely for their compliance with the detailed zoning plan in effect, the zoning indicators and positioning of the construction;

• The construction permit shall obligatory be issued within 14 days in case of a compliance report and within 30 days in case of an evaluation by an expert council. A fine of 3000 to 15,000 BGN for the chief architect is introduced in case of delay;

• The volume of the project documentation is reduced as the “Safety and Health Plan” and “Construction Waste Management Plan” drop out from the requirements for issuing of a construction permit. They become Builder’s responsibility, as the latter shall assign these projects according to the available technical equipment;

• A new important condition for control of the legality and quality of the execution is the opening of the construction site and the defining of the construction line to be done only upon submission of authorship supervision contract in all specialties;

• The architect’s name shall now be written on the information sign of each construction site, and thus departing from the “comfortable anonymity” in problematic constructions;

• The definition “Leading designer” and the related proprietary sanction to the amount of 30 000 BGN drop out of the amended SDA. The coordination shall now be done as before – by each specialty, as it is expected this to be soon implemented electronically;

• The first step towards full digitalisation of the submission and archiving of investment projects is one of its copies to be kept electronically. The type and manner of authorization of the files shall be determined by an additional statutory provision.

Existing situations:

• The already started proceedings for elaboration and approval of zoning plans and their amendments before the entry into force of this Act shall be completed under this Act;

• The already started proceedings for approval of investment projects and issuing of construction permits before the entry into force of this Act shall be completed under the existing procedure;

• The already started expropriation proceedings upon which it has been issued an expropriation act before the entry into force of this Act shall be completed under this Act;

• Pending legal proceedings under Art. 215, para. 7 shall be completed under this Act;

• The secondary legislation under Art. 139, para. 5 and Art. 177, para. 2 shall comply with this Act within 6 months from its entry into force;

• Pending the entry into force of the amendment of the regulation under Art. 139, para. 5, the existing procedure applies.

The amendments and supplements enter into force on 13 February 2017.