Zagreb - Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets Minister Branko Bačić told Parliament on Wednesday there would be no affordable housing projects without the approval of local representative bodies, rejecting opposition claims that the government's bills sidestep local authorities.
"There is no urban planning project without local government, no affordable housing without spatial plans, representative bodies or local housing programmes. There is no bypassing of local authorities here. If someone proves otherwise, I'll withdraw the bill," Bačić said as he presented bills on construction, spatial planning and energy efficiency in buildings.
The minister said the construction bill protects the coastal zone and warned that withdrawing it, as demanded by the opposition, would open the way for widespread subdivision of coastal land, including hotel plots. The bills, he said, aim to safeguard land as Croatia's key resource alongside its citizens.
The amendments seek to digitalise the entire planning and permitting process, streamline approvals, especially for family homes, which make up 10% of all permits, and accelerate affordable housing projects while steering Croatia towards sustainability and self-sufficiency.
Bačić said digitalisation would introduce transparent, state-level planning, curb the expansion of building land and require urban planning competitions overseen by the Croatian Chamber of Architects. He rejected the Chamber's warning that the spatial planning bill would be harmful and said it wrote what was now stated in the bill back in 2023.
Recalling that the current physical planning and construction law was adopted in 2013 under the then-SDP government, he said the new package restores a strategic planning role to the state and counties and introduces full digitalisation. He noted the state first assumed the power to adopt urban plans without municipal consent in 2013 and questioned why the SDP had not objected then.
Bačić criticised SDP MP Mirela Ahmetović for failing to adopt an urban plan during her seven years as mayor of Omišalj, and said Zagreb's slow planning pace meant it would take "seven terms" to implement its General Urban Plan.
He added that the government had removed a provision that would have automatically revoked building land where municipalities failed to adopt local urban plans, and stressed that urban land consolidation is essential for implementing urban plans or projects approved by local representative bodies.