According to media reports, prosecutors and building control officials have issued orders for the demolition of two hotels illegally built in Bulgaria’s mountain resort town of Bansko, while an order has been issued to stop work at 10 building sites.
Some months ago, there were media reports about a similar order against a hotel in one of the other winter resorts, Pamporovo. It is not clear whether this order was ever carried out.
Such steps by the authorities should be encouraged, even though the fact that of late there have been just two such demolition orders seems to resemble retaliating with a toothpick to an axe attack. An unfortunate combination of greed and a lack of enforcement of planning regulations has resulted in many monstrosities in the mountains and at the seaside. A longer-term concern about these monuments of over-development is that they will prove unprofitable and will end up standing vacant and rotting, reminiscent of those other symbols of a failed era, derelict communist-era factories that stand as eyesores in various parts of the country.
The law should require that where demolition orders are carried out, they should be accompanied by compulsory measures to rehabilitate the environment. There have been several media reports about an allegedly illegal development in the Strandzha nature reserve - and this was before the recent court ruling revoking Strandzha’s status as a nature reserve. Should this project be stopped and the work done ordered demolished, simple destruction of the building would not be enough. In any case like this, the developers should be required, at their own expense, to ensure that proper contemporary scientific methods are used to rehabilitate the soil, natural vegetation and groundwater. It should not be a matter of just restoring the skyline, and leaving foundation work and other material in place to poison the earth.
Meanwhile, for the sake of Bulgaria’s future, more resources should be given to building inspectorates and prosecutors to do a countrywide sweep of building projects to act against any other breaches of the law. An epic of demolition would serve as a good example to others.
At the same time, the authorities would do well to investigate just how these illegal building projects came about. This is being done with another allegedly illegal project in Strandzha, and has uncovered supposed instances of forgery of documents, among other things. Again, in all such cases, demolition is not enough. Officials meant to enforce building and environmental regulations should be held accountable for acts of commission or omission that enabled the law to be broken.
Then there is the saga of Strandzha itself. On procedural grounds, the Supreme Administrative Court has withdrawn its status as a nature reserve. This means that, until procedural errors are corrected, Strandzha lies vulnerable to the rapacious. We have heard ministerial and prosecutorial authorities saying for some days that they are taking steps to correct the situation. Considering the national, and European, importance of Strandzha as a nature reserve, one wonders why greater energy and speed are not being devoted to clarify and protect the status of Strandzha. If, of course, anyone has taken advantage of the gap to build in the area, the full extent of the law should be brought to bear as soon as Strandzha’s status is confirmed, for swift demolition, followed by rehabilitation of what should never have been despoiled in the first place.
