Road building procedures are to become quicker, as a result of recent legislative changes.
The changes include:
- extending the scope of earlier legislation to cover planned road building and other highway-related construction
- expedited expropriation procedure and elimination of excessive costs of development of highways and roads, which is attributable to belated property settlement of land and excessive solicited investment, i.e. investment that are not requisite to highway operation
- including highways in the zoning plans of municipalities and updating zoning documents
- removing provisions in the earlier legislation that duplicate those in the Building Act
Plans for a court to decide how much compensation to pay landowners for compulsory purchase of their land were dropped due to concerns that this might be unconstitutional. Instead, the process will be conducted by an administrative body which will:
- investigate whether there is sufficient evidence that compulsory purchase is in the public interest
- ensure that the conditions for compulsory purchase have been satisfied
- fix the amount of compensation payable for all land and structures where the road is to be built
The new system supports the highway developer and the landowner reaching agreement on compensation. Where this is possible, the administrative body will approve their agreement relatively quickly and the highway developer is then required to pay the agreed amount within 21 business days of the approval date.
Where agreement is not possible, the administrative body will decide compensation according to the fair value appraised by an expert. Previously, alternative land or buildings were provided as compensation with money only being awarded where this was not feasible, but this has now been abandoned in the interests of accelerating the process.
Where a landowner contests the fair value of compensation awarded, the claim is forwarded by the administrative body to a court for determination. The compulsory purchase procedure is not suspended, and the highway developer still has to pay the amount of compensation awarded within 21 business days of the decision.
Law: Act no. 275/2007 Coll. adopted on 17 May 2007 to amend Act no. 129/1996 Coll. on certain measures expediting preparatory work on highways and roads for motor vehicles
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