Filenews 16 June 2023 - by Angelos Nikolaou
With yesterday's decision, the Christodoulides government ended a megaton scandal that bore the stamp of the Anastasiades government and provided for the legalization of two arbitrary floors in the Sun City project, in the Municipality of Sotira.
Yesterday's decision revokes a previous decision of the Council of Ministers, dated 18/01/2023, which was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic on 17/02/2023, five days after the presidential elections.
At the same time, the application of the construction company for the granting of planning permission in derogation from the provisions of the Local Plan of the Free District of Famagusta is rejected. With the third part of the decision, the Municipality of Sotira is required to return the amount of €410,000 received from the construction company as compensation on 15/02/2023, even before the irregular decision of the previous government was published in the official gazette of the Republic of Cyprus.
The very important decision was taken yesterday by the Council of Ministers that met under the President of the Republic, on the basis of the proposal submitted by the Minister of Interior, Constantinos Ioannou.
It is emphasized that as soon as he took office, Constantinos Ioannou asked the Environmental Authority to reconsider the application for a temporary planning permit for five years to the company Jimchang Cyprus Developing Co Ltd, following the objections raised by the Audit Office, which reported the case to the Independent Authority against Corruption, due to the involvement of businessman Christakis Giovanis. former MP, who was a Politically Exposed Person.
The decision was supported by the fact that until yesterday the planning permission for the development had not been granted. It is noted that this decision concerned the approval of the application for a temporary planning permit for a period of five years, for reasons of public interest, based on the provisions of article 26(2) of the Town and Country Planning Law.
The final position of the Department of Environment, which concerns the implementation of a binding acquis communautaire, was also important. Specifically, the Environmental Authority states that the terms of the Special Ecological Assessment Report on the Cumulative Effects of Existing, Proposed and Future Projects in the Agia Thekla – Liopetri Special Protection Area, Famagusta District, issued by the Environmental Authority in June 2021, require the reduction of pressures in this environmentally sensitive area. Also, based on relevant letters from the director of the Department of Environment for this project, the licensing of additional buildings is not allowed.
The intervention of the Auditor General of the Republic in the whole process was also decisive. Specifically, while the procedure for granting the planning permission was pending, the Auditor General of the Republic in a letter dated . 15/2/2023 to the directors of the Department of Town Planning and Housing and the Department of Environment, stated that the necessary procedures should be promoted for withdrawal and compliance with the terms of the Environmental Authority, which were determined in the context of the Special Ecological Assessment Report on the Cumulative Impacts of Existing, Planned and Potential Developments in the Special Protection Zone Agia Thekla – Liopetri, of Famagusta district, issued in June 2021.
As a result of the letter of the Auditor General, the Director of the Department of Town Planning and Housing sent a relevant letter to the Director of the Department of Environment, on 2/3/2023, asking for his views in relation to the finding of the Auditor General of the Republic in his aforementioned letter that no derogation should be approved for this development, based on the Cumulative Impact Report for the reported area.
In the last two months, following the letter of the Director of the Department of Town Planning to the Director of the Department of Environment whether any derogation should not be approved, concerning the addition of one floor to a Mixed Tourism Development (MTA) approved with a planning permit, so that the number of floors is increased by one (partially eight-storey instead of partially seven-storey) for the hotel and for the residential apartment building to be increased by two (eight-storey instead of six-storey), A series of events followed, with an exchange of letters between the services involved, while the Legal Service also entered the equation.
The Director of the Department of Environment, responding to the Director of the Department of Town Planning and Housing, on 7/3/2023, notes that the reference in the Cumulative Impact Report of June 2021 for reducing pressures is interpreted as restoration of unassessed/licensed buildings in relation to the environmental study that was evaluated and for which an environmental opinion was issued. In conclusion, the Director of the Department of Environment states that the results of the Special Ecological Assessment Report do not allow the approval of the licensing of additional buildings.
Following the reply of the Department of Environment, the Director of the Department of Town Planning and Housing, on 9/3/2023, re-sent the application to the chairman of the Council for the Study of Derogations, for his own further actions and relevant briefing of the Council of Ministers.
The Chairman of the Council for the Study of Derogations, on 17/3/2023, sent a letter to the Director-General of the Ministry of the Interior, in which he records the reasons for this request for derogation, as well as briefly the views of the Director of the Department of Environment, which were expressed in consultation with the Director of the Department of Town Planning and Housing.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, after securing the views of the Attorney General of the Republic, informed on 13/4/2023 and 2/5/2023, the applicant company Jimchang Cyprus Developing Co Ltd of his intention to resubmit the application before the Council of Ministers where, at his discretion, he may determine that it is in the public interest to amend the previous relevant decision of the Council of Ministers for the granting of the license, by way of derogation from the current Development Plan, based on the provisions of article 26(2) of the Town and Country Planning Law, given that the positions of the Environmental Authority concern, in fact, a binding acquis communautaire and invited the company to immediately submit its positions, so that they can be taken seriously into account for the formulation of the proposal of the Minister of Interior to the Council of Ministers.
The applicant company submitted on 28/4/2023 and 22/5/2023 its positions on the above intention of the Minister of Interior, including, inter alia, alternative proposals either for the completion of the development as it has been erected on the spot, or for the demolition of the arbitrariness and the erection of other buildings, in accordance with the provisions of the current Development Plan.
Intervention
The Government did not back down
Immediately after taking office, the new government declared its intention to reverse the decision taken by the previous Council of Ministers to legalize two floors illegally erected in the Sun City project.
On the instructions of the President, the Minister of Interior, Constantinos Ioannou, took the initiative to investigate the matter. Since then, there has been a pan-community gathering in the Municipality of Sotira and two sessions in the parliamentary committee on Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism, in an attempt to shift the whole discussion to the level of "loss of acquired development rights".
Fortunately, the government did them no favours and with yesterday's decision shuts mouths to those who believed that it would accept the legalization of arbitrary constructions and the implementation of an irregular decision of the previous Council of Ministers.
