The Association of Developers of Catalonia (APCE) has presented allegations on the text of the initial approval of the modification of the Ordinance regulating municipal intervention procedures in works (ORPIMO), published in the BOPB on July 22, 2022 .
Xavier Vilajoana, on behalf of the APCE in his capacity as president, questions, in his first allegation, the adequacy of the period chosen by the Barcelona City Council for the opening of the public exhibition process to present allegations – from July 25, 2022 until September 5, 2022–, because it coincides almost entirely with the holiday period.
"Therefore, the majority of citizens and organizations potentially affected by the regulations may not be informed or may not have the human or technical means to be able to take part." In addition, adds Vilajoana, “the public exhibitions of this City Council during the holiday period have already been reproached on some occasion by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC), as in ruling no. 531/2017 of June 30, 2017”.
The second allegation focuses on the legal uncertainty that the new ORPIMO will generate in the developer-builder sector. The current ORPIMO establishes a double regime of intervention (communiqué or license) in demolitions depending on or not the cataloging of the building, to protect the buildings cataloged with the procedures foreseen in Annex 3. “It makes no sense that this This reinforced procedure should be extrapolated to all the buildings in the city, because de facto all buildings would be protected and considered heritage. With this system it is impossible to know if, at the discretion of the administration, any building and/or element of it may be considered a posteriori as a cataloged element, which will generate great legal insecurity in the sector”.
The third allegation concerns the terms for granting building permits, which with the current proposal will be extended even more, taking into account that currently they usually exceed the year of processing. This will cause a paralysis of the market that will make the serious problem of housing shortage that Barcelona suffers even more chronic.
The APCE proposes, as a possible solution, a modification of the license system for the demolition of non-listed buildings in order to simplify it and speed up the procedures. In this sense, it is proposed the elimination of the reference "demolition works" from the proposal to modify annex 3 and a new annex is proposed, which would be number 4, in which the documentation of the license application will be detailed. of demolition of unlisted buildings with a proposed new format.
Finally, the PACE requests a transitory regime for the procedures already initiated. In the document on public display, a transitory regime has been foreseen, in the sole transitory provision, which provides that "those already initiated before the entry into force of this modification ordinance should not be applied and are governed by the previous regulations". From the APCE "we believe that a greater transitory regime should be foreseen, and foresee a transitory period for existing buildings purchased before the entry into force of this modification".
In conclusion, Vilajoana requests that these allegations be assessed and, if considered pertinent, that they be incorporated as elements to improve the ORPIMO modification.
