In Bukovička banja, the steam bath and swimming pool, symbols of Arandjelovac, were demolished to make way for a multi-storey hotel with a swimming pool.
The municipality of Aranđelovac and the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments in Kragujevac say that everything is according to the law, i.e., that it is about preparatory work for the reconstruction of the "Šumadija" hotel, in which the steam bath is protected by law, that the investor "Bukovička banja Stublina" is carrying out this reconstruction in accordance with the protection measures issued by the Institute, that he has all the other necessary documents for this and that there was no reason not to obtain a Building Permit.
However, it is not quite like that. The building permit was issued without the Environmental Impact Assessment Study, although Article 59 of the Rulebook on the Content of Technical Documentation states that the Study must be attached to the building permit. Also, the Study was not attached to the application of works in accordance with Article 18 of the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment.
It is very possible that this oversight would not even have been noticed if the architect Slađana Milovanović, who for years has been pointing out the destruction of cultural assets in Arandjelovac with the academic painter Ana Đorđević, had not filed a complaint with the Municipality and the Ministry of Environmental Protection due to the mistake made.
The municipality did not respond to it, but the Ministry did, and the investor, at the request of the Ministry, created a study on environmental impact assessment, and on Monday there was a submission of objections and comments on the study's report.
Laws are not binding.
Slađana Milovanović and Ana Đorđević submitted a request for consideration of 11 objections to the text of the Study, and Jasna Marićević, a graduate engineer in architecture, had 20 objections. Will their demands, or at least some of them, be respected and will they stop the demolition and construction of a multi-story hotel with a swimming pool?
"They won't, because we live in an environment where laws are not an obligation," says Slađana Milovanović for the "Vremena" portal.
"But we will not give up, because it is about criminal responsibility." The next step is the Administrative Court, we have the right basis for a criminal complaint, so someone will be responsible for the construction in Bukovički Park," adds Milovanović.
Namely, in 2010, the Institute for Nature Protection produced a study on the basis of which Bukovički Park was declared a natural asset. Slađana Milovanović says that in that study it is written that the construction of new buildings in Bukovički Park would cause negative consequences for the environment, and therefore no construction is allowed.
This opinion of the Institute for Nature Protection was apparently ignored, because in Bukovički Park, according to the announcement of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments in Kragujevac, a new swimming pool and spa center will be built in the planned new hotel facility, "with modern, reduced structural elements, modern forms ".
The aforementioned deviations from the position of the Institute for Nature Protection, as well as the fact that the Construction Permit and the Certificate of Notification of Works were issued without an Environmental Impact Assessment Study, are the legal basis for which Slađana Milovanović and Ana Đorđević are seeking to stop the construction of the hotel, and on the basis of which it is possible to file a criminal complaint against competent authorities and institutions.
In addition to these irregularities, their remarks also stated that "the Study must be submitted for approval to the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments", it is pointed out that the fact that "the Bukovička spa complex was declared a spatial cultural-historical unit" was not mentioned in the Study at all in Aranđelovac and that it is registered in the central register of immovable cultural assets", everything that must not be done in connection with the construction works in Bukovički Park is listed on almost three pages, and a number of things are documented inaccuracies regarding the protection of buildings and spaces where the construction of a new hotel is planned.
The Ministry of the Environment's request to the investor to do an Environmental Impact Assessment Study did not stop the preparatory work on the "reconstruction", as the demolition of the cultural monument is officially called.
"The investor has a permit for demolition, and does not have to wait for the assessment study to be completed," explains Milovanović.
In Arandjelovac, everything is according to the law.
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