Changes in Black Sea law allow construction activities on all beaches

Last year, following the “Dunegate”debacle in Nessebar, the government banned construction on sand dunes. The ban lasted for 15 months. The latest changes to the Black Sea law now allow construction on sand dunes, which constitute habitats under the European ecological network Nature 2000 – i.e. on beaches.

Text has been added to the transitional and final decrees of the Black Sea law, which alters the Law on government properties. These changes allow the establishment of property rights, i.e. construction, on territories that are the governments sole and public property (such as beaches, sand dunes and nature reserves). The circumstances in which this is allowed are: construction of a national monument; meeting sustained public needs; construction of some linear components of technical infrastructure.
Among development projects that could demonstrate “meeting public needs”, are restaurants, hotels, sports facilities and many others, environmentalists explain.

The changes to the Black Sea law:
- exclude Zone A urban territories
- increase the density of construction in Zone A from 10% to 20%
- reduce the minimum landscaping requirement in Zone A from 80% to 70%
- increase the permitted height of construction in Zone A from 6 to 7.5 m
- increase the permitted area of constructed buildings from twice to eight-fold
- allow the construction of underground infrastructure and commercial areas on all types of sand dunes
- increase the maximum duration of concessions from 15 to 20 years
- subsumes all territories on the Black Sea coast with detailed development plans into urban territories. This change is especially dangerous, because it is tantamount to considering nearly half of the Black Sea coast urban area.

Public opinion polls show that 75% of Bulgarians want development of the coast to stop. Coalition "Let Nature Remain In Bulgaria" points out that the only way to stop the overdevelopment of the remaining Black Sea coast beaches is for the Minister of the environment and water to issue orders for the official entry into force of Nature 200 zones on the coastline and therein to explicitly prohibit construction on the coast. This measure is supported by the Bulgarian Chamber of Tourism, because that sector also recognizes that overdevelopment is harmful to its interests.

In July 2013 environmentalists suggested six steps for the conservation of the remaining undeveloped Black Sea coast. Since then the government has not taken any positive action in that direction. On the contrary – the likelihood of development is increasing.

Coalition "Let Nature Remain In Bulgaria" points out that changes to the Law on territorial development of 2010 places all acts under this law beyond appeal by citizens, and courts are not permitted to challenge their legality. In this way the corruption loop is completely closed at the local level.