Bansko municipality plans to construct 8 new neighbourhoods, allowing for an additional 40 000 beds

Some of the new neighborhoods are on the border with the National park. The plan is for an additional lift station for the Bansko ski resort to be put there, which technically cannot be done without breaking the law.

The Regional Inspection for the Environment and Water in Blagoevgrad has approved the project to cut an additional 2600 acres of woodland without carrying out an EIA. These 8 living areas alone would amount to an area of 3 million m2, 750 000 m2 of which has already been built.

In the last 15 years Bansko grew from a town of 9000 people to a rest and ski resort with a capacity to fit 20 000 people. The Bansko Ski zone, build by virtue of a concession being granted over what is otherwise government property (vis-à-vis National park “Pirin”), was originally envisioned to accommodate the permanent use of no more than those original 9000. This increase is not in accord with the city’s infrastructure potential. Moreover, even an optimistic read of the City Development Plan for Bansko shows that the total amount of residence has to be reduced by 2035.

Consequently the pressure to increase construction in the National park increases. According to the new development plan for the park a further extension 14 times the size of current expansion, with the construction taking place in the heart of the mountain. Further stressing the forest is the fact that a 60% increase is projected in the area’s wood production capacity (current levels at 0%)

Coalition “For the Nature” will appeal the decision of the Regional Inspection for the Environment and Water in Blagoevgrad and before the Minister of the Environment and Water on the basis of violations of the Law for the Protection of the Environment. Environmentalist civil action is projected to culminate in a protest against the destruction of the supposedly protected natural environment of Bulgaria.

The decision of the Regional Inspectorate for the Environment and Water Blagorvgrad:
http://riosvbl.org/images/stories/R_OVOS/Precenki_EO_2014/BD-13-EO-2016.pdf