Authorities Turned a Blind Eye to Illegal Viewpoint

(Patria) - Just a ten-minute cable car ride separates citizens and guests of Sarajevo from the peace of the Trebević mountain forests. At the "Vidikovac" restaurant at the end of the cable car, visitors have for decades enjoyed a fairytale view of the city. This facility was destroyed in the war, and last year the City of Sarajevo began its renovation, worth more than five million marks. However, a business and catering facility seven times larger will soon be built on the site of the small restaurant.

The construction of new facilities is prohibited there, and existing ones can only be reconstructed in the same dimensions, as it is a protected area inhabited by rare plant and animal species. Despite this, municipal authorities have issued construction permits, writes the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIN).

The inspection found that the investor has all the permits, but did not check if they were issued in accordance with regulations.

Outside the Management Plan

After the renovation of the Sarajevo Cable Car, the leadership of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) began arranging the area near its station on Trebević, at an altitude of 1,163 meters.

At the invitation of the City of Sarajevo, the architectural firm "StudioArh" designed a three-story catering and tourist facility of over two thousand square meters, which is being built on the site of the old restaurant. The old facility, which had an area of only 275 square meters, had its plateau and retaining wall on the slope preserved.

Sanjin Smajlović, the city attorney tasked with collecting permits, says that the size of the old restaurant is not relevant to the procedure for issuing permits for the new facility: "I thought it was around 700 square meters before the war. 275 square meters, I have to be brutally honest, would be a ridiculous facility compared to the already renovated Trebević Cable Car."

However, according to regulations, the size of the newly built facility is of utmost importance. The Management Plan of the Protected Area "Trebević" states that to preserve endangered and rare species, traffic and accommodation capacities must be limited, and old facilities renovated in their original dimensions.

"The law stipulated that there is no construction there, except for existing facilities within existing dimensions," says architect Damir Lukić from the Cantonal Institute for Development Planning.

The facility, which is in the final stages of construction, has an area of 2,052 square meters, meaning it is seven times larger than the former one, and therefore, regulations on construction in a protected area have been violated.

Despite this, the City of Sarajevo, as the investor of the project, obtained all the necessary permits. This also required opinions from the Cantonal Institute for Development Planning of Sarajevo Canton, the Institute for the Protection of Cultural, Historical, and Natural Heritage of Sarajevo, and the Cantonal Ministry of Spatial Planning, Construction, and Environmental Protection.

The Ministry sent two opinions within a month. The first stated that the dimensions and purpose of the original facility should be respected during construction. The second opinion, however, stated that the "planned replacement facility is within the boundaries of the belonging parcel" and can be realized as such.

The Institutes responded that, according to the Management Plan of the Protected Area "Trebević," the restaurant can be renovated, but in its original form, and its capacities must not be expanded.

"We did not say: here, you can build. We gave our conditions related to nature protection, and these conditions must be incorporated," says Nervin Dacić, director of the Cantonal Institute for the Protection of Cultural, Historical, and Natural Heritage of Sarajevo.

However, this did not happen because Alija Švraka, the chief urban planner of the Old Town Municipality, concluded in her recommendation for issuing permits that the opinions of the institutes and the Ministry were positive, ignoring the institutes' recommendations. She refused to speak to the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIN).

Based on this, the Old Town Municipality, within whose territory part of the protected landscape is located, issued the necessary permits to the investor by mid-2019. The Old Town Municipality responded to CIN journalists that the institutes' acts did not explicitly point to the obligation to build the facility within its former dimensions.

"We gave an opinion that a restaurant like the one before the war could be built there, and that is stated in our document," explains Dacić.

In June, the Mayor of Sarajevo, Abdulah Skaka, from the Party of Democratic Action, led the party leader Bakir Izetbegović and the former Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BiH, Denis Zvizdić, on a tour of the construction site. Izetbegović told reporters at the time that he was pleased that Sarajevo would get a newer and more beautiful viewpoint than the one destroyed during the war.

Useless Letters to the Inspectorate

Mayor Skaka briefly commented to CIN that everything was done according to procedures.

"An administrative body, such as the City of Sarajevo, cannot conduct any process without it being in accordance with the law," he said, without offering citizens a more detailed explanation. Although he said he would, his office later sent an explanation that there was "simply no time" for CIN.

By mid-2019, the City of Sarajevo had obtained the necessary permits and started construction of the new facility. Several months earlier, the Cantonal Government was formed, from which they informed the Cantonal Administration for Inspection Affairs that the Old Town Municipality had issued permits for the construction of the controversial facility in the protected zone of Trebević.

The Ministry requested the inspectors eight times to carry out supervision and verify the legality of the issued permits. At the same time, they warned the City that the construction of a new facility was prohibited, but the City did not heed this.

After inspecting the site and reviewing the documents, the inspection concluded that the investor had all the necessary permits for construction. However, it did not investigate irregularities in the proceedings nor did it order any measures, as seen from the correspondence sent to it by the Ministry.

In its report, the inspection chose to quote the second opinion of the Cantonal Ministry – the one that merely states that the "facility is located on its belonging parcel." CIN journalists were not allowed to speak with the inspectors who supervised the construction of the viewpoint.