V. Benkunskas not only violated the Constitution, but also exceeded the competences of the mayor

The Lithuanian Real Estate Development Association (LNTPA) and the Lithuanian Chamber of Architects (LAR), disagreeing with the ordinance of the Vilnius City Mayor, appealed to the relevant institutions at the beginning of March: LNTPA – to the representative of the Government in Vilnius and Alytus County, and LAR – to the Seimas Controller, who appealed forwarded to the same representative of the Government.

LAR chairman Algimantas Pliučas drew attention to the fact that the contested ordinance created new, parallel to the existing regulations, procedures for the preparation and publicizing of the construction project, which were not provided for in the Local Self-Government, Construction, or Želdynai Laws, or in the by-laws of these laws.

According to the Chamber’s assessment, the decree creates a regulation that contradicts the principles of the hierarchy of legal acts and promotes legal particularism, when in each of the 60 municipalities of the country, a different and unique procedure for the design and coordination of structures would have been established.

LNTPA president Mindaugas Statulevičius notes that good goals cannot be achieved by illegal means. These recommendations approved by the mayor not only violate the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, normative legal acts regulating construction, the law on local self-government, but also exceed the limits of the mayor’s own competence, establishing new obligations that are mandatory for developers and not provided for in other legal acts.

According to the association’s assessment, with the above-mentioned ordinance, the municipality creates conditions for redundant procedures and increases the workload of its employees. In addition, the approved recommendations increase the risk of corruption in the Vilnius municipality, because the planned procedures are not clearly defined and the final result of their application will depend on the subjective assessment of a specialist.

The community of architects and real estate developers notes that they understand the goals of the Vilnius City Municipality and basically agree that it is necessary to strive to protect and nurture greenery. However, in order to implement the protection of this common interest, we cannot negate all other fundamental principles of the rule of law (rule of law, equality, reasonable expectations, etc.).

The Lithuanian Chamber of Architects and the Lithuanian Real Estate Development Association invite the mayor of the Vilnius City Municipality to consider the proposal of the Government representative, to abolish this flawed legal regulation and, together with the community of certified architects and representatives of the real estate business, to implement the broad powers granted to municipal authorities in the field of green spaces by the Law on Greens and to make joint efforts to shape the good the practice of applying the requirements of legal acts.

After examining the complaints of LNTPA and LAR and evaluating the relevant legal regulations, the representative of the Government in Vilnius and Alytus counties recognized the arguments of the organizations as reasonable and, in turn, on April 10, turned to the mayor of Vilnius City Municipality proposing to consider Ordinance no. 955–208/24, because the legal norms specified in the preamble of this legal act do not constitute a legal basis for the adoption of recommendations as a sub-legislative act determining the application of additional tree protection measures.

Currently, the decision of the Mayor of Vilnius City Municipality regarding the cancellation of the defective ordinance is awaited. According to the current legal acts, the representative of the Government, upon receiving a negative decision of the mayor to cancel the recommendation ordinance, will appeal the ordinance to the court of relevant competence.