Wolfgang Amann A new strategy to regularize informal settlements Case Study Montenegro

1. WPLA Workshop “Real Estate Infrastructure – Fit for Use?”Vienna, 16 October 2014 Wolfgang AmannA new strategy to regularize informal settlements Case Study Montenegro Institute for Real Estate, Construction and Housing Ltd. PB 2, A 1020 Vienna +43 1 968 6008 office@iibw.at www.iibw.at

7. Informal settlements Pobrdje – Rutke:Close neighbourhood of high and low quality

8. Insufficient infrastructure

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10. Plenty of touristic facilities

11. Targets of regularisation Montenegro Strategy on Informal Settlements: • Meeting requirements of the Vienna Declaration by 2015 • Reduce earthquake vulnerability • Touristic development • Ecological development • Enforcement of rule of law • Setting up communal services • Improvement of individual business opportunities • Development of a regular real estate market = a very comprehensive set of targets

12. A catch 22 has petrified informality • Parcelling, sale and registration of land, even though it was agricultural land = no DUP • No DUP – no building permit • Housing pressure has wiped off rule of law • Today customary rights vs rule of law • Incomplete and unprecise cadastre • Planning standards oriented on green field developments, which cannot be implemented to existing settlements • Non-registered buildings not possible to consider in the DUP • Legal requirement to compensate land with market prices • Compensation with DUP standards unaffordable for the public

13. Approaches of regularisation • All over Europe over 2 million people in informal settlements • Assessment of regularisation approaches in Albania, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Portugal, Republic of Srpska, Serbia • Solutions: regularization, upgrading, resettlement, demolition • None of the previous approaches provides efficient and streamlined solutions

14. Current legal action • Housing Policy Action Plan (2004) • National Spatial Plan of Montenegro until 2020 (2008) • Law on Spatial Development and Construction of Structures (2008), reform in preparation • Change of criminal law to treat informal construction as criminal act • Few demolition of informal construction in coastal areas and national parks • Donor assistance of GIZ, UNDP, WB

15. Pilot projects with new approach on regularisation • Support of existing strengths of the settlements: high level of self-organisation, social integration, non-motorised access, efficient grid of footpaths • Make sure that all settlers pay communal fees = payment obligation before legalisation • Regularisation with least possible interventions to the existing ownership structure • Efficient but lean traffic infrastructure • Alternative planning standards • Immediate investments by the municipality

16. Need for an updated site plan • ≠ cadastre mapdocumentation of buildings does not mean registration • = technical basis for a Spatial Urban Plan • Including precise plot boundaries, volume and use of buildings, estimates of gross floor space, existing public and private roads and footpaths • Basis for levy of communal fees

17. Spatial Urbanistic Plan • On the basis of an updated site plan • Including technical infrastructure plan, trafic plan, hydrotechnical plan etc. • Definition of buildings to be removed • Definition of alternative planning standards • Basis for regularisation

18. Traffic plan • Improved access to the Project areas • Infrastructure corridors: existing roads, minimum new roads • Grid of small roads and footpaths • Legal access to each parcel even on private footpaths (with a right of way) • No parking on public space, beside of payable lots at the outskirts • Design of public space to create identification

19. Technical infrastructure • Hydrotechnical plan • Water, electricity, streetlights etc. is available but requires renewal – infrastructure corridors • Sewerage: main collectors in infrastructure corridors, obligation to connect individual houses within e.g. 10 years • Public transport

22. Steps of regularisation • Spatial Urbanistic Plan • Raising communal fees on the basis of real use and registration of land (regardless building permit or registration of the building in cadastre) • Communal fees for accepted buildings on public land on the basis of heritable building rights • Non-registered building land will be changed to agricultural land • Cadastral registration with retroactive occupancy permit on the basis of alternative planning standards (urbanistic and constructive minimum standards) • Financial and fiscal incentives

23. Retroactive occupancy permits • Concordance with the Spatial Urbanistic Plan • Minimum access to the plot: at least with a footpath with a right of way, maximum distance to an evacuation road • Right of way with clear rules, no compensation • Structural safety and seismic stability • Access to technical infrastructure • Finishing of construction works • Sufficient parking lots on private land • Maximum density • Streamlined procedure • Communal fee payment with different models