THE PLATO ACADEMY WAS SAVED FROM "DEVELOPMENT"!

From: To Vima, Saturday, August 21, 2010

'No' to the urban development of the Academy!

The Council of State of the Greek Supreme Court advised that it is illegal to modify the urban plan of the area around the archaeological site of Plato’s Academy.
The Hellenic Council of State puts a "break" to the building development, indeed with a high rate of construction, for the 25 acres surrounding the immense importance archaeological site of the “Archaeological Grove”, ancient site of the original Plato’s Academy.
According to the discretion of the Council of State, the Municipal Administration attempted to illegally amend the urban plan of the Municipality of Athens and to eliminate street-area real estate limitations imposed on the Academy of Plato, the land of which has been under expropriation procedures that started in 1968 and then 1986. The Municipality had said 'yes' to its construction and indeed with high rates of construction (sd 2.4 and 3) (building of six stories and up).

The Supreme Court advised that legally a draft presidential decree amending the approved urban plan of the municipality of Athens in Plato's Academy (for blocks 119, 120 and 121) cannot be proposed because, inter alia:

*Από τον φάκελο της υπόθεσης δεν προκύπτει ότι συνεκτιμήθηκε από τη Διοίκηση η άποψη της Γ΄ Εφορείας Προϊστορικών και Κλασικών Αρχαιοτήτων, η οποία εν όψει της γειτνίασης των επίμαχων ακινήτων με κηρυγμένο αρχαιολογικό χώρο αναφέρει σε έγγραφό της, του 2009, ότι «θα ήταν καλό να αποφευχθεί η οικοπεδοποίηση των οικοδομικών αυτών τετραγώνων». * From the file it cannot be deducted that the Administration's view of C Inspectorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities has ever been taken into account, which in view of the proximity of the disputed property to the declared archaeological site in question, it indicated in a letter of 2009 that "it would be better to avoid the urban development of the surrounding building blocks.

According to the CoE, the administration should have taken account of the contents of the letter of the Antiquities Inspectorate in order to competently determine "whether or not it is appropriate to release the property, and to establish the conditions for its building.

The above arise from the minutes of E 79/2010 of the E’ (5th ) department of the State Council, which noted that the properties which are under archaeological department expropriation and included in three blocks in question were labeled as "church property" and "sports facilities allocated property".

In another report of the CoE (in 130/2010) considers non-statutory the draft presidential decree amending the approved urban plan of the Municipality of Artemis (another important archaeological site, in Brauron, where the sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia MEB), in eastern Attica.

By amending the urban plan removes the expropriation had been imposed for the creation of a public parking space in a building located 500 meters from the sea shore. Furthermore an opinion adopted by SXOP decided on the convertion of part of the shared parking area in an urban site area, and to impose the creation and enforcement of pedestrian prokepia (planted sidewalks).
In the opinion of the Council of State, the proposed project is not proposed legally, as the administration did not express an opinion as to the possible necessity of the eventual enforcement of the forced expropriation, and it not remove part of the car park. This is because the summer Artemis receives a large number of visitors and hence a large number of cars.