UNIFORM PRINCIPLES FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE CITYSCAPE

A new act on the protection of the cityscape has been approved by the Hungarian Parliament recently for the purpose of supporting construction investments as well as protecting and forming the specific cityscape of cities and villages. Under the new rules, the elements of the cityscape protection, the liability for the cityscape requirements and information about the cityscape requirements shall be defined in a local legal regulation, to be issued by the municipality.

Prior to the preparation and approval of the cityscape decree by the municipality, a cityscape image handbook shall be prepared with the contribution of the chief architect of the city or region. Furthermore, the act contains that the designer and the contractor shall be jointly and severally liable for the fulfilment of the cityscape requirements. The act contains various cityscape promotion measures for the municipality, e.g. the so-called cityscape opinion procedure, as well as possible sanctions in case of breaching the decision made in the cityscape procedure or failing to complete the notification as required by the act.