Regulation for building outside zoning areas pulled

The devastating Thessaly floods appear to have finally ruled out the possibility of including a regulation for building outside zoning areas in upcoming draft laws, Kathimerini understands.

After the Environment Ministry started working on a regulation to re-examine the possibility of building outside zoning areas, 12 environmental organizations issued a statement urging the government to immediately abandon any such plans and special licensing models for residential “investment” in the countryside.

“It is clear that building outside zoning areas, apart from the environmental degradation it causes, increases the vulnerability of the natural and man-made environment to natural disasters and, more generally, to the consequences of the climate crisis,” the statement said. 

Sources say the regulation was being prepared for inclusion in the ministry’s first draft law in the fall.