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Municipalities are obliged to arrange for the construction of public roads

02.02.2007

The Supreme Court of Estonia ruled in a case initiated by Jõhvi County that the obligation of the municipalities to arrange for construction of public roads, street lights and rain wate sewerage derived from the Construction Act is constitutional
Jõhvi County claimed that this rule is unconstitutional as it infringes the right of muncipalities to decide and manage independently affairs of local life. Jõhvi also claimed that municipalities will become dependent on real estate developers and can not estimate their cost basis for budgeting purposes.

Supreme Court argumented that the right of municipalities to manage local life may be limited by rules that are proportional in their intevention to the affairs of municipality vis a vis the common good produced by such rules.

 The underlying section 13 of the Construction Act is aimed at creating good conditions of living for local habitants and providing them with elementary services and safety. It is adequate to put the road building and other similar obligations to the municipalities in order to achieve this goal. It is also important that the municipalities have the best capability to arrange for such infrastructure to be developed.

Finally the court said that municipalities should plan their finances through long term development plans and detailed planning acts and achieve through those stable development they can afford to finance.

 

It is customary in many municipalities in Estonia to not initiate detail planning before real estate developer "voluntarily" agrees to take on road construction and other costs. The latest fashion is to require the developers to pay for school and kindergarden construction as well. Multiple disputes are expected to rise in this field in the future as well.

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