Construction of antics - advantage or trap?

Only five attics appeared on apartment buildings in Chisinau during the about nine years of the adoption of the conception for building attics on blocks, which envisions building dwellings for about 50,000 families. The process is stagnant owing to the imperfection of the legislation, say representatives of the local public administration. At a meeting of the City Hall in August 1991, the chief architect of the municipality Vlad Modarca came up with the initiative to allow building 15,000 new apartments on multi-story buildings in Chisinau. The administration of the City Hall instructed the district heads and the Dwelling Division to familiarize the housing stock managers with the conception, while the piping system managing services and organizations to provide technical and methodological assistance. The Institute “Chisinauproiect” was to work out pilot-projects for a number of apartment buildings. About 100 hectares of land would be saved if the attics were built. Recently, Mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca ordered setting up a working group for reviewing the abovementioned conception of 2001 and formulating the regulations concerning the implementation of the conception. Deputy Mayor Nistor Grozavu was named chairman of the commission, which includes councilors from all the factions of the Chisinau Municipal Council and officials of a number of services of the City Hall. Asked by Info-Prim Neo to explain why the conception needs to be reviewed, Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca said the project initiated in 2001 will be continued, but in a more appropriate manner. The working group will suggest solutions for improving the attic building mechanism. The attics do not imply additional costs for infrastructure, are constructed within a short period of time, and have a high social and economic utility level. The mayor said the working group will also draft a new decision concerning the building of attics, while the City Hall will try to attract technical assurance for implementing the project within the UNDP Project “Development of the Municipality of Chisinau”. Deputy Mayor Nistor Grozavu has told Info-Prim Neo’s reporter that the process of building attics is difficult because not all the dwellers give their consent. Authorizations are needed from different services. At the same time, the Public Amenities Division, which manages the buildings, has to yearly repair the roofs. According to him, the legislation should be modified. The construction of attics will allow significantly reducing the costs of maintaining the roofs and will help many people solve the dwelling problem. Grozavu said attics can be constructed on every building in Chisinau, no matter how many stories they have, but a thorough examination is needed first. Contacted by Info-Prim Neo, the deputy head of the Architecture and Urbanism Division Radu Blaj said they are considering the proposal to allow building an attic if two thirds of the dwellers of the apartment building give their consent. The present conception says that all the dwellers should agree, but it is very difficult to obtain the consent of everyone. Radu Blaj said the conception will be reviewed with the aim of improving the administration and maintaining of the housing stock in Chisinau, in accordance with the dwelling policies strategy of the municipality of Chisinau. Specialists say not all the buildings can sustain attics and the risks in case of earthworks increase. Legally, the works can be started only after a specialized assessment is carried out and a construction authorization is issued. Five attics had been constructed on apartment buildings in Chisinau during about nine years. There were issued 20 more authorizations for building attics.