Athens building heights in hands of urban planners

An Environment Ministry decision on the height of buildings insists that an additional bonus in floors as stipulated in the new building regulation can be applied in Athens as well, thus overriding a series of recent decisions by the Council of State on the matter.

The final decision is essentially left to officials of urban planning departments who are being asked to take the responsibility themselves, whether to follow the ruling of the top court or the ministry and face the consequences of possible new court annulments of building permits. 

Referring to decrees issued in 1934 and 1955, the ministry said they were not protection decrees, as their provisions were not imposed for the protection of Athens from an archaeological and historical point of view, or from the point of view of landscape protection. It added that their preamble does not invoke any study of the...