About three years ago I asked the municipal office to give me the list of all people in Motovun whose land was either urbanized or deurbanized in the process of spatial or physical planning for purposes of golf and polo development. One can build on urbanized land, which makes it about ten times more expensive than land on which one cannot build. Deurbanized land thus drops to only a small fraction of its original value. As the area of urbanized land was fixed in the planning process, and as golf and polo development were deemed to require concentration of urbanized land, many pieces of land scattered throughout the municipality were deurbanized.   Curiously, the owners of land do not need to be notified about such an important change. The Croatian law thus opens many an opportunity for abuse of the planning process at municipal level.

Unusually, the mayor of Motovun responded to my request in two weeks only. I waited for many of his answers for two full years. Anyhow, he explained that the municipal office could not satisfy my request, as the record of changes from urbanized to deurbanized land or vice versa was not kept during the planning process. This was most curious, indeed, but I let the whole issue wait until better times.

Today I sent a proposal to the Municipal Council in which I argued that a commission should be set up to inquire into all the instances where land was urbanized or deurbanized in the planning process. The commission’s goal would be to come up with the list I originally requested from the municipal office. This list would clearly show who gained and who lost in the planning process. By way of justification of my proposal, I mentioned that I was aware of a number of people who were hurt in the process, but who were afraid to do anything about it for fear of retribution.

As a matter of fact, all people I personally know who have lost urbanized land in the planning process are foreigners. As their land was thereby returned to agricultural use, they gained property that Croatian law explicitly prohibits. Foreigners cannot own agricultural land in this country. The people I know have been able to turn things around through courts, but they are still not willing to come out in the open with their stories because of their fears. In a highly bureaucratized environment, every collision with the municipal office can lead to protracted legal battles, which the people in question wish to avoid at all costs.

Now, my proposal today is no less than revolutionary. As the Municipal Council is now dominated by a double coalition of Independents, Social Democrats, and Greens, there is a good chance that an inquiry into the planning process will be conducted sooner or later. This inquiry would open for inspection everything done by the Istrian Democratic Assembly, the leading party throughout the planning process. Of course, the party’s representatives in the council will do everything that is in their power to thwart the inquiry, but their hands will be tied now that they are in the minority. One way or another, my proposal opens the way for a sui generis lustration in our municipality. And lustration is what we surely need if this community is ever to regain its balance after two decades of political and economic manipulations initiated with Croatian independence.

Addendum I (August 29, 2009)

Most of the day today my Residua website was dead. My browser kept informing me that it could not open the page because the server stopped responding. Most informative, indeed! At once I wrote to Paul Bazay, who put the site together, but there was not a peep from him. He lives in Calgary, Canada, which is seven hours behind Motovun. At any rate, the site came back to life about an hour ago. Alleluia! But I must admit that I have felt quite suspicious about the whole thing all the while. And on account of this piece, which I believe has quite some punch. My friends who know better about the World Wide Web kept telling me that no-one could sabotage my site, but I kept feeling rather mistrustful. Come to think of it, should I sew the mayor of Motovun for my budding paranoia?!

Addendum II (July 21, 2010)

At long last, today I got an answer to the proposal sent nearly eleven months ago. The document itself is quite curious. It is not addressed to me, although my name is mentioned in it. It bears a strange title: “Conclusion.” In addition, the conclusion was reached by a board dealing with planning issues on July 10. The letter I received was stamped yesterday in the Motovun post office. Why such a delay? This will be another bureaucratic mystery that will remain unsolved.

Now, the conclusion was signed by the president of the municipal council. Technically, he and I are still members of the ruling coalition of Independents, Social Democrats, and Greens formed after last year’s municipal elections. The coalition seems to be long dead, though. I have not been invited to a single meeting for many a month. Also, I have not been otherwise informed about the coalition’s work practically since its formation. Everything I ever learn about its work is through local newspapers.

The conclusion has three short paragraphs written in a bureaucratic style that takes a while to fathom. The first says that the board dealing with planning issues is endeavoring to ensure that all matters pertaining to its field of activity are conducted publicly and transparently. The second paragraph says that the municipality is not dealing with proposals such as mine, but that I am welcome to examine the planning documentation in my own time, which is my right under Croatian law. And the third says that the process of spatial or physical planning in the municipality has been conducted in accordance with all appropriate Croatian laws. Splendid.

Of course, it makes no sense to respond to this “conclusion.” It is bureaucratic to boot. The municipality is closed to me, perhaps forever. However, a copy of the document will now go to the highest Croatian office dealing with corruption and organized crime. This office is already informed about my own list of people in Motovun whose land was either urbanized or deurbanized in the process of spatial or physical planning for purposes of golf and polo development. And the list is most interesting, indeed. Enough said, though.