The building permit process is among Albania’s most inefficient and reform-resistant administrative procedures. The National Planning Register Component of the MCC Albania Threshold Program II works to streamline the territorial planning process and reduce opportunities for corruption in the permitting process. It supports the creation of a register, a web-based repository for planning and building regulations and guidelines. The Register will make available to the public the criteria for territory and land use development and ensure transparency and access for individuals and businesses interested in developing properties.

MCCA2’s Territorial Planning Register Component works to achieve the following results:

Building permit information and applications accessible electronically. The program will design, develop, test and deploy in a central territorial planning agency and five pilot municipalities a web-based register that will include an information portal containing rules relating to territorial planning and construction permitting procedures, and a permit tracking and inspection module that enables applicants to track building permit applications online.

Public aware of and monitoring the Register. An educational campaign to inform the public on the capabilities of the Territorial Planning Registry will go hand-in-hand with an effort to engage all beneficiaries in discussions to advance the reforms in territory planning and building permits’ procedures, and support civil society monitoring.

TERRITORIAL PLANNING REGISTER: MCCA2 GOALS AND TARGETS   Simplify the building planning process and reduce number of approval procedures from 24 to 4   Reduce average time for construction permit approval to 30 days -------------------------------------------------------------------------  TERRITORIAL PLANNING REGISTER: MCCA2 KEY YEAR 1 ACCOMPLISHMENTS   Developing the new law. MCCA2 provided technical support during the parliamentary review the draft-law on Territorial Planning, which was enacted in April 2009. Among other features, the new law: (1) creates new, streamlined construction permitting procedures with “silent consent” deadlines; (2) mandates the creation of a National Territorial Planning Agency (NTPA); (3) requires that all authorities contribute relevant information to a Territorial Planning Register and that all construction permits awarded by local authorities after September 2010 be published in the register; (4) requires that all local planning authorities develop master urban plans by March 2011. MCCA2 also drafted the secondary legislation to establish the Territorial Planning Register, which establishes standards for use of GIS applications for urban planning and construction permitting in conformity with EU norms.  Designing the Territorial Planning Register. MCCA2 signed cooperation agreements with five municipalities that are the most advanced in developing master urban plans to pilot and test development versions of the Territorial Planning Register, envisioned as a public portal for the uploading, retrieval, display, and downloading of legal and regulatory information maintained by the municipalities. The program submitted to the Ministry of Public Works an action plan for establishing the register that allocated institutional roles and responsibilities, identified specific activities to be performed by the parties, and laid out a schedule for their implementation. MCCA2 rolled out and beta-tested software applications accessed via a central web portal in the five pilot municipalities — which display online both applications and awards of construction site permits by each municipality — and refined and extended the software based on the results of the tests. For more information on the MCCA2 Territorial Planning Component progress, please visit our Publications pages: Newsletter and Fact sheets