On 12 February this year, the Saeima adopted the Law on the Preservation and Protection of Kuldīga Old Town, which entered into force on 12 March.
The purpose of the law is to ensure the preservation, protection, development and proper management of Kuldīga Old Town's cultural-historical heritage, which is significant in Latvia and worldwide and possesses outstanding universal value. The task of the law is to establish the procedure and requirements for the preservation, protection and use of Kuldīga Old Town.
When asking what the law will mean in practice, we received a variety of answers and explanations, some of them contradictory.
An Increase in the Bureaucratic Burden Is to Be Expected (Monta Ābele-Sedliņa, lawyer at ZAB WALLESS)
Is an increase in the bureaucratic burden to be expected?
Yes, there is! The law introduces strict restrictions and a new institution – the Kuldīga Old Town Cooperation Council, along with new procedures, including heritage impact assessments.
Alteration of the cultural-historical environment is permitted only if it has no negative impact and is the only way to ensure the development of the Old Town. This principle applies to a very wide range of activities.
Replacing a roof or windows, painting a façade – these everyday activities directly affect the protected values and are subject to cultural monument protection rules, and in certain cases – also to the Council’s opinion. Planting or felling trees may be subject to restrictions, since elements of green spaces are themselves protected values. An industrial production facility within the Old Town would in practice be impossible. A new café in a renovated space may require approval, a new hotel – certainly, while an observation tower may be prohibited depending on its location and height.
The law introduces two new types of documents: a preliminary heritage impact assessment and a full heritage impact assessment. The Council may request the preliminary assessment within a month of receiving the information – the municipality must inform the Council of a submitted proposal within 10 days. A full assessment is required if the preliminary assessment identifies a significant impact on the outstanding universal value of Kuldīga Old Town.
An additional burden is also created by the obligation, from 1 January 2029, for owners to insure their buildings against fire risk, liquid or steam leaks, damage from natural disasters, and unlawful acts by third parties. The law does not set a minimum insurance amount and provides no solution for cases where insurers refuse to issue a policy, for example, for buildings in poor condition.
How quickly could approval be obtained?
Given the new regulation, the approval process can be lengthy. After a proposal is submitted to the municipality, the information must be passed to the Council within 10 days. The Council assesses the proposal within one month and may request a preliminary heritage impact assessment, the review of which takes a further month. If a significant impact is identified, a full assessment is required, after which the Council again issues its opinion within a month. If the proposal significantly affects cultural-historical values, the information is passed to the World Heritage Centre and the decision may be postponed until an opinion is received from it – with no clear deadline.
It is particularly problematic that the Council’s opinion is not considered an administrative act and cannot be appealed. So, if the opinion is negative, a private person has no effective legal protection mechanism. If a proposal is changed after the opinion to such an extent that the opinion no longer applies to it, a new opinion is required – and the process starts again from scratch. In the worst case, a proposal could “sink” into a multi-stage procedure with no real possibility of speeding it up or challenging it.
Will the law affect economic activity?
The new regulation affects a very wide range of activities. Without approval, not only the construction of new buildings or the reconstruction of existing ones may be hindered, but also façade painting, replacing windows or roofing, felling trees, and setting up new commercial facilities – cafés, hotels or observation towers – may be affected.
“Special craft knowledge and skills” used in the conservation of the Old Town are also recognised as a protected value. This means that traditional materials and methods may be required for restoration work, which can significantly increase costs. The law provides no compensation mechanism or financial support for private owners – there is neither co-financing nor tax relief.
Outside the Old Town itself, the law's impact is felt through height restriction zones. For example, the construction of wind farms or telecommunications towers exceeding 260 or 350 metres in height, within a wide area around Kuldīga, is either prohibited or subject to a heritage impact assessment. Since these zones extend far beyond the boundaries of Kuldīga municipality, the regulation in fact also affects the development opportunities of neighbouring municipalities, including Ventspils municipality. For developers of energy and infrastructure projects, this means additional time and costs, which can make projects economically unviable.
Could such a precedent spread?
Latvia also has other culturally and historically significant places to which similar special regulation could theoretically be applied. However, the Kuldīga law creates a precedent that contradicts the state's declared aim of reducing bureaucracy and simplifying administrative procedures. If such a model were adopted for other heritage sites, protection of cultural heritage could become an obstacle to regional development rather than a driver of it.
The Law Ensures a Predictable Environment (Sintija Vītoliņa, Old Town Management Specialist at Kuldīga Municipality)
What effect will the law have on economic activity in Kuldīga and its surroundings?
UNESCO World Heritage status is an economic driving force. It opens the door to state and EU fund programmes for restoring and preserving historic buildings and improving the town. To offset the requirements (such as the insurance obligation, which will take effect for residents in 2029), the municipality is developing support programmes and tax relief. Economic activity is not being restricted, but rather purposefully directed towards quality, which ensures the long-term competitiveness of Kuldīga as an international brand.
What does the existence of the law mean for economic activities and plans in Kuldīga Old Town and the municipality?
The Kuldīga model proves that cultural heritage is an economic resource. UNESCO World Heritage status attracts investment, boosts tourism growth and increases property values. The law provides a predictable environment for entrepreneurs and residents by clearly defining the “rules of the game”. Kuldīga is an international example of how a small town in our region can become a globally recognised cultural site, where the heritage of the past serves the well-being of the future.
And within the distances set out in the law, even in Ventspils and Saldus municipalities?
Before the law was adopted, an extensive study, “Analysis of Viewpoints and Landscape Protection Zones for the UNESCO World Heritage Site ‘Kuldīga Old Town’”, was carried out on commission from Kuldīga municipality. The aim of the study was to assess the potential risks of landscape pollution and visual impact on the outstanding universal value of Kuldīga Old Town (including in the case of wind farms and other large, tall structures). As a result, a Landscape Protection Zone was developed, serving as a management tool. The document sets out a clear methodology, conditions and recommendations, and defines the areas of potential impact. Kuldīga municipality carried out this study as preparatory work for possible development projects, in order not to burden development areas where no impact is anticipated.
Developers have a choice: to draw up proposals in line with the recommendations set out in the Landscape Protection Zone study, taking them through the meetings of the Cooperation Council established under the law, which exists to ensure the site’s management is coordinated across institutions in the long term, or to carry out the full “Heritage Impact Assessment” process, preparing a report, submitting it to the Cooperation Council and subsequently coordinating it with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
In the neighbouring municipalities of Ventspils, Saldus and Dienvidkurzeme, adjoining Kuldīga municipality, there are small areas where the impact zone could affect visual perception corridors, but the impact in each case is assessed according to the above.
Is an increase in the bureaucratic burden to be expected if someone wants to do something in this area? For example, can a house be renovated without approval from the new institution (the Council) – changing the roof, windows, painting exterior walls, planting trees, felling trees, harvesting timber, felling forest, ploughing land, sowing grain, building a woodworking or any other kind of industrial facility, cleaning drainage systems, building power lines, communication towers, wind turbines and the like, or is such approval needed to open a café, a hotel, an observation tower, or to hold a concert?
No, because the Law on the Preservation and Protection of Kuldīga Old Town is not a general set of instructions for construction or economic activity, but a top-level legal framework aimed at guaranteeing the inviolability of the UNESCO World Heritage site's unique outstanding universal value and landscape integrity. The purpose of the law is not to complicate everyday life for residents and businesses, but to provide clear, uniform rules that help preserve Kuldīga's historic environment while allowing it to develop sustainably. Residents and owners in Kuldīga municipality have had Territory Use and Development Regulations in place for decades. Following on from these is also the Local Plan for Kuldīga Old Town in the Venta ancient valley, which sets out the territory's use and development regulations, functional zoning and protection requirements. Kuldīga has clear rules for construction proposals, including the renovation of buildings in the Old Town, greater responsibility in managing property, and the possibility of receiving financial support for maintaining property in the Old Town. Projects that comply with these development regulations are not submitted to the Cooperation Council for review, only large-scale development proposals whose potential impact is identified by the site manager or the National Heritage Board. Everyday projects, changes of use, holding events and the like will continue to be assessed as before – by the responsible municipal and state institutions, without creating additional approval processes.
How long might it take to receive the relevant response (approval or refusal)? Can this opinion (if negative) be appealed? To whom?
Depending on the process of the planned proposal (environmental impact assessment, planning process or construction proposal), the Council assesses the information on the proposal within a month and requests that the proposer carry out a preliminary heritage impact assessment. The Council reviews the preliminary heritage impact assessment within one month.
The Cooperation Council is involved only if the site manager or the National Heritage Board identifies a possible impact on the World Heritage site's outstanding universal value.
Oļegs Burovs, Chair of the Saeima’s Public Administration and Local Government Committee, former (2019-2020) Chair of Riga City Council
The Public Administration and Local Government Affairs Committee raised no objections to the Kuldīga Old Town bill, which increases the bureaucratic burden (obtaining permits) not only for those who want to do something in this town, but in certain cases also in neighbouring municipalities!
It is commendable that Kuldīga Old Town has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage list, with great credit in this regard due to Kuldīga Council’s former long-serving chair, Inga Bērziņa, who actively supported this law.
Admittedly, several provisions in the law sparked wider discussion. Namely, a new body is envisaged – the Kuldīga Old Town Cooperation Council, without whose approval neither the construction of new buildings, nor the reconstruction of existing ones, nor the painting of façades, replacement of windows or roofing, etc. will be possible. In essence, visitors to Kuldīga Old Town, standing on the bridge (or looking out from the church tower), should not see any new buildings that could damage the historic landscape.
As a result, several zones were included in the law, the largest reaching up to 25 km from Kuldīga, which will affect possible economic activities in the southeast of Ventspils municipality and the northwest of Saldus municipality.
This provision could affect telecommunications towers and wind farms not only in Kuldīga, but also in the neighbouring Ventspils and Saldus municipalities; a potential investor in municipalities bordering Kuldīga municipality would need to obtain approval from the Kuldīga Old Town Cooperation Council before applying for a building permit at the Saldus or Ventspils municipal building authority.
Yes, there were ideas to reduce the 25 km zone to 15 or 10 km, but MPs were warned that this would be a departure from UNESCO guidelines and could lead to Kuldīga being removed from this international organisation’s cultural heritage list, or to having to obtain approval from UNESCO every single time. Unfortunately, such a prospect – an architect from Latvia travelling to UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris, trying to explain things and waiting a year to obtain (or not obtain) approval – does nothing to make a potential real estate developer or investor want to carry it out in that particular area. Talks are currently under way in Riga with UNESCO regarding the development of Andrejsala; a similar issue once arose over the “Saules akmens” (Sun Stone), in the context of which Riga was threatened with removal from UNESCO’s cultural heritage list.
Rather than emotions, I would like to see liberalised conditions and an algorithm for how to assess a building's compliance and the conditions for implementing it. Kuldīga's historic centre is an outstanding place, but conserving its entire surroundings as they were several hundred years in the past raises doubts, because, continuing along that vision, we could end up banning the use of motor vehicles in this area too.
How should the rights granted to the municipality under the Kuldīga Old Town law to expropriate property be assessed?
Yes, the Kuldīga Old Town law grants the municipality the right to carry out forced expropriation of real estate for buildings in poor technical condition. Namely, if there is a building in Kuldīga Old Town that is damaging the landscape or is not in good technical condition, it will be given derelict status, and the municipality will be able to carry out its forced expropriation (if the owner does not agree, by a corresponding Saeima decision), paying market value for it. How this provision will work in Kuldīga, time will tell, but having worked with property in Riga for many years, I believe that such a provision – on forced expropriation – must categorically not be applied to Riga’s Old Town, which is also on the UNESCO heritage list.
For example, the owners of a building on Marijas iela that has stood empty for many years might well be happy for the city council to expropriate it at market price, given that the council already has more than enough of its own property for carrying out municipal functions, currently even too much. At one time, the owner of a building on Jēkaba iela, which in reality had only one wall left, complained about the Heritage Board, which would not grant permission to demolish it, and wanted Riga to buy the property at market price; the municipality refused and, using various tools, including penalties – a higher real estate tax rate – encouraged the owner to put the property in order; there is now a hotel there. There are also several wooden buildings in Jūrmala whose owners are prohibited from demolishing them but are also unable to restore them, so they take no action at all, hoping a buyer will turn up.
Expropriation of real estate is a lengthy process, since it takes two to three years from the initial proposal to the contract and final decision. And furthermore, if the municipality expropriates such a property, what does it plan to do with it? If it intends to restore it, where will it find the necessary funds; alternatively, if it decides to sell it, it will in effect be acting as a real estate agent in that transaction, and moreover no one can guarantee that, when selling the expropriated property at auction, it will fetch the same sum for which it was expropriated; if the sum is lower, there will be questions about the squandering of municipal funds.
At the Saeima committee meeting it was said that the number of cases in which real estate expropriation would be used could be small, which is why I did not use my doubts to hold up approval of the bill.
Will an opinion from the Kuldīga Old Town Cooperation Council be required for timber harvesting in a forest, if it is visible from Kuldīga Old Town, the bridge or the church tower?
I don't think so! But it's possible that further debatable issues could arise during the time the law is in force. After a year or two, it would be good for the next Saeima term to assess the effectiveness of the relevant provisions and, if necessary, make adjustments. At the same time, there are also good solutions in place for the proper maintenance of Kuldīga Old Town.
Such as?
Municipal workshops with relevant specialists who help owners of buildings in the Old Town restore façade elements, windows and doors to their historical appearance. Specifically, a person can bring their own window and carry out its renovation and restoration with their own hands, with a professional restorer helping in the process. In Riga we once began co-financing the renovation of building façades, where initially 0.3 million euros was available, then later already 0.6 million euros, and later still more than one million euros a year.
Although Riga lags behind Tallinn and Vilnius on many parameters, over the past ten years Latvia's capital has been ahead of the neighbouring countries' cities in the field of restoring the façades of historic buildings, together with installing corresponding night-time lighting.