The Budva Municipal Assembly authorized municipal president Nikola Jovanović last Friday to negotiate with CG LUX on a proposed 25 million euro park and underground garage project in central Budva, according to the assembly decision. The vote permits talks on a joint investment, not a contract or construction, and leaves the terms of the municipality’s relationship with the company undefined.
The proposal would put a seven-level public garage beneath a park, square and other public spaces at Velja voda. It is intended to preserve green space and add parking in the city centre, while opposition councillors argue that legal and planning barriers prevent it from proceeding.
Councillors from the ruling coalition who remained in the chamber approved the decision. The coalition comprises Budva naš grad, the Democratic Party of Socialists and the European Alliance, and has presented the project as a key part of the city’s development.
Investment and land ownership
CG LUX, a company based in Tivat, owns 2,947 square metres of the 5,087-square-metre Velja voda site, opposite the TQ Plaza complex. The state owns the remaining 2,140 square metres, which the Municipality of Budva has the right to dispose of. The site is described as the only green space in central Budva.
Jovanović estimated the investment at 25 million euros and described joint construction as a new model under which the municipality would provide the money as the sole investor while taking over private ownership. The proposed garage and public spaces would have about 26,460 square metres of total gross developed area across seven underground levels. He has not set out the terms of an agreement with CG LUX.
A hotel with six above-ground floors and a gross floor area of 9,288 square metres had been planned on CG LUX’s land, according to Jovanović. He said the municipality instead aims to protect the green area permanently and supply parking that the centre lacks. In his view, the project would improve Budva’s tourism offer and residents’ quality of life.
The municipal president described the proposal as being in the public interest and rejected suggestions that anyone had entered the project intending to make a profit. He also linked opposition unease to the city administration’s effort to address the parking shortage. Referring to earlier attempts to arrange “certain combinations” at the site, Jovanović left that matter to the relevant people and state institutions.
Planning and property disputes
Đorđe Zenović, leader of the Movement for the City and a Budva assembly councillor, disputes whether the project can be implemented. He identified legal obstacles alongside other concerns, and argued that a possible route through designation as a local facility of general interest is no longer available under Article 155 of the Law on Construction of Facilities.
Under Zenović’s reading, that provision allows such facilities in areas without a detailed urban plan. It also permits them, exceptionally, in areas covered by one, but only for up to 12 months after the law takes effect. The law came into force on 15 March 2025, and the deadline to begin construction under that exception expired on 15 March this year, according to Zenović.
Another route would be to complete urban planning parcel UP 14.1 in Block 7 under the detailed urban plan Budva Centre – Amendments and Supplements. Zenović argued that the plan would first need to change. It sets the parcel’s location, its constituent cadastral plots, permitted land use and development parameters.
The project rendering shows construction on land designated as green space, rather than at the building location beside a stream and behind Hotel Budva, according to Zenović. He said the plan provides for a tourism zone, including a settlement and hotels, on a footprint of 2,700 square metres, while about 6,000 square metres are designated as public utility green space.
Changing the plan would be lengthy and complex, in Zenović’s assessment, and construction cannot begin under the current arrangements. Permits for buildings larger than 3,000 square metres are issued by the Ministry of Spatial Planning and Urbanism. He identified a public-private partnership as a third possible route, but estimated that its procedure would take several years.
As a fourth possibility, Zenović mentioned the Programme for Temporary Facilities, calling it a “joker”. He questioned whether seven underground levels might be treated as a temporary facility. He also challenged the proposal for an underground promenade and atriums at Velja voda, pointing to the site’s name and saying water lies a metre below ground.
The material given to councillors was an unsigned illustrated prospectus, according to Zenović. He said it lacked a project brief, the planning document and legal basis for preparing the concept, the concept designer’s identity and basis of engagement, and the prospectus author’s identity.
Zenović also cited restitution notices on cadastral plots 2207/1 and 2207/2 in the cadastral municipality of Budva. The plots form part of the urban parcel and the proposed project, while local residents seek the return of property. Citing Article 32 of the Law on the Restitution of Seized Property Rights and Compensation, he argued that transactions concerning seized property rights made after the law took effect are void unless the acquirer owns the property.
To question whether the proposal would be delivered, Zenović recalled concepts shown to residents before elections for a hospital, promenade, zoo, schools, kindergartens, cultural centres and virtual libraries. He also cited a planned sports and recreation centre and viewpoint at Brajići, now an illegal dump in his account; a martial arts hall near MSC, where he described a car park with a grill; and a reconstructed Pizana swimming pool, whose site he described as storage for hospitality businesses. The municipal assembly’s decision leaves the terms of any investment agreement with CG LUX to be negotiated.
