Home / Media and Publications / City of Karlovac Sabotages the Construction of a Campsite

City of Karlovac Sabotages the Construction of a Campsite

Even after months of procrastination in developing a proposal for an acceptable resolution to the dispute regarding the construction of the campsite with the concessionaire, Lora elektro, the City of Karlovac, as the landowner of the campsite, does not give up on destroying this project.

How else to interpret the City’s proposal, which unilaterally terminated the contract with Lora elektro last spring and thereby halted the construction of the already 80 percent completed campsite for motorhomes under the contract with the German Hymer-Rent, which is seeking amendments to the concession agreement that even the most powerful Russian oil oligarchs would hardly agree to, let alone Karlovac resident Vlado Lončar, who finances the construction of the campsite in Karlovac through his successful 15-year business in Moscow. By terminating the contract with Lora elektro due to project changes and exceeding deadlines for completing the campsite, which occurred due to the City’s fault, as acknowledged and signed in a special memorandum by the subsequently dismissed mayor Miro Škrgatić. The City now seems to forget about the contract.

The project changes occurred due to the necessary relocation of the campsite facility to avoid construction on the main water supply, and the City pushed Lora elektro into this situation by providing construction documentation that did not correspond to the actual state on the ground. Thus, a long wall was obtained at the edge of the campsite parcel, but primarily to comply with GUP regulations. The City now demands that Lora elektro, if it wants to complete the campsite, remove the canopies and attics from the two main buildings in the campsite, relocate the “transshipment” of goods and “service” to one of the three proposed locations outside the city, and also move vehicle parking outside the city.

In doing so, they forget that the campsite is not intended for a scouting camping milieu with tents from the early 1960s, but rather that guests of the campsite would stay in luxurious motorhomes connected to the most modern infrastructure connections according to European standards. For now, Lora elektro is building the campsite with its own funds and would manage it during the 25-year concession, after which all properties and the business would be handed over to the City, but this is not enough for the creators of the City’s new proposal.

Lora elektro also announced a lawsuit against the City last summer, which they say, according to estimates from lawyers from the German Hymer, could amount to up to nine million euros. The current mayor Damir Jelić, as one of the main opponents of the Lora elektro project, with statements like “regardless of the consequences, I am for relocating the campsite…”, very clearly reflects the understanding of responsibility of the current city authorities towards the electorate and taxpayers. (Mladen Volarić)