Everybody wants a piece of Hymettus

While the Ministry of the Environment is rushing to put off the fires lit by the mayor of Glyfada, who arbitrarily planted a cemetery in August in the reforestation area of Hymettus, two other municipalities decided to resort to the courts against the state, thus responding to the protection status of the Attica mountain range.

Yesterday, the municipalities of Kropia and Peania-Glyka Nera submitted the first appeals before the State Council for the annulment of the Presidential Decree published in the edition of the Government Gazette on June 14, 2011. Through these, the local authorities are all turning against the Environment Ministry and the Organisation of Athens’ decision to integrate hundreds of thousands of mountain areas to the protection status which, according to their allegations, were being cultivated or were settlements with light and water provisions under previous state settings.

"This Wednesday we will start submitting our appeals by the Associations of the settlers, the agricultural cooperatives and hundreds of owners, against the same Presidential Decree, in the administrative district of municipalities of Kropia, Paiania-Glyka Nera, Glyfada, Vari-Voula-Vouliagmeni, Ilioupoli and Aghia Paraskevi", explains constitutional expert Apostolos Papakonstantinou, who is legally representing the applicants, to protothema.gr.

The appeals are directed against the increase of the A’ protection zone levels of Hymettus formed now at 93.000 acres from the previous 76.000, which means that large rural areas of the Mesogheia region cannot be cultivated. The same thing happened with settlements, mostly unauthorised, which with the increase of the limits fell into the A’ Zone. And in the B’ Zone, the PD increased construction levels to 40 acres from the previous 4, eliminating exemptions and discomfiting many property owners.

Legal circles refer to a study from the National Technical University, whereby the freezing of property is not justified for reasons relating to the protection of Hymettus and the environment, since these areas are not part of the Hymettus mountain.

As they note, these are not forest areas which require special environmental protection, and have the same morphological characteristics as others, located within the city plan of the Municipality of Glyfada.