Housing wrangle

Kraków-based developer GD&K Group has filed a lawsuit against a local ecologically minded protest group, the Kraków League for the Protection of Nature (KLON), seeking damages on the level of zł.80,000. The move could set a precedent for other developers.

The conflict concerns a small housing development that GD&K plans to build on ul. Wyżgi in Kraków, near Lasek Wolski. This unnamed development sits on four plots, totalling 0.85 ha, which were purchased around two years ago through a tender. According to Henryk Gaertner, a member of the GD&K Group's supervisory board and its legal counsel, the project is worth around zł.12 million.

KLON has protested against the proposed construction based on the claim that the terrain around the development is unique and shouldn't be subjected to over-development. GD&K counters that the association is abusing the law and, because it is not involved in any other environmental-protection activities, that it is protecting private interests rather than public ones.

According to Gaertner, KLON's membership includes a number of residents on ul. Wyżgi. Jerzy Rzuchowski, vice president of the association, doesn't dispute this. "It's natural that people take care of their own terrain and the fact that a few people live on ul. Wyżgi can't be construed as wrongdoing," he told Gazeta Wyborcza.

The case will be decided in court. If the court finds in GD&K's favor, however, it could prove an example for other developers facing similar situations. "In this case, or anywhere else in Poland, where we have neighbors trying to protect their own interests while claiming that they act to the benefit of the public - this could set a precedent," Gaertner told WBJ.

E Blake Berry