The municipality of Hornafjörður has been the subject of an administrative complaint, over a decision by the its building official to grant permission for the construction of guesthouses at Skaftafell.
The municipality of Hornafjörður has been the subject of two administrative complaints, one of which concerns the municipality’s decision to approve an application for a development permit for geotechnical investigations at Hoffellslón.
The other complaint concerns the decision of the municipality’s building official to grant a building permit for the construction of thirteen guesthouses at Skaftafell in Öræfi. Their construction prompted strong reactions.
The buildings are owned by a company called Arctic Circle Hotels, which in turn is owned by the tourism giant Arctic Adventures and the contracting company Þingvangur.
Jóhann Ásgeir Baldurs, managing director of Arctic Adventures, said in December that the criticism of the buildings was unfair. He said they were not finished and would eventually blend better into the environment at Skaftafell.
I think it may be somewhat premature to judge the appearance of the buildings. This is not their final look, either of the buildings themselves or of the surrounding environment.
At the end of last year, a petition was launched to protest against the development, as plans are in place to build seventy small cabins for tourists. Its organisers believe it is unclear what the impact will be on businesses in the area and on visual pollution in the national park at Skaftafell.
Íris Ragnarsdóttir Pedersen, a teacher and guide, lives in Svínafell in Öræfi.
“When you start looking into this matter, there is a lot that is wrong with it,” she told RÚV previously.
Speaking last year, Íris said the origins of the dispute can be traced back to when Stefán Benediktsson, a former Member of Parliament and the landowner of the plots, began preparing a detailed development plan for the land between 2017 and 2018.
At first, he was aiming to zone up to five thousand square metres of buildings, and that did not go down well in the community and met with strong opposition.
The scale of the construction was then reduced significantly and lowered to 35 single-storey small cabins.
In the meantime, the land was sold and the amount of construction doubled to 70 buildings. It is also clear that the buildings are not single-storey.
Just to put this a bit into context, there are about 70 residential houses here in Öræfi and we are 230 residents living here. This increase in construction – going from 35 buildings to 70 – was not presented to neighbouring residents or adjacent landowners, but according to the planning regulations it should have been.
She added that the new buildings will have a major impact on people who already operate guesthouses in the area and depend on them for their livelihood. She also says they constitute visual pollution in the national park at Skaftafell.
Íris said it is regrettable that the buffer zone of Vatnajökulsþjóðgarður was not defined when the park was added to the Unesco World Heritage List, as this could have prevented the development.
Another factor, she says, is that the local infrastructure is not equipped to deal with such a large increase.
The amount of construction in the district is being doubled by adding 70 buildings, and the fire service and ambulance services are in no way equipped to deal with this.
Source: Ruv.is
