The Romanian Ministry of Health wants to build a burn treatment center next to the existing hospitals in Marosvásárhely/Târgu Mureș. However, the city might lose this large and important investment, financed by EU funds, due to a land dispute between the City Hall and Maros/Mureș County Council. Both parties declare that the land is part of their property, but, in fact, the land has no current owner. In order to start construction, ownership of the land needs to be transferred to the Ministry. But until the City Hall and the County Council come to an agreement as to who owns the area in question, this cannot happen, and the city might eventually lose the opportunity to build the burn center, local news portal Székelyhon.ro reports.
The 20-hectare (50 acres) parcel of land was given to the County Council by the government in 2002, but this decision was attacked by the City Hall, claiming that they had always managed the plot. In 2010, the City Hall requested that the court destroy the document proving ownership, claiming that there have been many changes in the area over the years, changes that involved several locally owned properties. The court did rule in 2012 that the government’s decision to give the land to the County Council was not legal, but it did not decide on the actual ownership of the land.
According to the city mayor, Dorin Florea, the City Hall has administered the area since the 1970s, and the court’s decision underlined this fact. So there is no need to register the plot under its name. He also declared that as a mayor and a doctor he fully supports the idea of the treatment center and will do everything in his power to make sure that the city does not lose this opportunity. But he also won’t give up ownership of the land and will go to court to protect city property. “This land is city property. We can rent it to someone f needed: we won’t lose the investment. But the members of the County Council can’t make decisions about an area that is not theirs,” he underlined.
The council thinks that the mayor’s attitude is very dangerous for the city and for the inhabitants of the county, and it emphasized that, due to this irrational dispute over land ownership, the city might lose the investment altogether. According to the councilors, the City Hall and the County Council should take steps to clarify the situation in accordance with court regulations and the law.
“The court ordered that this piece of land should be described as hospital-related land instead of simply a 20-hectare parcel, and it also ordered that the size of the area belonging to the Marosvásárhely Emergency Hospital should be properly measured,” county council press office told Székelyhon on Wednesday.
Seven years after the court’s decision in 2012, the Maros County Council has, as originally ordered by the court, commissioned a topographic study to properly map out the plot. The completed document was accepted by the council on Thursday. According to this map, 75,299 square meters belong to the city, while the county owns 117,753 square meters, an area on which there are 12 county-owned buildings.
This document must be approved by the City Hall. If this happens, the County Council will transfer its part of the land to the Ministry of Health for it to administer and construction on the planned burn center may begin. If this transfer is not completed by the end of 2019, the city will lose the funding available for the construction.
Title image: The treatment center should be built next to the existing hospitals of Marosvásárhely. Photo: Facebook/Marosvásárhely Emergency Clinical Hospital
