– I live entirely on the quay, and like being by the sea and use it all the time. It will be a very big intervention for me if I am completely locked in my apartment. Lasse Michelsen says so. Five years ago, he moved into one of the 64 new apartments in Damsgårdsallmenningen 1 in Laksevåg, with a panoramic view of the Puddefjord in Bergen. The building is the former municipal building in the old Laksevåg municipality, which was incorporated in Bergen in 1972. Michelsen has a balcony 90 centimeters above the quay, and lives only three meters from the quay’s edge. Nye Damsgård Brygge AS has for many years been in conflict with Bergen municipality over the balconies, but lost in both the district court and the court of appeal. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case. The core of the dispute between the municipality and the developer is how many and how large balconies were given permission. Photo: Leif Rune Løland / news Demolition requirements and daily fines This week, the company received an order from the municipality to remove, among other things, the six lowest balconies that are directly above ground level on the quay, and to reduce the size of around fifty other balconies on the building. If it is not done by 1 May next year, the development company will be fined NOK 9,000 per day. Michelsen says he will move if he loses the balcony and the door to the quay. – I think that applies to several people in the building. This is so invasive that it affects the entire quality of life by living here. Proximity to the sea is the whole point of living here, and when the apartment is small, the balcony is important, Lasse Michelsen believes. Photo: Leif Rune Løland / news Damsgårdsallmenningen 1: This has happened Nye Damsgård Brygge AS applied in 2014 to convert the building into 64 apartments. In 2015, the city council at the time allowed more and larger balconies than Bergen municipality had initially given permission for. But the State Administrator in Vestland revoked the city council’s decision. The developer has previously claimed that they were never told about this. The developer and the municipality do not agree on what was applied for and granted permission in the following years. The municipality ordered rectification and gave the company a compulsory fine in 2019. The company then applied for changes to the facade, was refused, and complained again. The State Administrator in Vestland rejected the complaint in February 2020. The State Administrator’s decision was upheld by the Gulating Court of Appeal in July 2022. The Court of Appeal wrote in the judgment that many of the balconies are slightly larger than the permit had been given, “but for other balconies, they have been built twice as wide balconies that have been applied for and that have been approved. The six balconies facing the sea on the first floor are not approved at all.” On 31 October 2023, send the municipality again an order for rectification and the imposition of a compulsory fine. There, the municipality has specified exactly what corrections they require for each individual balcony, and which balconies and balcony doors must be removed. In 2015, the city council allowed more and larger balconies than Bergen municipality had initially given permission for. But the State Administrator in Vestland revoked the decision. Michelsen is critical of both the developer and the municipality. – It is unfair that we who live here should be punished because someone else has made a mistake. First of all, I am very annoyed at the developer who has done something like this. But the municipality must consider that it is I who live here who will actually be punished. He believes that a heavy fine should have been given to the developer, equivalent to the cost of demolishing the balconies. – Then I, who live here, could keep the balconies and apartments as they are, he says. The Court of Appeal believes that several balconies have not been applied for or have been built much larger. The municipality demands that they be removed or greatly reduced. Photo: Case document, Bergen municipality The developer will apply for a change Board chairman Haakon Jard Veidung in Nye Damsgård Brygge says the company will apply to the municipality for approval of a change to the balconies before the deadline of 1 May. – We work with several alternatives, and have a constructive and good dialogue with Bergen municipality. So I hope to come to a good solution. – What have they or the municipality done wrong? – Right now I am fully focused on looking ahead. What has happened has happened. It’s a sad situation for us and the residents to be in, says Veidung. Chairman Haakon Jard Veidung denies that Nye Damsgård Brygge AS has settled down. Photo: FAV Gruppen The municipality: – The developer settled State director for planning and construction matters in Bergen municipality, Tarje Wanvik, says there is a simple reason for the order to reduce or remove the balconies. – The company is required to correct this because the balconies were erected illegally. Simple and easy because they don’t have a licence. – Does the municipality also have a responsibility for the situation, with the permission they first gave? – The judgment of the Court of Appeal is quite clear. Unfortunately, it is probably the owner of the initiative who has taken measures beyond what the application is open to. Veidung rejects that. – We have not settled down. This was nothing speculative on our part. It is a very sad matter that has been wrong on the part of certain parties, and I am living with the consequences of that. – The Court of Appeal has determined that the developer has built the balconies illegally, says agency director Tarje Wanvik. Photo: Leif Rune Løland / news Thinks the municipality demands vandalism Michelsen believes the demolition demand from the municipality makes his home worth a million kroner less, and that all the apartments will lose value. – This feels like the municipality is ordering vandalism on my property, which I have paid for. It seems completely reprehensible that they are going to demolish over 60 fairly new balconies and remove the doors facing the sea. A crazy thought. – It is the developer who must bear the responsibility for the fact that the buyers have ended up in this situation, replies agency director Wanvik. – Is it a waste to destroy new balconies? – Yes, and the initiative holder should have thought about this before they built something they had not applied for. Wanvik rejects the proposal to instead give the developer a fine equivalent to the costs of demolishing the balconies. – No, in the worst case it could create an unfortunate precedent where those who have a lot of resources at any time can get away with illegalities. Michelsen rejects that the balconies are privatizing and obstruct public traffic on the quay along Damsgårdssund. Photo: Leif Rune Løland / news Håpar Høgre city council will help Høgre has recently taken over city council power in Bergen, together with the Progress Party and the Center Party. The new city council has said they will become a yes city council – more positive in construction matters. Michelsen has high expectations of help from the city council. – But does a yes to diving mean a no to the commons in what is actually called Damsgårdsallmenningen? – It is completely wrong to call this privatizing. On fine days, there are many people who use the quay, regardless of whether they are sitting on our balconies. There may be 20–30 people who bathe and use this as a recreation area. It doesn’t hurt anyone that these balconies are here, he believes. State director Wanvik underlines that the case in Damsgårdsallmenningen has been decided by the Court of Appeal. – That decision will stand regardless of which city council sits in Bergen. But if the company applies again with a different solution, it may have something to do with what the city council has, says Wanvik. Chairman of the board Veidung in Nye Damsgård Brygge comments on the signal from the new Høgre-led city council as follows: – I haven’t thought much about it. I rely on the case manager that I may get. news states: One of our journalists lives in the mentioned building, but the person concerned has not been involved in preparing this case.
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The municipality demands the demolition of 62 balconies on the quay in Bergen – news Vestland
