Reykjavík will not block expansion of capital region growth boundaries

Reykjavík Mayor Hildur Björnsdóttir has told mbl.is that the city’s new majority will not oppose extending the capital region’s growth boundaries.

She said the matter had effectively been resolved from Reykjavík’s perspective and that the city would not use its veto power to block the expansion.

The comments came in an interview on Spursmál about the housing market and the municipalities’ potential for further development. The growth boundaries define the area where urban development is planned, and neighbouring municipalities have criticised them for limiting outward growth.

Hildur said the veto is established by law and that she understood the minister was working on legislative changes to ensure that the power would not rest with a single municipality. Asked whether Reykjavík could simply declare that it would not use the veto, she answered yes.

“It will not be held up by us,” Hildur said, adding that expanding the growth boundaries had also been part of her party’s policy. She said Reykjavík’s majority coalition of the Independence Party, Viðreisn and the Progressive Party had therefore resolved the issue as far as the city was concerned.