The session of the Omiš Town Council concluded with the rejection of a proposal for the city to launch legal challenges against the Brda-Umovi wind farm project. The local Most party, led by Council President Karl Vukasović, had proposed resolutions to initiate administrative disputes and review the environmental impact assessment, but these were not adopted.
Councillor Tiha Borić Marunčić announced that HDZ and DP councillors would remain abstaining, which is what happened during the vote. The proposal was thus rejected, and the debate ended without the adoption of resolutions.
The project foresees 27 turbines with a total capacity of 156.3 megawatts, while the first phase has a capacity of 127 MW. In addition to the wind turbines, the project includes a 400/110 kV substation and kilometres of power lines. It has passed through the county plan, but is not mentioned in the documents of the City of Omiš.
Behind the project is the company DRI, a Dutch subsidiary of the DTEK Group, which is owned by Rinat Ahmetov. All profits from the electricity sold will go to private investors and foreign funds, while the local population receives only the municipal tax, damaged visual landscape and noise. Villages such as Blato na Cetini, Seoca and Nova Sela have only recently begun to rise through rural tourism.
The environmental impact assessment was approved by the relevant ministry, and the documentation has 374 pages. The documentation was handed over to the State Investigative Bureau by the county councillor Milan Perišić. On pages 324 and 368, the presence and nesting of birds at the Brda-Umovi site is analysed, but the experts have copied and pasted data for the river Krka near Šibenik, which is 70 kilometers away. The cave full of bats is 236 meters from one of the planned wind turbines, and this cave is not in the state register of speleological objects.
The study notes that the cumulative loss of habitat for wolves and bears in the county has already exceeded the recommended threshold, but this sentence was removed from the final decision of the Ministry. The law stipulates that the combined, cumulative effect with existing wind turbines in the area is not calculated. The High Administrative Court has already overturned similar projects in the country.
Images from March 2026 show a filled-in plateau of one and a half hectares next to the road between Nova Sela and Ugljane, and the road through the forest was cut through in 2023. All this months before the building permit was issued and without any act in the public register. The state inspectorate said nothing about all this. Residents on the hills have been protesting for days.
