Council upholds refusal of 88 rooms for visiting workers

Whether Store Norske Næringsbygg AS may lodge visiting workers at the old fire station is now for the Governor of Svalbard (Sysselmesteren) to decide. On 4 November the administration committee of Longyearbyen's local council (Longyearbyen lokalstyre) turned down the company's appeal with no vote against, as the administration had advised, the council's meeting papers show.

The company applied to put up two buildings with 88 rooms and a shared building with a kitchen, gym and sauna. It applied for 15 years, or for up to two years as an alternative. The rooms are for workers and suppliers on projects in Longyearbyen.

The site is zoned for industry, storage, crafts and shops for bulky goods, and larger projects there need a detailed area plan first. The administration refused the application on 16 September. It said housing people is not one of those uses, and that 88 rooms are too large to be exempt from the plan, even for two years. "It is a large facility with room for many people," the case report says.

Store Norske Næringsbygg says in its appeal that the rooms are lodging, not homes. Contractors for ground works on a new energy plant in Longyearbyen will need beds from spring 2027, the company wrote. In its application it said the lodging would take pressure off ordinary housing, and that the white paper on Svalbard allows for temporary lodging for tradespeople.