Last week, we concluded our series of articles on changes to Construction Law related to digitalization. While not all changes have yet entered into force, we hope that our summary of new institutions introduced or planned for implementation in investment and construction procedures will facilitate their use during your projects. We will, of course, keep you updated on further legislative progress and their effective dates.
Writing about the changes, in the coming weeks we want to analyze the planned reform of the Spatial Planning and Development Act . The current draft can be found on the Government Legislation Center website. We have written on this topic numerous times (first in February 2021), briefly outlining the most important proposed changes ( #116 ). This time, it appears that the draft amendment will be submitted to the Sejm. At the end of January, the draft was adopted by the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers by circulation, and according to the latest information, it was forwarded to the Legal Committee of the Council of Ministers in early February. Adoption of the draft is expected in the second quarter of 2023.
Today we would like to briefly indicate what changes have been made to the project compared to the project proposed by the Ministry of Development and Technology in October 2022. We would like to point out that in this article we are analyzing the project added on February 7, 2023.
Let's start with the general plan, where the values in the municipal planning zone catalog have been expanded to include the maximum building area per plot (Article 13e, paragraph 2, point 1). We know from experience how important this factor is, especially since it is intended to determine subsequent parameters for both development decisions and local plans.
Since the changes were announced, much discussion has been surrounding changes to development decisions . In this regard, according to the new Article 64c, they will expire after five years from the date they become final and binding . This is undoubtedly a significant change compared to the current regulations, where these decisions are indefinite. As we have already written, development decisions will have to be consistent with the general plan, to the extent specified in Article 54, paragraph 2. The latest draft additionally states that this compliance will also have to include "the size of the development area in relation to the area of the plot or land, not exceeding the value of the maximum development area indicator in relation to the area of the building plot, specified for the planning zone encompassing the site."
Turning to the latest changes to local plans, Article 14 now includes paragraph 6a, which states that land use changes concerning (1) large-scale retail facilities, (2) non-building-mounted renewable energy installations located: (i) on class I-III agricultural land and forest land, (ii) on class IV agricultural land with an installed electrical capacity exceeding 150 kW or used for electricity generation business activities, (iii) on land other than those indicated in letters a and b, with an installed electrical capacity exceeding 1,000 kW, will be made solely on the basis of a local plan. In practice, this means, among other things, that if the municipality does not adopt a local plan, siting the aforementioned facilities will be impossible.
Finally, in the scope of the integrated investment plan (IIP), the project promoters have waived the obligation to attach an environmental impact forecast to the IIP application where the projects could have a significant impact on the environment (Article 37eb, paragraph 1).
In summary, it is worth recalling that, according to the draft, the amendment is to enter into force within 30 days from the date of its publication, with the exception of selected provisions, which will enter into force on January 1, 2025 and January 1, 2026. We will also conduct detailed analyses in this regard.
As we mentioned in March, we will begin discussing the most important changes related to the reform of the Spatial Planning and Development Act. As on the first Tuesday of every month, next week we will prepare a summary of the most interesting information about the law from February and the changes planned for March.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
Legal status as of February 27, 2023
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