Last week, we began analyzing the regulations concerning the municipal general plan, i.e., the local law that will replace the current study of conditions and directions of spatial development and will be of significant importance to property owners for whom a local spatial development plan has not yet been adopted (as we wrote in #148 ). Today, we continue our analysis of these regulations, and therefore we will present to you the stages of adopting a general plan.
We would also like to inform you that the Act amending the Act on Spatial Planning and Development (the “ Act ”) and certain other acts (the “ Draft ”) has already been the subject of deliberations by the Sejm Committee on Local Government and Regional Policy, where the first reading of the Draft took place on 11 April 2023, together with the Infrastructure Committee.
According to the Draft, in order to begin work on adopting a general plan, the municipal council will be required to adopt a resolution to commence the preparation of a general plan. The municipal council may adopt this resolution on its own initiative, at the request of the head of the commune (mayor/city president), or as a result of a citizen-sponsored legislative initiative, as defined in the Local Government Act. The municipal council's resolution to commence the preparation of a general plan will be adopted by a simple majority vote in the presence of at least half of the statutory council membership, in an open vote.
Then, after the relevant resolution is adopted, the next steps will be implemented by the mayor (city mayor/president). First, the mayor will announce the adoption of the resolution to begin preparing the general plan, specifying the methods, location, and deadline for submitting applications for the draft, which cannot be less than 21 days from the date of announcement. Next, the mayor will also be obligated to notify the institutions and bodies responsible for reviewing and assessing the draft general plan, specifying the deadline for submitting applications for the draft general plan, which also cannot be less than 21 days from the date of notification.
After completing the above steps and obtaining all necessary approvals and opinions, the mayor will be required to prepare a draft general plan, along with a justification and an environmental impact assessment, if required. A justification consisting of text and graphics will be prepared along with the draft general plan. This draft general plan, along with the justification, will be made available in the Urban Planning Register.
The proposed procedure also assumes that the mayor will request: (a) opinions on the project from the relevant public administration bodies, and (b) approvals of the project from the relevant public administration bodies, conducted pursuant to Article 106 of the Code of Administrative Procedure. We remind you that the approvals referred to in point b) above are binding on the local government body, while the opinion is an expression of the public administration body's position, which is not binding.
After obtaining the opinion and making arrangements, the mayor introduces changes to the draft general plan and makes it available again in the Urban Register along with a justification, an environmental impact forecast (if required) and a list of proposals for the commune's general plan.
The next, crucial stage will be public consultations. The mayor will first announce the commencement of public consultations and then conduct them. Once these are completed, the mayor will introduce changes to the draft general plan resulting from the public consultations. The public consultation procedure will be conducted in accordance with the new Chapter 1a of the Act entitled "Public Participation." This chapter will define the principles of public participation in the development of spatial planning documents.
The bill assumes that the mayor will be obligated to repeat the review and approval process as necessary. Additionally, following public consultation, the draft general plan will once again be required to be made available in the Urban Registry, along with a report summarizing the public consultation process, including a list of submitted comments, a proposed review and justification, and minutes of the consultation activities (the " Report ").
After completing all of the above-mentioned activities, the mayor will present the draft general plan, along with the Report, to the municipal council, as it is the municipal council that will adopt the resolution on the adoption of the municipal general plan. Adoption of this resolution (as was the case with the resolution on commencing the preparation of the general plan) will be by a simple majority vote in the presence of at least half of the statutory council membership, in an open vote.
In summary, comparing the current regulations regarding the adoption of spatial development conditions and directions studies to the proposed process for adopting a municipal general plan, it can be seen that the drafters have slightly modified the procedure for adopting the study to the general plan. The most significant changes result, in particular, from the introduction of the Urban Planning Register and an attempt to increase the public's role in the municipal planning process.
Since we mentioned social participation today, next week we will be analyzing this topic, focusing in particular on the proposed wording of the new chapter 1a entitled "Social participation".
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
Legal status as of April 18, 2023
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