It's finally here – on July 6, 2023, the Act of May 26, 2023, amending the Act on Spatial Planning and Development and certain other acts (the " Amendment ") was adopted in its final version by the Sejm and submitted for the President's signature. This means it could enter into force before the summer break. We would also like to point out that none of the Senate amendments we wrote about two weeks ago ( #158 ) were adopted by the Sejm.
That's why we're not stopping here, and today's article is dedicated to changes in the local development plan ("MPZP") adoption process. We invite you to read on to learn more about these changes.
The regulatory changes introduced by the Amendment are intended to simplify, standardize, and accelerate the process of creating spatial planning documents. As the Ministry of Development and Technology points out, nearly one-third of local plans take over three years to process.
The commune head, mayor, or city president will, as before, be responsible for preparing a draft local spatial plan, containing text and graphics, along with a justification, taking into account the municipality's spatial policy as defined in the municipal development strategy or supra-local development strategy the fundamental change requires the municipality to confirm its compliance with the provisions of the municipal general plan . Let us reiterate that municipal general plans will replace the study of spatial development conditions and directions.
The amendment details how the local spatial development plan (MPZP) should be understood to be consistent with the general plan. The first criterion will be to establish the land use in the local plan consistent with the functional profile of the planning zone encompassing the area . Secondly, the plan will establish the method of land development and development in terms of:
- a minimum share of biologically active area not less than the minimum share of biologically active area specified for the planning zone covering the site; and in the case of a site located in the city centre development area – not less than 2/3 of the minimum share of biologically active area specified for the planning zone covering the site;
- maximum above-ground development intensity not greater than the maximum share of the development area specified for the planning zone covering the area;
- maximum share of the development area not greater than the maximum share of the development area specified for the planning zone covering the area.
The compliance criterion is also based on meeting the requirement for municipal standards for accessibility of social infrastructure , meaning that each cadastral plot in the area must have access to social infrastructure facilities and access routes existing on the date of adoption of the local spatial development plan (MPZP) or feasible under that plan or another. This is intended to eliminate, among other things, the so-called transportation exclusion of residents of new developments.
Under the new local plans, the municipal council will be required to decide on the method of implementing the technical infrastructure investments specified in the local plan , which are the municipality's own responsibilities, and on the principles of their financing, in accordance with public finance regulations. As before, the text portion of the local plan will constitute the text of the resolution, while the graphic portion and required decisions will constitute its annexes.
It's worth noting that the Amendment allows for parallel processing of the local spatial development plan and the municipal general plan . Article 27a of the Amendment explicitly states that a local spatial development plan or its amendment may be prepared while the general plan is being prepared or amended. In the above-mentioned case, however, the adoption of the local spatial development plan or its amendment may occur no sooner than after the deadline for the voivode to issue a supervisory decision regarding the resolution on the general plan or its amendment.
A new feature of the Amendment is a motion to adopt a resolution to develop a local spatial development plan (LZP) through a citizen initiative , as defined in Article 41a of the Act of 8 March 1990 on Local Government. As before, this initiative will also be available to the municipal council and the commune head, mayor, or city president. However, regardless of the originator of the initiative, the commune head, mayor, or city president will be obligated to analyze the feasibility of developing a local spatial development plan and determine the necessary scope of planning work. We also encourage you to read the article detailing the scope of public consultations resulting from the Amendment ( #150 ).
We also indicate that the draft MPZP together with its justification, environmental impact forecast (if required) and the list of applications referred to in Article 8k, paragraph 1 of the Amendment will be made available in the Register.
Regarding the plans' entry into force, we note that the entry into force of the municipal general plan will not result in the loss of validity of existing local plans. This means that local plans adopted to date remain valid. The resolution adopting the local plan will be effective from the effective date specified therein, but no sooner than 14 days after its publication in the official journal of the voivodeship.
Next week we will discuss the simplified procedure for adopting a local development plan.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
Legal status as of July 10, 2023
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