In today's article from the series "Tuesday Mornings for Construction," we would like to invite you to read a summary of two changes to real estate law that appeared in January 2025. Namely, the previously announced changes to the Aviation Law, and we will analyze the amendment to environmental protection regulations.
Changes in Aviation Law
On January 25, 2025, the Act of December 5, 2024, amending the Aviation Law, entered into force. This Act repealed Article 55, Section 9 of the Aviation Law , which introduced the obligation to prepare a local spatial development plan for areas covered by the general plan for public airports. This resulted in the indefinite suspension of proceedings for issuing decisions on development conditions. The Act also expanded the powers of the President of the Civil Aviation Authority to approve spatial planning acts.
It is worth remembering that the provisions of Article 877 of the Aviation Law in its current wording shall apply to proceedings initiated and not concluded before the date of entry into force of the amendment to the Aviation Law – including draft decisions on the conditions of development and land development for areas where obstacle limitation surfaces have been designated in accordance with Article 87 paragraph 1 of the Aviation Law, will be agreed with the President of the Civil Aviation Office.
As regards new draft decisions on conditional development for obstacle limitation surfaces, the approval of the President of the Civil Aviation Office must include compliance with the provisions of the general plan to the extent specified in Article 55, paragraph 6 of the Aviation Law.
Amendments to environmental protection regulations
On January 10, the Act of November 27, 2024, amending the Environmental Protection Law and certain other acts, entered into force. One of the significant changes to the existing legal framework is the introduction of the concept of an urban adaptation plan (hereinafter also referred to as an "urban adaptation plan"), which is understood to be a strategic and implementation document covering the area of a given city, aimed at reducing the city's vulnerability to climate change, including improving the city's ability to adapt to climate change.
Urban adaptation plans will constitute one of the means of implementing environmental protection policy, but pursuant to Article 18b, Section 3 of the Environmental Protection Law, they are not acts of local law. However, the obligation to adopt them pursuant to Article 18a, Section 1 applies to all cities with a population of 20,000 or more, in accordance with population statistics as of December 31 of the previous year, published by the Central Statistical Office.
The draft MPA is to be prepared by the mayor or city president, with public participation and after the city council adopts a resolution to proceed with its preparation. The plan is then adopted by a resolution of the city council. The deadline for adopting the urban adaptation plan is 30 months from the date the Central Statistical Office (GUS) publishes the aforementioned statistical data on the city's population.
The urban adaptation plan should include, among others:
- analytical part,
- the concept of greening the city,
- a concept for the management of rainwater and meltwater resulting from atmospheric precipitation within the city,
- program part,
- indication of the method of implementing the plan (including the principles of monitoring the effectiveness of achieving the specific objectives of the plan),
- conclusions and recommendations prepared on the basis of the already mentioned program part.
The mayor or city president is obligated by law to monitor the implementation of climate change adaptation measures by entities and bodies specified in the MPA and to prepare an appropriate report on the implementation of climate change adaptation measures every two years from the date of adoption of the municipal adaptation plan and submit it to the city council. All monitoring indicators and metrics must include: (i) a numerical baseline value, (ii) a numerical target value, and (iii) the year in which the target value is achieved.
Additionally, mayors and city presidents are required to report to the Institute of Environmental Protection by June 30 of the year following the period covered. The report is to be submitted every two years – in even-numbered years. The Institute of Environmental Protection is obligated to prepare and submit summaries of monitoring reports to the minister responsible for climate by November 30 of the even-numbered year. The minister responsible for climate, in turn, should define, by regulation, the detailed scope of the monitoring report, as well as monitoring metrics and indicators, bearing in mind the need to standardize the scope of information provided by mayors and city presidents.
We will undoubtedly monitor how these regulations are applied in practice.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
Legal status as of February 3, 2025.
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