In the second October article in the series "Tuesday Mornings for the Construction Industry," we will analyze the provisions introducing the Urban Register , resulting from the Act of August 24, 2023, amending the Act on Spatial Planning and Development and certain other acts (the " Amendment "), which introduced fundamental changes to the Act of March 27, 2003, on Spatial Planning and Development (the " Act "). The Amendment entered into force on September 24, 2023.
The amendment introduces a new innovation into the Polish legal system: the Urban Planning Register ("Register") . Importantly, however, the provisions concerning the Register will not enter into force until January 1, 2026. The legal basis for the Register's operation will be "Chapter 5," i.e., new Articles 67d and 67e of the Act.
The Register introduced into Polish law by the Amendment will be maintained in an IT system and will be used to collect information and data related to spatial planning and development, as well as to enable the creation, updating, and sharing of spatial data related to spatial planning and development . The Minister responsible for construction, planning, and spatial development is responsible for maintaining the Register.
Access to the Register is to be free of charge and conducted via electronic means of communication. Furthermore, the legislator has established the principle of openness . This means that everyone will have access to the Register, and access will be ensured in such a way that anyone wishing to obtain information of interest can do so. The only limitation on the ability to obtain information will be personal data protection, which is why Article 67f, Section 2 of the Act explicitly limits the openness of the Register to this very factor.
The exact scope of information that will be mandatory in the register is set out in Article 67h of the Act. It states that the register provides information and data from:
- resolutions on starting to prepare spatial planning acts and a municipal revitalization program,
- applications for the preparation or amendment of general plans or local plans and applications for the adoption of integrated investment plans
- diagnoses referred to in Article 4, Section 1 of the Revitalization Act,
- resolutions on the detailed procedure and schedule for developing a draft municipal development strategy or supra-local development strategy,
- diagnoses referred to in Article 10a, paragraph 1 of the Act on the principles of development policy, prepared as part of the preparation of a draft municipal development strategy or supra-local development strategy,
- spatial planning acts together with justification, if its preparation is required,
- resolutions on the designation of degraded areas and revitalization areas, resolutions on the adoption of municipal revitalization programs and resolutions on the establishment of a Special Revitalization Zone in the revitalization area,
- resolutions on the adoption of a municipal development strategy or a supra-local development strategy,
- applications for issuing decisions on the conditions of development and land management, excluding investments located in closed areas established by the Minister of National Defence in the decision referred to in Article 4, paragraph 2a of the Geodetic and Cartographic Law,
- decisions on the conditions of development and land management, excluding decisions regarding investments located in closed areas established by the Minister of National Defence in the decision referred to in Article 4, paragraph 2a of the Act – Geodetic and Cartographic Law,
- resolutions on the validity of the general plan and local plans and the assessment referred to in Article 22 of the Revitalization Act,
- substitute orders of the voivode regarding the adoption of a spatial planning act,
- supervisory decisions of the voivode declaring invalidity of spatial planning acts,
- judgments of administrative courts regarding decisions on development and land development conditions.
Furthermore, the Register will also include a number of acts at the draft stage . These will include drafts concerning, among other things, spatial planning, municipal revitalization programs, resolutions on designating degraded roads and revitalization areas, resolutions on establishing a Special Revitalization Zone within a revitalization area, and supra-local development strategies. The Register will also include drafts of municipal revitalization programs, resolutions on designating degraded areas and revitalization areas, and resolutions on establishing Special Revitalization Zones within a revitalization area.
There will also be increased transparency and access to information regarding the so-called planning authority of the commune , in terms of draft commune development strategies or supra-local development strategies, as they will also have to be included in the Register from 1 January 2026.
It should be added that the legislature also imposes an obligation to promptly publish the aforementioned documents in the Register . This is particularly important, as the list includes, for example, decisions on development and land use conditions. This will allow for ongoing monitoring and monitoring of work progress and may also provide greater control over urban development plans. The obligation to enter data into the Register will rest with the bodies generating this information . In the case of administrative court rulings, the ruling will be entered by the body that prepared the contested act or the body competent to hear the case at first instance.
Under the current legal framework, the locations of most of these documents were scattered, and the Amendment is a major step towards unifying the method of collecting information on spatial planning and development.
It is worth mentioning, however, that the final shape of the Register introduced by the Amendment will be known only after the minister responsible for construction, spatial planning and development and housing specifies, by way of a regulation, the detailed organizational and technical solutions of the Register , the detailed scope of information and data collected in the Register and the procedure for creating, updating and making available the information and data referred to in Article 67d paragraph 1.
It's also worth emphasizing that the adopted solution continues a noticeable legislative trend of creating registration systems in construction and spatial planning, as well as efforts aimed at digitizing the construction and planning spheres. The register is another element of the system, following significant changes in construction law, including the e-construction system, the electronic construction log, the digital construction book, and the planned introduction of the System for Handling Administrative Proceedings in Construction (SOPAB).
The emergence of the Urban Planning Register may significantly facilitate operations, as the entire construction project will be easier to verify at every stage by accessing the planning data contained therein in one place.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
Legal status as of October 9, 2023
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