The President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, signed the Act of 7 July 2023. amending the Act on Spatial Planning and Development and certain other acts systemically reforming spatial planning and development.
The Act provides for, among others, the following solutions:
- introducing a new planning tool, adopted obligatorily for the entire commune, in the form of an act of local law – a general plan – allowing for the determination of:
- a generalised functional and spatial structure of the commune by designating planning zones in which previously defined land functions can be implemented – basic parameters of development and land use will also be defined for the zones (the range of zones enabling the development of residential buildings will be determined by the methodologically specified demand for new residential buildings);
- the boundaries of the area where it will be possible to supplement the development based on the decision on development conditions;
- the boundaries of downtown development areas for which it will be possible to modify specific investment conditions;
- standards of accessibility of social infrastructure, i.e. the rules for locating new residential buildings in relation to the facilities providing public services;
- repeal of the provisions authorizing the issuance of a study of the conditions and directions of spatial development of the commune:
- the mandatory general plan will bind with its provisions both local plans and decisions on the conditions of development and land use;
- in terms of defining the framework for spatial policy, the role of the study will be played by the municipal development strategy;
- the general plan will not determine the intended use of the land, but will only indicate a catalogue of land uses that can be designated in local plans, similarly to the study of conditions and directions of spatial development;
- changes in the regulations regarding the planning procedure:
- shortening procedures, including the introduction of a simplified planning procedure in specific cases, enabling the simultaneous conduct of procedures for various acts and reducing the need to repeat public consultations;
- changes in the provisions regarding WZ decisions:
- introducing a limitation of the area analysed in the development decision for selected functions, in particular for residential development and service development, excluding trade – the act will define the maximum permissible range of the area analysed (requirements for new development will be determined based on the immediate vicinity);
- binding the decision with the provisions of the general plan – making its issuance conditional on the location in the area indicated for supplementary development and defining the framework for the decisions made in the decision;
- introducing into the Act the validity period of the decision on development conditions (5 years from the date the decision becomes final).
- introduction of the Urban Register, maintained in an IT system, which is a source of spatial data and information in the field of spatial planning and development;
- introduction of a new spatial planning act – ZPI, which is a form of local plan:
- instead of a resolution on the location of a residential investment – the project envisages ZPI as a new tool intended for the implementation of large investment projects requiring coordination in terms of equipping them with the necessary technical, communication and social infrastructure.
The Act was published in the Journal of Laws on August 24, 2023 and will enter into force in its main scope after 30 days.
The text of the act is available here.
