The Act of July 7, 2023, amending the Act on Spatial Planning and Development was published on August 24, 2023, and entered into force in most of its content 30 days after its publication. However, the most important changes revolutionizing spatial development in Poland will enter into force by the end of 2025. The changes will mainly affect the obligations of municipalities.
The most important changes of this revolution in spatial development include the introduction of a general master plan for the commune which will replace the current studies of conditions and directions of spatial development and changes in the procedure for issuing decisions on development conditions in the absence of the master plan.
The general plan will replace the studies of conditions and directions of spatial development of the commune at the end of 2025. The communes have been given a difficult task consisting in the necessity to prepare general plans covering the entire areas of the communes. The communes are obliged to prepare such plans after conducting a procedure in which many entities will participate, and the local community will also have a significant share. The above means that the legislator has given the communes a very difficult task, which is to lead to the unification and regulation of development-related problems in Poland, both in the scope of private construction - single-family houses, and in the scope of investments related to multi-family buildings and commercial and office buildings and all kinds of industrial plants.
Unlike the study of conditions and directions of spatial development, the general plan will be an act of local law. This means that it will have legal force, and its provisions will bind planners issuing decisions on development conditions. The decision on development conditions will have to be based on the assumptions of the general plan, which will limit the freedom of decision-making of communal planners. In addition, the provisions of the local plan will be a binding basis for the adoption of local plans, which should shorten the periods needed for their adoption.
The general plan will have to define the planning zones indicated in the act and define municipal urban standards. It will also be possible to establish areas of supplementary development and areas of supplementary development of the city centre. The supplementary areas will be areas where it will be possible to issue decisions on development conditions in the absence of a local master plan for a given area. Such decisions cannot be issued outside the area of supplementary development. The general plan of the commune will be divided into planning zones, which have been divided into 13 categories and will concern, among others, residential development zones, service zones, large-scale trade, agricultural production, cemeteries, greenery and recreation, communication. These zones will fill the entire master plan, at the same time indicating the framework directions for the development of a given area.
Unfortunately, existing decisions on development conditions issued before the act came into force remain unchanged and will continue to be valid for an indefinite period, but the changes introduced by the act nevertheless seem to be a step in the right direction.
On the other hand, for the new development conditions (which will become final after January 1, 2026), a validity period has been introduced and limited to five years - from the day the decision becomes final.
In addition, technical and substantive issues will change, a decision on development conditions will only be able to be issued for properties where, in accordance with the general plan, the issuance of such decisions is permissible for specific types of buildings.
As mentioned above, changes to development conditions will unfortunately not cover decisions on development conditions that came into force before the Act came into force, which will continue to cause arbitrariness and spatial disorder. In relation to development conditions issued after the Act came into force, property owners will be limited, on the one hand, by the five-year validity period of development conditions, but on the other hand they will be aware of what types of facilities may be built in the vicinity of their property. Unfortunately, the legislator did not decide to introduce changes or to limit the applicable development conditions to any extent, which may result in the creation of facilities that are inconsistent with the general plan in a few years, and this is based on legally binding and valid decisions on development conditions issued before the changes described in this article came into force. On the other hand, it should be borne in mind that, in accordance with the constitutional principle of legal certainty and the principle of non-retroactivity of law, interference in existing decisions on development conditions would lead to the State Treasury being liable for damages towards those entitled to these decisions.
By Bartosz Miszkurka, Partner, and Jakub Paszkiewicz, Associate, Solivan, PONTES
