On July 7, 2023 The Parliament passed the Act Amending the Act on Urban Planning and Development and Certain Other Laws. The amendment introduces truly revolutionary changes in the field of urban planning, which should be of particular interest to investors.
Primarily, the act assumes the replacement of the study of land use conditions and directions with a new planning document – the municipality’s general plan. The plan is to play a similar role to the study, but local plans and decisions on development conditions will have to fully align with it. In addition, its preparation will be mandatory for each municipality by the end of 2025.
Subsequently, the legislator has provided a validity period for newly issued decisions on development conditions, limiting it to five years. This change will certainly force investors to determine a detailed forecast of thestart and duration of ongoing investments. At the same time, the premise of the adopted change is to stop blocking of space by investors who do not use the zoning decisions issued for them.
In order for decisions on development conditions to be issued, It will be necessary to take into account in advance specially designated areas of development supplementation additions in the general plan. Thus, the principle that decisions on development conditions are issued in places where the local plan is not in force will no longer apply. Certainly, new restrictions on the issuance of such decisions will make it more difficult to obtain them, especially in poorly urbanized areas.
The amendment also introduces a new type of a local plan – an integrated investment plan, which will be adopted at the request of an investor intending to carry out an investment in a specific area of the municipality. Ultimately, it is to replace the resolutions on determining the location of a residential investment project issued under the so-called housing development act (“lex developer”), but in a much broader form, as the motion will be submitted by investors not only from the development sector. The mutual obligations of the investor and the municipality will be regulated by an urban planning agreement in the form of a notarial act.
The legislator also provides the launch of a universal Urban Register, maintained in an ICT system, starting in 2026. This system is to be a source of information and data (including documents produced during the preparation of planning acts, reports on public consultations, administrative decisions related to urban planning, decisions of supervisory bodies).
From the perspective of investors, the key in the near future will be transitional provisions. Certainly, the amendment will raise many doubts in practice, although its assumptions can be initially evaluated positively. On the other hand, it is already worth carefully analyzing the introduced regulation to adjust your investment plans to the assumptions of the amendment.
Author:
Marek Generowicz
Trainee attorney-at-law