Legal Highlights for Real Estate – September 2023

Amendment to the Act on planning and spatial development

On 23 September 2023, the Act of 7 July 2023 amending the Act on Planning and Spatial Development and certain other acts (the “Amendment“) entered into force. This is the largest amendment to the Planning and Spatial Development Act to date. We have already described one of the most important changes introduced by the Amendment, i.e. Integrated Investment Plans, in the August issue of Real Estate Highlights (https://publikacje-tpa.pl/en/publikacje/legal-highlights-for-real-estate-august-2023/).

Below we present the other most significant changes introduced by the Amendment.

1. by 31 December 2025, the planning instrument, i.e. the study of conditions and directions for spatial development of the municipality, is to be replaced by a municipality’s general plan. The municipality’s general plan will be a document containing only the basic arrangements that are to allow the municipality to plan sustainable and harmonious development. Importantly, its findings will be the basis not only for adopting local plans, but also for issuing decisions on development conditions.
2. The rules of public participation in the procedure for enacting planning acts will also be changed – among others, by extending access to information on consultations or providing the possibility of obtaining information from the Urban Register free of charge via e-mail. As envisaged in the justification of the Amendment: “the separation of the provisions on public participation as a separate chapter is aimed at raising the standards of discussions with residents and opening up the catalogue of possible participation tools to include new techniques, including those related to digitisation.”
3. The provisions on decisions on zoning conditions are also being amended – the issuance of a zoning decision will be linked to the location in the area of the development complement in the municipality’s general plan and the requirement to comply with the general plan in terms of the function of the development and urban planning parameters and indicators. This is an important change, as up to now zoning decisions have been issued independently of the findings of the study of conditions and directions for spatial development. In addition, zoning decisions have become time-bound and, in accordance with the Amendment, expire five years after the date on which they became legally valid.

Streamlining environmental decisions for car parks and garage halls

On 13 September 2023, the Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 10 August 2023 amending the Regulation on projects likely to have a significant impact on the environment (the “Regulation“) entered into force. According to the justification of the Regulation, it is intended to help reduce the burden and streamline the investment process related to environmental decision requirements for car parks and garage halls. Under the new regulations, the area of a car park/garage hall required to obtain an environmental decision has been increased – to 1 ha of car park (garage hall) area, from the current 0.5 ha, and in areas of nature conservation forms – to 0.5 ha, from the current 0.2 ha. This means significant facilitation for investments involving the construction of large car parks.