Property law: Poland's new draft zoning regulations

Among these changes are several new procedures and institutions entirely new to Poland's zoning and planning law, but at the same time several well-known legal instruments, such as planning decisions (decyzja o warunkach zabudowy), public investment decisions (decyzja o lokalizacji inwestycji celu publicznego) and local zoning studies (studium uwarunkowań i kierunków zagospodarowania przestrzennego) have been removed. The Ministry is currently consulting with several other authorities on the draft. Once the consultations are completed, the draft will be sent to Parliament and should be adopted into law, though this could take up to several months. As a result of the new law being adopted, the current Planning and Zoning Act will be repealed.

Essential changes

The changes proposed in the draft are based on three general aims, namely: increasing the number of areas designated for residential development; facilitating public investments; and regulating Poland's zoning system.

According to the Zoning Act (which remains in force until the new law is adopted), the basic and most important document related to planning and zoning is the local zoning plan (miejscowy plan zagospodarowania przestrzennego), which is legally binding in relation to establishing the conditions for development and the designation of properties. Where no local zoning plan is adopted, conditions for developing a property are established in planning decisions (issued upon completion of the relevant administrative procedure).

No planning decision necessary

The draft retains the institution of local zoning plans, but does away with planning decisions. Decisions issued on the basis of the Zoning Act would remain valid only for five years after the new Zoning Act takes effect. This would happen where no building permit was issued on the basis of such a decision, but if a building permit issued based on the planning decision is in place, the decision would not expire. Planning decisions issued on the basis of the new zoning law (as the draft provides for some temporary exceptions) would be valid for only two years from being issued.

In order to avoid situations where nothing would regulate the establishment of development conditions, the draft introduces a procedure for municipal authorities to adopt local planning regulations (miejscowe przepisy urbanistyczne) on the basis of special regulations called directional plans. These regulations would constitute the legal basis for issuing building permits, as they will constitute binding provisions of law. The local planning regulations will include a number of general principles of an architectural and zoning nature, which would point out the general direction for development where no local zoning plan is yet adopted. All these directions and principles will have to be complied with in order to execute a development project.

The next property law column will continue this look at the draft Zoning Act.

Janusz Dzianachowski is an associate at Linklaters law firm E-mail: janusz.dzianachowski@linklaters.com