Local development plan

What is a local development plan?

Municipalities are under an obligation to carry out spatial policy. The performance of this obligation consists in the development of various planning documents that directly or indirectly affect the content of the ownership right and the use of real property. The document which most precisely and directly shapes the ownership right to real property located within the territory of a municipality is the local spatial development plan. It takes the form of a normative act adopted in the form of a resolution of the municipal council. As a normative act, it is binding for everyone. The local spatial development plan is a special type of normative act as it is also an act of local law. This means that its binding force is limited to the area of the municipality that adopted it. The local plan is subject to interpretation like any other normative act. In practice, this is important for the interpretation of individual provisions of the local plan. The municipality is not obliged to adopt a local plan for its area. Usually, municipalities (especially those with a larger area) have more than one local plan.

Procedure for adopting the local plan

The local spatial development plan is adopted through a resolution procedure of the municipal council. First, the municipal council votes on a resolution to proceed with the development of a local plan. Then the municipality develops the draft plan. Once the draft is finalised, the municipality organises consultations with the participation of residents who can submit comments on the draft local plan. The municipality is obliged to resolve these comments. The final stage is voting in the municipal council on the resolution to adopt the local plan. The procedure for the amendment of the local plan is analogous. The adoption of the local plan is announced in the official gazette of the province having jurisdiction over the location of the municipality that adopted the local plan.

Form and content of the local plan

The local plan consists of a text part and a drawing. An appendix to the resolution contains information on the manner of resolving the comments submitted to the plan. In the text, information on separate planning zones, which are indicated by abbreviations containing letters and numbers, e.g. R15 can be found. For example, in the plan you can sometimes find usable green zones with a ban on development. In the content of the local plan, each zone is linked to a specific land use and permitted use. These zones are plotted on a map showing the area covered by the local plan. In the drawing, existing buildings, roads and streets and geographical features (e.g. rivers), among others, are mapped. Once a property has been located on the drawing and it has been ascertained in which zone it is located, it can be found in the text section what its intended use is and what uses are permitted.
Legal status as at 5.06.2024