The adoption of the General Plan is a new statutory requirement as a result of the profound spatial planning reform introduced last year. In Wroclaw, applications to the General Plan could be submitted from 24th May to 2nd August. It was a schedule of compromise.
On the one hand, the General Plan is a strategic document for the municipality and Mayor Jacek Sutrak wanted to ensure that everyone involved had enough time to have their say. On the other hand, a longer period for the receipt of applications could not be set, because the schedule is quite tight.
General Plan of Wroclaw: a strategic document for the commune
The legislator expects all Polish local authorities to have General Plans in place by 31st December 2025. Despite the expectations of the local government community, the legislator has not extended this deadline so far. Given the complexity of this legal act, the procedure has to be really swift. A local authority that has not adopted the General Plan by the end of 2025 will not be able to adopt new local development plans or issue decisions on development conditions until it approves the General Plan in its commune.
General Plan. What will happen now?
It is important to remember that the amendment to the Spatial Planning and Development Act has changed the way of processing applications. The old one, where the Mayor decided on applications by an order as soon as they had been collected, is no longer valid. The proposal to consider applications along with a justification will be published already before the public consultation stage (item 6 in the attached schedule).
This means that the drafting of the General Plan will proceed concurrently with the analysis of the applications rather than after it. Planners can already see what is in the applications (for more detailed information on what could be requested, please click here). Thus, their findings on the possibility of development of the areas concerned will be a kind of preliminary response to the content of the applications.
The draft will then be submitted for opinion and agreement to authorised institutions (e.g. provincial government bodies, environmental protection authorities, the conservator of monuments, Wody Polskie and many others). At this stage, the draft version of the General Plan will already be available to all. As part of the opinion and agreement process, these institutions will be able to request changes to the draft in accordance with their competences. Only then will we finally analyse the applications submitted to the General Plan. The proposal for their consideration will, therefore, refer to the most recent version of the draft, i.e. the one already agreed upon. On this occasion, we will report on the specifics of the applications and the issues raised most frequently by applicants.
We will detail all comments submitted to the draft General Plan on time in a summary report, including their consideration and justification. Those that have been taken into account will be added to the draft. Only in this version will the General Plan be voted by the City Council, which may adopt it.
What will happen to applications to the General Plan submitted after the deadline?
Applications to the General Plan that were submitted after the deadline will not be eligible for inclusion in the list of applications described above. However, they will serve as supporting material in the drafting of the General Plan. A separate list will be drawn up for overdue applications, although it will not include proposals of consideration and justification. It will be published at the same time as the list of applications submitted by the deadline set from 24th May to 2nd August 2024.
Please remember that an application submitted by the deadline means the one that was posted no later than by 2nd August. This is determined by the date of the postmark, e-mail or stamp if the application is delivered in person to the office.
To check the progress of the General Plan for Wroclaw, click here.
Text: Michal Guz
