EUKN - Poland - National Urban Policy of Poland

National Urban Policy of Poland

Introduction
Poland is a parliamentary republic of unitary territorial organisation (i.e. non-federal) with a growing role for self-governments. There are self-governmental authorities at the regional, county and local levels of public administration. But all legislative powers and a substantial proportion of the executive power emanates from the central state institutions.

The governmental agency responsible for the general coordination and standardisation of Polish physical planning is the Ministry of Infrastructure (MI). But responsibility for the national physical (or spatial) development policy and other planning forms at this level lies with the Government Centre for Strategic Studies (GCSS).
Another planning-related authority at the central level is the Ministry of Environment (ME), responsible for so-called ‘protection plans’, prepared for the National and Landscape (regional) Parks. Those plans do not however belong to the category of spatial plans in the sense of the Physical Development Act. In terms of environmental issues surrounding the actual spatial plans, ME has certain guiding and control duties.

Organisation
There are 16 regions in Poland, with their populations ranging from 1 to 5 million and areas from 10,000 to 35,000 km2. The average population is 2.416 million and the average area is 19,500 km2. Regional self-government encompasses the Regional Assembly (parliament), and the Board of the Region (executive body), headed by the Voivodship Marshal. The regional self-government has full responsibility for strategic (comprehensive, socio-economic) and spatial (physical) planning at this level of the country’s administrative division.

At this level the state also exercises its control functions (restricted mainly to public safety, building, environmental and health standards, general conformity of laws), through the regional representatives of the central government (called Voievodes). The regional body responsible for planning is the Marshal’s Office and its Department of Strategy and Development. Other institutions involved in formulating regional plans and their implementation and monitoring are largely independent. They include public institutions like regional development agencies, non-governmental organisations, foundations and private institutes.

County
There are 373 counties (poviats) in Poland, including 68 cities with the power of independent municipal counties. The average county population is 103,000 and the area is 836.4 km2. Most municipal counties are cities with more than 100,000 people. The role of counties in public administration is intermediate, somewhat auxiliary, with no specific planning responsibilities. The county generally has a self-governmental character, while also performing specific tasks commissioned by the state (central government).
Local
The basic, traditional self-governmental entities, called gmina (commune), comprise urban communes (towns, cities), urban-rural communes and rural communes. The average population is 15,000 and the area is 125 km2. There are 2,489 such entities in all, of highly varying sizes and social, economic and environmental features. This apart, all communes exercise the same substantial responsibilities in development and physical planning. Their enforcement potential is unfortunately weak, with the exception of the 68 cities which also possess municipal county status.
Brief planning legislation overview
The first Building Act in Poland regulating urban planning was passed by Parliament as far back as 1928. In contemporary Poland it is the constitution which establishes the principles of sustainability and self-governance as fundamentals for spatial development policy. Most planning and policy-forming activities in Poland are carried out at the local and regional level by self-governmental institutions, meaning that the Local Self-government and Regional Self-government Acts must be taken into consideration as the source of procedural regulation.

The basic regulatory instrument for spatial planning in Poland is the Spatial Planning and Spatial Management Act of 27 March 2003, which:

defines the scope and procedure of issues related to appropriation of land for specific uses and to establishment of the principles for its development – assuming sustainable development as a foundation;
regulates the way of resolving conflicts of interests that might arise between citizens, self-governed communities and the state.

There are other important parliamentary acts which impose certain tasks and obligations on spatial planning players, thus causing planning, building and environmental protection to be regulated by entirely different acts:

the Environment Protection and Management Act (the framework for many detailed material law regulations, e.g. covering forests, water or waste management, protection of nature or arable land);
the Building Code (covering construction and engineering activities);
the Law on Real Property Management.

There are three basic levels within the Polish planning system: national, regional and local.

National level
The Government Centre for Strategic Studies produces a strategic document called the Concept of National Spatial Development (Koncepcja Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania Kraju).

This is a tool for structural changes in the country, exercised through keeping local governments and sectoral interest groups informed and involving them in the spatial development strategic management. The methodology of the Concept production procedure is the process of negotiations between institutional players in public administration and other important players (in accordance with the national scale of the policy). It is not a plan of physical structure, but rather a type of open and strategic planning process.

In terms of the Spatial Planning Act the basic objectives of this document are:

providing natural, cultural, social and economic circumstances, objectives and directions for national spatial policy;
establishing the principles of the spatial system of settlement and infrastructure;
balancing the development of regions;
establishing the basis for sectoral and regional public duties programmes.

When adopting the document the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) decides the extent to which the Concept is considered while elaborating national programmes for fulfilling governmental tasks of a public nature. These programmes need to be negotiated with the regional self-governments.
Complementary to the document, regular reports on spatial management are elaborated at the national level as part of the state monitoring system. In accordance with the Spatial Planning Act, these reports are prepared by the minister responsible for construction, spatial and housing economy – the Minister of Infrastructure.

Regional level
Spatial planning in Poland embodies particular duties of regional self-government in the voivodship (regional assembly) and comprises two differ ent processes and documents.

First, a strategy for regional development has to be prepared and adopted in each voivodship by its self-government authorities.
These documents are highly comprehensive and focus mainly on social and economic issues. Many public and non-public players participate in their preparation.
These strategies should be amended periodically. Regional programmes (action plans listing priority tasks and actions to be carried out by regional authorities) have to be based on the strategy while also coordinating with the voivodship’s spatial development plan.

The second facet is the regional spatial development plan which the Act specifies must formulate the spatial policy of the voivodship based on the concept of:

socially agreed objectives and directions of development;
spatial development and settlement system organisation;
location of principal public infrastructure and other developmental programmes;
integration of natural and cultural environment requirements into spatial policy;
and ultimately balancing regional and local interests with those of the country as a whole (national and trans-national).

Regional spatial development plans should thus take into consideration the national and regional tasks of a broader scope than just local, stemming from the regional programmes.

Local level
At the lowest level of public administration all local (municipal and rural) self-governing communes are obliged to prepare and approve a political document called a strategy for local development, and a study on the preconditions and directions for the commune’s physical development.
These policy studies are obligatory for all communes. Such studies must consider national and regional goals and directions, as well as spatial development policies and programmes for a given area, and any other laws and conditions covering the use of land and other man-made and natural resources. The planning object is the total territory under the administration of a single commune.

The Spatial Planning Act prescribes their tasks as:

identifying the commune’s physical development preconditions and directions;
establishing principles of sustainable territorial and economic development;
functional zoning and indication of areas for housing and other direct investment;
providing general proposals for technical infrastructure systems, the location of main roads and other technical networks;
identifying the most important preservation areas due to their natural, economic (e.g. agricultural) and cultural value;
establishing local planning policy (system of plans and monitoring);
determining the boundaries of areas indicated for organised development or revitalisation, and sites intended for implementation of public objectives (programmes).

The final planning document listed in the Spatial Planning Act is the Local Physical Development Plan. Such plans are generally prepared for some parts of a municipal or rural commune only, and only when necessary. The plan is a legal basis for the detailed spatial management of a given territory and is legally binding for all players. The local council adopting it in the form of a local by-law divides the allocation of land between different functions and also provides a legal basis for land reclamation for important public tasks. As a rule the common tasks proposed by a higher tier of government can be introduced into the plan only through negotiations.

The main tasks of local physical development plans are detailed regulations for:

land use and infrastructure services (amenities);
establishing and observing local standards and building conditions;
dividing a given area (covered by the plan) into building plots.

Current Issues
The governmental planning system level is still complicated and does not have sufficient enforcement possibilities for implementing strategic decisions. Nor are there effective procedures for coupling the system with bottom-up feedback.

There are no sufficiently-defined rules incorporated into the regional plans and programmes for settling any possible controversies surrounding the governmental programmes. Also at the local level, the various issues are difficult to introduce properly. The communes, and local communities in general, have many opportunities to avoid the imposition of unwanted programmes and projects, for example through prolonging the procedures surrounding the preparation of local plans, sustaining social and judicial processes etc.

The planning is not comprehensive both at the local and regional level - divided into the physical development and strategic plans.
The number of enacted local plans is unsatisfactory at the local level. However the Spatial Planning and Spatial Management Act has made it easier and quicker for a commune to elaborate and enact a local plan, but financial problems mean commune planning activity remains at a somewhat low level.

Some communes also prefer to manage space through administrative decisions rather than local plans, through misunderstanding the advantages of flexibility. This naturally leads to space suffering damage and unbalanced development.