How to take into account different interests and balance community development? Ukrainians received the following tool
2 January 2025 08:49
On January 1, 2025, a new standard for communities came into effect: each of them must adopt local urban planning documentation – a Comprehensive Spatial Development Plan. Olena Shulyak, chairwoman of the Committee on the Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning, reminded this in an interview with a TV channel, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
According to her, this document will be crucial in planning the future development of cities and villages, establishing strategic directions for development, land use and zoning.
What is this plan?
The Comprehensive Plan for Spatial Development of the Community Territory, as explained by the Decentralization publication, is both urban planning documentation at the local level and land management documentation. It covers the entire territory of the community and has no expiration date, but is very flexible, as changes can be made every year.
Only by following this document will the community be able to allocate a land plot for a kindergarten, school or housing, an entrepreneur will be able to expand his business, and an ordinary resident will be able to change the purpose of his land plot.
A comprehensive plan is not just a new legal requirement, but, above all, the basis for qualitative changes in the community.
What benefits does this plan promise to the community residents?
1. Long-term development of the community, independent of the change of government.
Despite the fact that the government changes every 5 years, the Comprehensive Plan is a guarantee that the community development will not be affected and will be as it was approved. If the residents joined the creation of the document at the initial stage and their ideas are reflected in the urban planning documentation, they will be accurately implemented.
2. Balance of economic, social and environmental development of the community.
The Comprehensive Plan envisages a clear zoning of the community, including industrial, recreational and residential areas. This way, residents will be sure that a chemical plant or car wash will not suddenly appear near their dacha.
3. Consideration of everyone’s interests.
It happens that the owner of an enterprise can manipulate and even corruptly demand a reduction in the protection zone or change the type of activity of his enterprise. In such a situation, the interests of residents are often not taken into account or their ignorance is exploited. And when the construction of another high-rise building begins, people protest. Instead, the Comprehensive Plan provides clear and transparent rules of the game, so the authorities will not be able to make a “non-public” decision outside the approved plan.
4. Environmental protection.
It often happens that a local council allows construction on the territory of a protected area, and this is not always malicious: often the boundaries of protected areas are not established and not included in the state land cadastre. A comprehensive plan makes it possible not only to conduct a detailed inventory of all available resources – minerals, forests, etc. – but also to enter them into the cadastre. Also, thanks to zoning, only a sanatorium, not a farm or shop, will be built on the territory for recreation.
5. Budget savings.
If the family expands and wants to build a house on an adjacent plot, it will not need to develop additional land management documents to change the designated purpose of the land and detailed plans of the territory, as provided for in the current legislation. If such a functional designation of the territory is laid down in the Comprehensive Plan, all this documentation will already be included in the urban planning and land cadastre. The family will not need to spend money and a lot of time to go through all the necessary authorities: all they need to do is write an application to the local government, get a free extract from the cadastre, and move forward with the development project and the construction itself. If the functional purpose is not provided for in the Comprehensive Plan, such changes can be made next year, while master plans are now allowed to be changed every 5 years.
How can residents get involved in the plan’s development?
Community residents, first of all, need to
– follow the news on the community website;
– when a decision to prepare a Comprehensive Spatial Development Plan is made, find out how to submit their proposals;
– submit proposals on your own behalf (not anonymously) so that they are taken into account;
– find out who will be the representative of the settlement during the working group meeting and keep in touch with them;
– find out when and where the mandatory public event of public discussion – the Strategic Session – will take place, the announcement of which must be published 15 working days in advance.
And then actively engage in the work, remembering that it is up to the residents to determine how their community will develop.
