The capital city hall and the Union of Polish Metropolises are appealing for a change to the aviation law in Poland. Its current form means that new buildings cannot be built on a large area of the capital. An amendment to amend this law was recently dropped from the parliamentary agenda.
On Friday, June 28, an amendment to the amendment to the aviation law was dropped from the Sejm's agenda. It dropped quite unexpectedly, because two days earlier the introduction of this amendment had been supported by the Sejm's infrastructure committee. “Gazeta Stołeczna” was the first to report on this. The aviation law in its current form is an obstacle to investing in new buildings in a large area of the capital. This concerns the so-called airport master plan.
No “wuzetka” in the area covered by the airport master plan
In the area covered by the plan, building permits can only be issued on the basis of adopted development plans. If they do not exist, construction is not allowed. The investor cannot resort to the so-called “wuzetka”, i.e. development conditions – a simplified document enabling investment in an area not covered by a local spatial development plan.
– The Chopin Airport Master Plan covers 28 percent of the city. 50 percent of this area is not covered by local spatial development plans. The procedure for preparing the plan takes from 2 to 5 years, sometimes longer. As many as 18 thousand comments can be submitted on the spatial development plan – enumerated the deputy mayor of Warsaw, Renata Kaznowska, quoted by “Gazeta Stołeczna”.
The Warsaw City Hall and the Union of Polish Metropolises, among others, called for changes to the aviation law, fearing investment paralysis.
Master plan
On the other hand, for the last 20 years, wuzetkas have been the bane of public space in Poland. Cities have been adopting local development plans very slowly, and to this day the vast majority of them have only some areas covered by them. On the remaining areas, construction is carried out on wuzetkas, or, to put it generally, without a special plan, chaotically, contrary to harmonious development, without paying attention to educational, social, commercial or health infrastructure. Over time, cities have become accustomed to functioning in this opaque system.
Certain restrictions on “wuzetka” were introduced by the amendment to the Spatial Planning Act of July 7, 2023. This legal act is a huge change, because it introduces the so-called general plan. Municipalities have an absolute obligation to adopt it by the end of next year. It will apply to the entire area of the municipality not yet covered by local plans. Wuzetka issued on its basis will have to comply with it and will have a limited application period of five years. We wrote more about it here>>>
– As for the previously issued “wuzetkas”, the legislator, contrary to the first attempts, did not decide to phase them out. They will remain, they will be able to be the legal basis for further actions. However, new wuzetkas, issued in accordance with the general plan, will have a five-year validity period – explained Bartosz Rozbiewski, director of the Architecture and Spatial Planning Office at the capital city hall, during a recent meeting with journalists. However, as he admitted, if the general plan is not adopted by 2026, “the possibility of investing through development conditions will temporarily cease”.
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“Gazeta Stołeczna”, tvnwarszawa.pl
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