Maciej J. Nowak
Articles
Uncovering Spatial Planning Values through Law: Insights from Central East European planning systems
Europa XXI (2024) vol. 47, pp. 8
Abstract
The spatial planning act should define the key values of a given planning system. However, legally defining these values does not guarantee their smooth or efficient implementation. However, it should provide guidance in their subsequent interpretation. Spatial planning law defines values but does not guarantee their realisation. The articulation of values in spatial planning law must, as a rule, be more general, detailed by specific provisions and considered in judicial interpretation.The aim of this article is to extract and comparative analysis spatial planning values comprised within national legal acts of Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. It then sets out to compare these values to the planning practices within these countries. Values stated in legislation at the national level are also applicable at lower planning levels, particularly at the local level. Their inclusion in Acts is therefore very important from the perspective of planning practice. For the purposes of this article, values in spatial planning are those comprised within national laws on spatial planning matters. This refers to the values explicitly identified and included at the beginning of such laws. The way these values are framed and understood is explored in the article. The legal recognition of values in spatial planning can provide a basis for their wider implementation. However, there are several barriers against their successful implementation. Different jurisdictions engage with these values in distinct ways. The same applies to actual planning practice. Identifying and comparing the ways in which spatial planning values are framed in the laws of the surveyed countries made it possible to single out values that are repeated in all systems (e.g., sustainable development, environmental protection, protection of architectural properties and public interest) and values that are framed differently across Central East Europe planning systems.
Keywords: law, spatial planning, sustainable development, values
[maciej.nowak@zut.edu.pl], Department of Real Estate, Faculty of Economics, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin, Poland
[andrei.mitrea@uauim.ro], Department of Urban Planning and Territorial Development, School of Urban Planning, “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning, Bucharest, Romania
[filepne.kovacs.krisztina@uni-mate.hu], Department of Landscape planning and Regional Development, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences
[evelin.jyrgenson@emu.ee], Forest and Land Management and Wood Processing Technologies, Institute of Forestry and Engineering, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia
[plegut@sgh.waw.pl]
[alexandru_petrisor@yahoo.com], Doctoral School of Urban Planning, Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism, Bucharest, Romania; Department of Architecture, Faculty of Urbanism and Architecture, Technical University of Moldova, Chişinău, Moldova, National Institute for Research and Development in Tourism, Bucharest, Romania; and National Institute for Research and Development in Constructions, Urbanism and Sustainable Spatial Development URBAN-INCERC, Bucharest, Romania
[v.simeonova@ub.edu, velislavasimeonova@gmail.com], Faculty of Geography and History, Department of Geography, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
[malgorzata.blaszke@zut.edu.pl]
Citation
APA: Nowak, M., Mitrea, A., Filepné Kovács, K., Jürgenson, E., Legutko-Kobus, P., Petrișor, A., Simeonova, V., & Blaszke, M. (2024). Uncovering Spatial Planning Values through Law: Insights from Central East European planning systems. Europa XXI, 47, 8. https://doi.org/
MLA: Nowak, Maciej J., et al. "Uncovering Spatial Planning Values through Law: Insights from Central East European planning systems". Europa XXI, vol. 47, 2024, pp. 8. https://doi.org/
Chicago: Nowak, Maciej J., Mitrea, Andrei, Filepné Kovács, Krisztina, Jürgenson, Evelin, Legutko-Kobus, Paulina, Petrișor, Alexandru-Ionut, Simeonova, Velislava, and Blaszke, Małgorzata. "Uncovering Spatial Planning Values through Law: Insights from Central East European planning systems". Europa XXI 47 (2024): 8. https://doi.org/
Harvard: Nowak, M., Mitrea, A., Filepné Kovács, K., Jürgenson, E., Legutko-Kobus, P., Petrișor, A., Simeonova, V., & Blaszke, M. 2024. "Uncovering Spatial Planning Values through Law: Insights from Central East European planning systems". Europa XXI, vol. 47, pp. 8. https://doi.org/
Europa XXI (2023) vol. 45, pp. 5 | 
Full text
doi: https://doi.org/10.7163/Eu21.2023.45.5
Abstract
Local-level spatial policies in Poland are determined by diverse social, economic, political and environmental factors. On the one hand, they result from the specific characteristics of individual areas. On the other, however, supra-local factors are found to be playing an increasingly important role. These can include trends related to the Europeanisation of spatial planning and the associated promoted institutional changes and changes in planning practices. However, from February 2022 onwards, certain European countries in particular have seen another important factor has come into play, i.e. the war in Ukraine. It thus seems legitimate to verify how the fundamental change in the geopolitical situation, i.e. the location in the immediate vicinity of a victim state (Ukraine), an aggressor state (Russia) and an aggressor-friendly state (Belarus), along with a number of related consequences (including a change in the nature of border capacity, a sense of insecurity, potential changes in investment policy, etc.) determine the directions local spatial policies have been taking. The main purpose of the article is to diagnose the current planning situation of units of local-government administration along Poland’s eastern border by reference to two groups of issues: (1) concerning the state of progress of planning work, as well as (2) the impact of the outbreak of war in Ukraine on changes in spatial policy (perforce ancillary, given the small number of responses received). The source of the data were annual surveys of the Ministry of Development and Technology and Statistics Poland regarding the advancement of planning work at the level of the Polish gmina, as well and a survey addressed to all 77 such units of local administration located by the border. Particular reference was made to the application of spatial-planning instruments at the local level (studies of spatial planning conditions and directions, local spatial development plans and decisions on development conditions – with the analyses concerning the period before the major July 2023 amendment of spatial planning law). Particular attention was paid to the frequency of enactment of individual acts, with this being related to both earlier periods and trends in Poland as a whole. The research finds that the relatively high level of activity shown by some of the surveyed gminas in amending/updating spatial planning studies and spatial / physical development plans may not be related to the outbreak of war in Ukraine. The Polish spatial-planning system in fact lacks instruments by which to react flexibly and ensure the integration of development policies (as is particularly necessary when a crisis erupts).
Keywords: local government, Polish border areas, public safety, Schengen border, spatial policy, war
[psleszyn@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
[maciej.nowak@zut.edu.pl], Department of Real Estate, Faculty of Economics, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin, Poland
Citation
APA: Śleszyński, P., & Nowak, M. (2023). Directions of change in the spatial policies of Polish border municipalities during the first year of war in Ukraine, 2022. Europa XXI, 45, 5. https://doi.org/10.7163/Eu21.2023.45.5
MLA: Śleszyński, Przemysław, and Nowak, Maciej J.. "Directions of change in the spatial policies of Polish border municipalities during the first year of war in Ukraine, 2022". Europa XXI, vol. 45, 2023, pp. 5. https://doi.org/10.7163/Eu21.2023.45.5
Chicago: Śleszyński, Przemysław, and Nowak, Maciej J.. "Directions of change in the spatial policies of Polish border municipalities during the first year of war in Ukraine, 2022". Europa XXI 45 (2023): 5. https://doi.org/10.7163/Eu21.2023.45.5
Harvard: Śleszyński, P., & Nowak, M. 2023. "Directions of change in the spatial policies of Polish border municipalities during the first year of war in Ukraine, 2022". Europa XXI, vol. 45, pp. 5. https://doi.org/10.7163/Eu21.2023.45.5