The new Urban Planning Law of Andalusia in 10 key ideas

Summary:

The new Andalusian Urban Planning Law unifies the current planning regulations by updating them and making the procedures for the approval of urban planning instruments and the means of intervention in building activities more flexible, thus reducing the administrative formalities required.

The new Andalusian Law in 10 key ideas:

The Parliament of Andalusia has finally approved the Law 7/2021 of Promotion for the Sustainability of the Territory of Andalusia, which will come into force on 23 December 2021.

This new law is extensive and highly technical. However, the main novelties can be summarized in 10 key ideas:

1. Law 7/2021, that will be known as the LISTA, pursues an ambitious goal: to update and bring together in a single regulatory text the Andalusian regulations relating to territorial and urban planning. It also aims to solve the problems arising from the judicial annulment of general plans of a large number of municipalities in Andalusia.

2. The concepts of developable land, consolidated or non-consolidated urban land disappear. In line with the State Urban Planning Law, classification becomes simpler: urban land and rural land.

In order to be classified as urban land the soil may comply with one of the following specifications:

• It should have been urbanised and the urbanisation works should have been received/accepted by the Town Hall.
• It should have been urbanistically transformed/developed and should have access by urban road and connection to basic supply services.
• It should be built on at least two thirds of the space suitable for it.

Rural land, on the other hand, includes land under special protection by virtue of sectoral legislation or preserved land, as well as the rest of the land not expressly classified as urban land.

3. In order to streamline urban planning, the LISTA defines new planning instruments with a more precise content, avoiding the need for excessive regulation in the general plan itself. Thus, a distinction is made between:

a. The General Municipal Development Plan (PGOM), as the general urban planning model for the municipality which aims, in general, to delimit urban land from rural land (and its different categories), to identify structuring elements and to provide the criteria and guidelines for new developments.

b. The Urban Development Plan (POU) can cover all the urban land of the municipality or only some areas, so it is feasible to approve several POUs in the same municipality.

4. The LISTA also aims to reduce the formalities and deadlines for the approval of urban planning instruments. However, it is noteworthy that, although the explanatory memorandum included at the beginning of the LISTA states that after three years from the initial approval the planning instrument can be understood as definitely approved by positive silence, the substantive content (i.e. article 79) establishes the opposite: the time lapse of the procedure. And it is the substantive content that prevails.

In addition, the fifth final provision modifies Law 7/2007 of 9 July, on Integrated Environmental Quality Management, specifying the environmental assessment procedure required for the approval of each instrument.

5. In relation to renewable energy activities, so relevant in recent years, the LISTA includes the uses related to renewable energy as ordinary uses on rural land. This inclusion is of great importance since it implies that the implementation of these activities only requires the granting of the municipal licence and not an exceptional authorization as provided by Law 7/2002 of 17 December, of Urban Planning of Andalusia (LOUA). Also, this inclusion eliminates the need to pay an urban canon.

6. With regard to building activity, the LISTA distinguishes between acts subject to municipal licence, responsible statement or prior communication. However, it does not list the acts subject to licence, but only those that require responsible statement or prior communication. Therefore, the municipal licence would have a more residual nature, applicable to those acts requiring administrative intervention that are not subject to responsible statement or prior communication.

7. For the purposes of the deadlines for the execution of the works and their expiration, the LISTA distinguishes between works covered by a municipal licence and those authorised by means of a responsible statement. Thus, in the event that the works covered by a responsible statement are not executed on time, the Town Hall could declare its expiration (and the consequent stoppage of the works) without the need for prior notification to the party concerned.

8. Regarding the sanctioning procedure, infringements regarding the territorial planning have been included, with the regional administration being the body authorised for the imposition of penalties in this matter. Also, in relation to the amount of penalties, the maximum amount of serious penalties has been updated to 29,999 euros (the LOUA stablishes only 5,999 euros), with exceptions in which the amount may be increased to 75% of the value of the damage caused.

It also includes the potential reduction of fines if liability is acknowledged or in the event of prompt compliance with the resolution notified, in accordance with Law 39/2015, of 31 October, of the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations. An additional reduction of up to 50% could be applied when, in addition to the sanctioning procedure, a procedure for the restoration of urban planning legality has been initiated against the same person who acknowledges liability and executes the restoration within the deadlines required by the Public Authority. The reduction will be limited to 25% if voluntary restoration is carried out but the aforementioned deadlines have elapsed.

9. The requirements previously established by the LOUA for the granting of the new works declarations are updated, including the responsible statement as an enabling title.

10. The LISTA is intended to be immediately effective and will be applied to procedures that have already begun, including the approval of planning instruments and the necessary authorisations for building activity.

Thus, the LISTA provides the approval by mid-2022 of one or more development regulations, as well as the imminent amendment of the Territorial Plan of Andalusia. It remains to confirm if this schedule is met and how municipalities with annulled planning adapt their regulations to the LISTA.