Poland has attempted several times to create a uniform and consistent system of planning and zoning. The current core legal act, the zoning law, has been in force since 2003, but has largely failed to meet expectations. The Polish government has been widely criticised for creating a complicated, cumbersome, inflexible and costly system of planning and zoning. Adoption of the municipal zoning studies and zoning plans foreseen by the 2003 law took years to complete and the respective legal acts, once finally passed by the local legislative councils were frequently already outdated or at least not flexible enough to follow the trends and adopt to changing business environment. In addition, several partial amendments were introduced covering urban revitalisation (2015), urban landscape protection (2015) and an alternative track for residential projects (2018). This complex legal landscape is even more complicated by special laws enacted to cover road building and other infrastructure projects.
Moreover, entry into force of the 2003 zoning law was connected with the cancellation of almost all local zoning plans enacted under previous legislation. After 20 years, less than 40% of Poland’s territory is covered by zoning plans. This, together with rapid economic growth and increasing investment, leads to problems with urban spread, lack of proper infrastructure supporting development projects, and costly road construction projects accompanying new investments imposed on private investors. Some municipalities, however, identified adopting a master plan as a selling point allowing to attract investors – these were mainly the communities where wind turbines were located or those placed near highways, which seized the opportunity to benefit from growth of the Poland’s logistics sector.
The zoning law allowed projects to be built without a zoning plan, based on individual zoning decisions. This legal tool was very frequently (and in some municipalities predominantly) used by investors. To put the issue into context – almost all of the Warsaw’s modern high-rise city centre office towers were built on the basis of such individual zoning decisions, and while the City of Warsaw has worked on its zoning plan for the city centre for years, still the adopted mosaic of plans do not cover the entire city centre area.
During negotiations of milestones for the release of EU funds from the Poland’s national recovery and resilience plan, the Polish government agreed with the European Commission a comprehensive upgrade of the land-use system. The zoning law amendment package entered into force in September 2023 and involves an ambitious goal of unifying and parametrising the land-use system, by imposing a standardised general plan, which needs to be adopted in every municipality. In the general plan, the municipality should be divided into – in principle multi-functional – zoning classes. The general plan only replaces the zoning study. In order to allow for actual development, a detailed zoning plan will need to be adopted by the municipality and the building permit obtained by the investor. Individual zoning decisions (compliant with the general plan), from 1 January 2026, may be issued only for projects located in areas specifically designated in the zoning plan, with a validity limit of five years. Existing detailed zoning plans will not be cancelled. Also the individual zoning decisions will be gradually phased out and investors’ rights with respect to decisions which became final up to the end of 2025 will be protected.
The 2023 zoning law reform sets out – yet again – an ambitious target for municipalities. The general plan, designed as the key legal document for municipal land-use planning, will need to be adopted in each of Poland’s 2,477 municipalities (gminy) by the end of 2025. Existing zoning studies cannot be recycled into new general plans, as the 2023 reform requires the municipalities to start from scratch and follow the entire procedure of public consultation and gathering around 30 various opinions and approvals. Moreover, the new law requires that the general plan preparation is supervised by appropriately qualified urban planners.
In the new system, municipalities may choose to adopt a local accessibility standard, as an optional element of the general plan. Observing this standard, if adopted, will be mandatory for residential projects. In the standard, a municipality may set out a minimum criteria of proximity to social infrastructure, such as parks or similar green areas, schools, but also public transport, kindergartens, police stations. It may be reasonably expected that such standards will be adopted in most, if not all, larger cities in Poland. In addition, residential developments will be placed only in areas, which the municipalities will determine in the general plan following a capacity analysis, taking into consideration the existing and future population as well as existing stock of residential buildings. This solution is meant to address specifically the problems connected with urban sprawl.
New provisions allow investors to negotiate zoning for their projects individually with municipalities. The negotiations, if successful, will be concluded with a dedicated integrated investment plan adopted in form of a municipal council resolution (replacing the detailed zoning plan for the area concerned) and an accompanying agreement between the investor and the municipality, defining the scope and terms of additional investments in social infrastructure, which will need to accompany the investor’s project. This solution will apply not only to residential projects but also to other developments and will replace special legislation concerning residential development, which is set to expire on 1 January 2026.
The main challenges which the 2023 reform brings are connected with very tight timeline. Municipalities have only until the end of 2025 to complete adoption of the general plans. After this date, no individual zoning decision may be issued, if there is no adopted general plan, so the usual gap-filling tool for proceeding with investments despite lack of zoning plan, will no longer be available. This timeline already leads to delay in issuing individual zoning decisions (even though legally obtaining such decision is still possible in 2024 and 2025), since the municipal officers are already involved in preparing the general plans and lack capacity to deal with individual decision applications. Another bottleneck lies in the process of obtaining decisions and approvals, as some will need to be collected at provincial or county level and we have 2,477 municipalities working on the general plans at the same time within 16 provinces and 314 counties.
Concentrating the zoning system overhaul within a short time span may be challenging from organisational perspective, but on the other hand brings a unique opportunity to create a uniform platform for development of the municipalities, which should be forward-looking, environmentally friendly, avoiding the urban sprawl and avoiding repeating at least some of the mistakes made at adoption of 2003 zoning law. On the other hand, tightening urban development standards may lead to increased prices for residential properties and may require smaller developers to re-consider their land bank or to consolidate. If the reform meets with REIT legislation recently announced by the government, this could lead to a material shift in the Polish real estate market.
