- The new regulations require municipalities to create new spatial development plans divided into 13 planning zones
- According to the regulations, allotment gardens will be allowed from three of them
- Allotment gardeners fear that if the gardens do not fall into the three designated zones, they will be liquidated en masse
- The Polish Allotment Gardeners Association calls for vigilance and submitting applications for plans. However, this is not easy at all.
In 2022, the Law and Justice government claimed that the owners of allotment gardens would be able to buy them. A year later, however, a land development project was created at the Ministry of Development and Technology, which called into question the continued existence of the ROD. The new law requires municipalities to prepare general plans for all land in their area by the end of 2025. This plan is intended to modify existing spatial development plans.
The new plans will divide municipal land into 13 zones:
- multi-functional zone with multi-family residential buildings;
- multifunctional zone with single-family residential buildings;
- multifunctional zone with farm buildings;
- service area;
- large-scale trade zone;
- economic zone;
- agricultural production zone;
- infrastructure zone;
- greenery and recreation zone;
- cemetery zone;
- mining zone;
- open zone;
- communication zone.
Allotment gardeners are warning that this may be the end for Family Allotment Gardens. This is because, according to the new guidelines, gardens will be able to be located in one of three zones: single-family residential or greenery and recreation zone.
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Why are allotment gardens at risk?
As the Polish Association of Allotment Gardeners warns, such action will open the way to the liquidation of allotment gardens located outside these zones. The problem will be most intense in large cities, where gardens are often located in less obvious places and will certainly be included in different zones. It has long been known that large areas in cities are attractive to new developers.
Changes in the regulations related to the inclusion of gardens in various zones, apart from the three designated ones, will mean that the gardens will not be perceived as green allotment areas, which in turn will make it possible to allocate the areas for e.g. commercial purposes.
The general plans will divide the entire commune area into the so-called planning zones. In this way, they will determine the general purpose of a given area. Detailed planning conditions will be specified in local spatial development plans (MPZP). The Act introduces the principle that when adopting a local development plan in the future, a commune cannot violate the intended use resulting from the general plan – warns the Polish Association of Allotment Owners. – For ROD, the issue of purpose in the local spatial development plan is of key importance. If the garden area in the local development plan has a different purpose than allotment greenery, this will enable its forced liquidation. For this reason, in the context of general plans, it becomes crucial whether the ROD will be placed in a planning zone that allows its disclosure in the local development plan – they add in their position.
As PZD representatives emphasize, the new regulations show that 10 out of 13 planning zones prohibit the disclosure of RODs in local development plans.
The fate of a garden that falls into one of these 10 zones will be de facto decided. When adopting a local development plan in the future, the commune will have to comply with the ban on disclosing RODs and define a purpose for the area other than greenery. As a consequence, the ROD will meet the conditions for liquidation. – they point out.
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Is it possible to avoid the liquidation of ROD?
Whether the gardens will be liquidated largely depends on their users, who will be able to submit applications for the plans being developed. However, PZD emphasizes that you need to be vigilant in this matter, because municipalities have little time to create new plans, and therefore they will be created hastily and using the most simplified procedures. This, in turn, will mean that interested parties will have only 21 days to submit appropriate applications.
Therefore, the role of the PZD is to ensure that – at the stage of adopting the general plan – the ROD areas are transferred to the appropriate planning zone – emphasizes the association. – The aim is to include RODs in a planning zone allowing disclosure of RODs in the local development plan, i.e.: a green and recreation zone, a multi-functional zone with single-family residential buildings and a multi-functional zone with multi-family residential buildings. Each of the three above-mentioned zones allows disclosure of RODs in the local development plan, but due to the conditions, it would be most advantageous for RODs to be included in the green and recreation zone. Therefore, first of all, we should strive for a green and recreation zone – suggests the association.
However, coordinating the association's activities may be very difficult, because each commune sets development plans at a different time, and officials, as they admit, are still learning new regulations. Many communes had already prepared the plans, and the allotment owners didn't even know about it. All this indicates that meeting application deadlines can be very difficult.
