How to effectively secure greenery and nature issues in urban planning? The Supreme Audit Office postulates: it is necessary to change the law, because regulations allow the degradation of green areas in cities. In the face of climate change, the auditors remind us of the climatic, ventilation and hydrological functions of urban greenery. They also score the government for spoiling the law.
On the one hand, there is a growing awareness of the importance of nature and ecology in cities, and on the other hand, the lawful degradation of green areas. This is the most general way to summarize the findings of the Supreme Audit Office, which examined the "preservation and enhancement of green areas incities" from 2015 to 2020. The audit was conducted in nineteen cities and two Warsaw districts: Bielany and Bemowo. Its results were published on April 20. The NIK directly reports that:
"the legal norms that have been regulating land use planning and development for 18 years, instead of supporting the preservation and expansion of natural systems, allow their progressive and irreversible weakening.
The auditors report that the planning system does not realistically allow areas with a natural function to be excluded from development. The reason? Lack of local plans or very protracted preparation of them. And, as NIK points out:
Currently, only local spatial development plans (mpzp) allow local governments to effectively protect green areas from development.
wz vs. green
The NIK is thus widely publicizing a fact that is nothing new to those involved in spatial affairs: the provisions of mandatory zoning studies are inadequate, because they do not realistically work in areas not covered by mpzp. And where there is no plan, development conditions, which do not have to take into account the study, "rule". NIk reports that:
"out of 180 zoning decisions examined by the Supreme Audit Office, more than half allowed greenfields to be developed, because city councils either did not proceed to develop local development plans for these areas at all, or the development of the plans took several, or in extreme cases even more than a dozen years.
planning languishers
NIK also provides data for the country as a whole: only 31 percent of Poland's area has been covered by plans, although according to earlier analyses this value was supposed to reach 35 percent by 2020. The pace of enacting plans, however, is snail's pace (2 percent of the country's area in five years). The highest percentage of plans drawn up for more than three years is recorded in Warsaw (86 percent), Szczecin, (72.8) and Poznań (71.8). Work is proceeding fastest in Gdansk (only 7.5 percent of plans with protracted procedures). There are, however, cities-aspirants. This is the case of Krakow, where plan coverage has increased over five years from 49.5 to 68.7 percent. At the other extreme is Rzeszow, where the increase has not even reached one percent.
And it is the case of Rzeszow that is one of the most glaring cases where development conditions "overrule" the ban on greenfield development. In the Subcarpathian capital, the construction of a complex of multifamily houses up to 55 meters high in an ecological corridor and in an area at risk of flooding was allowed under this procedure .
The report notes, however, that even a plan is not a perfect solution if the local government changes it by preparing land for an investment in a previously protected green space. This includes the case of Lublin, where the local plan was amended to, among other things, build a speedway stadium in the ecological corridor of the Bystrzyca River valley. And this despite the incompatibility of these changes with the provisions of the Lublin study.
Law spoils from the Sejm
The inspectors also criticize the spoiling of the law, which took place in 2020, when the Law on Prevention, Prevention and Control of Covid Epidemics was in effect, exempting the provisions of the Construction Law and the Zoning Law in certain cases.
Nationwide (...) construction supervision authorities had information on 585 investments reported under covid regulations, more than half of which had already begun. In 276 cases, the construction supervision authorities found that the investments did not comply with the objectives of the law.
The mismanagement of green spaces may also be due to another phenomenon, which the audit summary also describes: none of the cities examined had a complete inventory of greenery - with trees at the forefront. The reason? Cost and the need to constantly update the picture. It's also the lack of a systematic approach and proper organization of office structures. Krakow deserves praise again, which
has developed directions for the development and management of greenery, including the creation of, among other things, a diagnosis of the state of greenery, priorities for development, as well as specific indications for the development of local plans and a list of necessary investments.
green optimism
Krakow is - among the surveyed cities - also a primate in acquiring land for greenery, because - as the inspectors optimistically note:
"despite (...) problems, in the cities audited by NIK, the management of green areas generally contributed to their preservation and expansion, by a total of 221.5 hectares, of which Kraków bought the most land for such a purpose - 96.3 hectares.
How can the mistakes spotted by the NIK be rectified? In their conclusions addressed to the prime minister, the auditors first of all call for changes or clarification of legal provisions. This primarily involves the introduction of an obligation to draw up plans for areas that - as natural areas - are, according to the study, excluded from development. At the same time, the issuance of development conditions would be obligatorily suspended for these areas. There is also a request to clarify the provisions related to biologically active area, including a binding definition of this concept. Detailed information on the audit and other indications of the Chamber is provided in the document, which can be found on the NIK website.
