If everything goes according to the authorities ' latest declarations, Poznan councilors will deal with the landscape resolution next January. The delay is significant, but Poznań is still better off than many other cities and municipalities. This brings back the question of whether the so-called Landscape Law of 2015 gave local governments too much freedom.
The provisions of the law known as the Landscape Law were introduced in 2015 (the "Law on Amendments to Certain Laws in Connection with the Strengthening of Landscape Protection Tools"). At first, they aroused considerable enthusiasm and hope for a quick ordering of advertising and aesthetic chaos. However, it turned out that it is difficult to count on a leap in the situation. The most quickly prepared resolutions were challenged and invalidated for formal reasons. Local governments therefore began to chisel draft provisions to avoid slip-ups. Sometimes this didn't help either, as evidenced by the landscape resolution for Warsaw invalidated last year by Mazovian Governor Konstanty Radziwill. Contrary to officials' interpretation of the law, he ruled, among other things, that it was a mistake not to resubmit the document for review after taking into account final comments on the project.
Spectrum rivalry
In addition, many cities and municipalities have not even begun work on the resolution, because the provisions of the law do not obligate them to draft it. As with local zoning plans, it also does not give maximum deadlines for drafting documents. Four years ago, in an article in the weekly Wprost, this is how architect and urban planner Olgierd Dziekoński, former secretary of state in the Chancellery of President Bronisław Komorowski, explained these solutions, co-author of the law:
We wanted to bring about a kind of rivalry between cities and municipalities, so that the leaders in implementing changes would then be followed voluntarily.
Rather, there is no rivalry, there is instead learning from the experience of others-both negative, as in the case of localities where resolutions "fell through," and positive, as exemplified by the resolution organizing the space of Gdansk starting in 2019. The argument related to learning from experience has been raised for more than a year by the Poznań authorities when explaining why the landscape document was not passed as announced, i.e. in 2019 (work began in the spring of 2017). Poznan's city visual artist (the mayor's plenipotentiary for aesthetics), Piotr Libicki told us a year ago that compensation for the delay would be the exceptional precision and readability of the resolution:
Its advantage is a very clear structure (...) This approach is the result of an analysis of documents from other cities, which were sometimes characterized by illegibility and inconsistency in the formulation of definitions. With us, all concepts are very refined.
Libicki also explained that the slippage was due to a number of agreements between municipal entities, objections that councilors had raised to the fencing provisions, and comments from the Poznań International Fair. The latter not only liked to hang banners around their buildings for years, but - being a city company - also manages bus shelters with citylights and advertising poles.
"Sign maker" - informational material supporting the work on the landscape resolution
source: Poznań City Hall
Thehead of the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture, Piotr Sobczak, meanwhile, announced that the delayed document would be ready in February 2021. This has happened, but comments submitted to it have caused the resolution to be put back out for public review (until November 12), following the latest changes to the provisions. The time for comments will expire two weeks after that date. Sobczak explains:
We decided to take this step for fear of repeating the situation in the capital, even though in our opinion the regulations do not oblige us to do so. Councilors will get the document at the end of the year and will probably debate it in January.
For the tenth anniversary
What will councilors find in the document? The city has been divided into four areas: the old city, the center and historic districts, the urbanized area and the natural area. The fastest time to comply with the regulations is in the Old Town area (12 months after the resolution goes into effect). There will be slightly more time in the center and historic districts and the green areas (24 months). Three years the authors of the resolution give to comply with the provisions in the most extensive urbanized zone. Originally, in the latter case, the period was five years, but - due to the prolongation of work on the document - it was shortened, so that owners of advertising media did not benefit too much from the delay of work on the resolution. It is worth noting, however, that the slippage is still very beneficial to them in the wider center.
"Sign maker" - informational material supporting the work on the landscape resolution
Source: Poznań City Hall
Regardless of all the turmoil, the resolution will allow for the almost complete elimination of large-format banners and a significant reduction in the number of billboards. The issue of signboards and display windows will also be put in precise order, just as it happened in the Old Town, following the introduction of provisions for the cultural park. The city has also developed informational and educational materials for entrepreneurs and media owners , including a so-called "sign book" that explains and illustrates the provisions of the resolution in a simple way. If, as announced, the resolution comes into force in the first quarter of next year, Poznań residents will enjoy its full effects in 2025 - ten years after the introduction of the so-called Advertising Law.
