interview from issue 10|2021 of A&B
Spatial policy affects not only buildings and the spaces between them, but also the systems of health care, education, environment, and communications and technical infrastructure. In Poland, spatial management for several years has been carried out by local governments on the basis of studies of the conditions and directions of development, local plans, development conditions. We talk to Lukasz Pancewicz of A2P2 Architecture and Planning about the steering of the planning system and the opportunities and risks of the housing specs law introduced three years ago.
Edyta Skiba: What is operational urban planning, and can a tool such as the housing specs law be seen in its terms?
Lukasz Pancewicz: Operational urbanism can be defined by contrasting it with existing planning schemes. Thus, it is not a regulatory activity to prepare a local plan that defines various indicators, nor is it an administrative activity in which an architect designs a building and the authority issues development conditions and then a building permit. Operational planning creates a framework that is filled by a planned and implemented development that is a piece of the city. It can therefore be seen as an activity aimed at executing the investment. However, it must be coordinated in the planning of common tasks - in terms of infrastructure, buildings or public spaces - between the city and the developer. This approach manifests itself at several levels in the speclaw. These include the requirement to prepare an urban-architectural concept, which is one of the conditions for granting a development permit. It is necessary to draw the composition of buildings in it, to obtain compliance with urban planning standards. This is not the level of detail of the local plan, in which land use is defined by a color spot, and urban planning is described by a set of indicators.
Edyta: What tools do we need to bring the urban planning system in Poland closer to the operational model?
Lukasz: They could be the use of master plans or programmatic and spatial concepts on a larger scale - I mean areas of tens of hectares, not a single plot of land - as a tool for coordinating actions on the public and private side. Such a tool ahead of the local plan would make it possible to analyze a section of the city in advance, taking into account urban composition, provision of infrastructure, public transportation, green space and recreation. A similar solution has been tested with good results by the Bureau of Architecture and Spatial Planning with the Warsaw Estates program. Another option could be a return to designating areas of organized investment (OZI), i.e. subject to an urban planning agreement. If the aforementioned master plan could be prepared, it would be a good idea to allow for an agreement between the public and private parties, which would specify the division of responsibilities and timeframes, so that the activities carried out would occur together in a given area and time. It should be reckoned with the fact that local governments will not always be able to carry out all their assumptions, so it would be a good idea to make it possible to transfer some of the responsibilities to the private party in exchange for carrying out commercial investment. An important issue is to strengthen the role of local governments through legal and financial tools, for example, obtaining loans by local governments to implement their own housing policies, as was the case with Social Housing Initiatives (SIM).
A requirement of the Gdansk Local Urbanism Standards -.
Providing access to the city's public transportation system
pic: Edyta Skiba
Edyta: Isn't the city's role in the process of managing spatial change too limited by the spec? The city can be seen in the process as a guardian of the provisions resulting from the Local Urban Development Standards.
Lukasz: It is worth considering whether the local government has the ability to create the layout of development. Local plans contain a very general provision of requirements for investors, making it an insufficient tool to actively shape urban space. The special law puts this initiative in the hands of the investor and the architects acting on his behalf. Obviously, the city has a limited role in this process, as it can only react to the investor's initiative. This is, in my opinion, one of the shortcomings of the law. "Local urban planning standards" as adopted do not quite allow the local government to actively shape the requirements. They primarily define distance parameters from public transportation stops, a park, a school. Of course, there are known attempts to set more detailed provisions, such as in Gdansk, where many qualitative requirements and design guidelines appear. However, meeting even very stringent standards does not guarantee approval by the municipal council. Preparing a project that will get the support of all stakeholders in the process requires a lot of negotiation, which should be carried out even before the start of formal and legal procedures.
Edyta: The advantage of the spec law, pointed out by many planners, is that it creates an "overlay" to streamline the time-consuming urban planning process, often not adapted to modern urban realities, sometimes already at the time of its enactment.
Lukasz:In my opinion, the planning system in Poland is flawed and in many cases does not allow for a quick response to challenges such as climate change. These are problems that to some extent local governments have to deal with. Of course, the municipality has planning authority and can decide on the use of its land, but at the same time the rights of property owners are very strongly protected. In addition, the process of drawing up local plans itself is very often perceived as a regulatory activity that does not bear the hallmarks of creating urban space. A framework is defined that says what, how and in what parameters it is allowed to build on a given site, rather than how to carry out investments in practice. As a result, many areas were allocated for development "at the behest" of landowners. This is one of the main reasons why the planning system has become uncontrollable in Poland. Of course, some mechanisms have been introduced to discipline the actions of municipalities, such as the balancing obligation. However, there are still other mechanisms in place, such as compensation claims, which make municipalities reluctant to withdraw from the exclusion of land once already designated for development. Planning in Poland actually resembles driving a car in which the brake has been removed and you can only press down on the gas pedal. So I'm not surprised that a tool that allows to efficiently change or respond to the necessity of the changes taking place on the one hand tempts, on the other deepens the chaos and can further penalize those local governments that have responsibly conducted their spatial policy. The special law does not contribute to solving this problem. This is a recurring criticism of the housing specs law that I could subscribe to.
A requirement of the Gdansk Local Urban Planning Standards - providing access to school, kindergarten and recreation and sports areas
pic: Edyta Skiba
Edyta: So are we taking a step backwards in the pursuit of spatial order?
Lukasz: I would ask a provocative counter-question: do we have spatial order at all? It seems to me that somewhere in the background of the discussion about the spec law there is a much more important conversation about the fact that we have a dysfunctional spatial planning system. We need to ask ourselves how we plan for urban development, what kind of steering we have in the planning system to manage such change and implement it effectively. It is also a question for local governments about consistency in preparing planning documents. In Poland, the planning system is very passive, and this is shown by the case of the speculative law, which is a tool used at the request and initiative of the investor. Nevertheless, it has introduced one important thread - urban planning standards clearly stating that new development should be located in urbanized areas, i.e. urban densification, with access to schools, public transportation and green areas. Another issue is the activation of brownfield sites, which are no longer needed in such quantity in the city. This has been brought about by globalization and technological changes, and if we are now to build new housing developments somewhere, it is better to do it in already urbanized areas than under the city. The issue of allocating land in compact areas - already equipped with technical infrastructure (networks and roads) - for development in the first place was raised by the so-called small amendment to the Law on Spatial Planning and Development. Preparing plans is far too little to implement a coordinated spatial policy. Still unanswered is the question of what tools local governments can have at their disposal to efficiently implement such a policy.
Edyta: What changes should be made to the speculative law so as not to preclude the possibility of further orderly urban development?
Lukasz: Under the speculative law, the full initiative lies with the investor, who, with bad will, may try to submit an application without attempting to agree and implement it under the "fast track" procedure, which leads to many conflicts between the parties. A solution could be the introduction of mandatory consultation of the applicant's project with the municipality even before the application begins to proceed. It would be important to set boundary conditions for the investor, for example, the requirement to comply with the provisions of the study. It could also be the introduction of an urban planning agreement allowing effective cooperation between the public and private sectors. Such a legal solution has been developed to some extent by the government, but it has not been implemented. I am referring here to the so-called Investment Law, which introduced areas of organized investment (OZI).
Edit: Currently, some of the road or network agreements are impossible or very difficult to obtain, especially at the stage of concept development, which will be detailed only at the next stage of the investment process.
Luke: The urban planning and architectural concept provided for by the spec law is quite detailed. It applies not only to the main investment itself, but also to the accompanying investments that may be made to implement the main investment. In their case, at the preparatory stage, it is possible to agree with the municipality on the design or implementation of the road or technical infrastructure, which is regulated to a certain extent in the special law.
The
