Bill would make urban planning plans harder to strike down

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. The bill would limit the grounds for declaring an urban planning plan null and void due to formal defects. Only very serious defects, such as missing environmental assessment or approval by a body lacking jurisdiction, would lead to nullity; other defects could be corrected without voiding the plan.
2. It would set a maximum period of four years to indirectly challenge a plan on formal grounds, counted from publication of its final approval. Currently there is no such time limit.
3. The actio popularis, which lets anyone go to court to defend planning law, would be limited against plans: it could only address material aspects or formal defects with significant relevance, and the person using it would have to prove that.
4. It would regulate how to cancel the registered record of the right of repurchase after urban expropriations, and set a seven-year expiration period for the registered lien arising from benefit and burden allocation proceedings. The 1954 expropriation law would be amended in the same direction.
5. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda commits to creating, within one year, an online platform to speed up the request and issuance of sector reports needed for urban planning plans.
6. Several articles would be adjusted to Constitutional Court rulings: the compensation for blocking participation in new development areas would change, publicly subsidized housing would be excluded from the deemed-denied rule, and a typo affecting Ceuta and Melilla would be corrected.

Who it affects

• Local governments and public administrations: They would face less risk of their planning plans being voided for formal defects, and would get a platform to speed up reports.
• Landowners and developers: They would have more legal certainty about plans and new rules for calculating compensation when they are barred from developing.
• Anyone wanting to report planning violations: The actio popularis would be more limited, with deadlines and proof requirements.
• Expropriated owners with a right of repurchase: It would be clearer when the registered record of that right is canceled, with expiration periods set.

Words worth knowing

Instrumentos de ordenación territorial y urbanística (territorial and urban planning instruments)

The plans through which local and regional governments decide what can be built and how land is used.

Nulidad de pleno derecho (full nullity)

A rule or plan is considered invalid from the start, as if it had never existed.

Acción pública (actio popularis)

The ability of any person to go to court to demand compliance with planning law, without needing to be directly affected.

Derecho de reversión (right of repurchase)

The right of an expropriated owner to get the property back if it is not used for the purpose that justified the expropriation.

Equidistribución de beneficios y cargas (allocation of benefits and burdens)

The sharing among landowners of the gains and costs of a development project.

It summarizes the text as it was introduced. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries