On 27 February 2025, the Government Legislation Center published a draft act amending the Spatial Planning and Development Act and certain other acts (project No UD198). The most significant change the draft introduces is extending the validity period for municipal studies of spatial conditions and directions of development until 30 June 2026. Additionally, the amendment aims to eliminate errors and interpretational ambiguities that have arisen due to the previous amendment (introduced by the Act of 7 July 2023, amending the Spatial Planning and Development Act and certain other acts).
The extension of deadlines for spatial planning system reform aims to allow municipalities to adapt to the new regulations within the statutory timeframe. At the same time, investors will benefit from a prolonged transition period, enabling them to obtain development conditions decisions under the “old rules”.
Deadline Extensions
The draft amendment extends the deadlines for key elements of spatial planning reform:
| Element | Current deadline | New deadline (proposed in the draft) |
| Validity of the municipal study of spatial conditions and directions of development | Until 31 December 2025 | Until 30 June 2026 |
| Obligation for municipalities to adopt general plans | Until 31 December 2025 | Until 30 June 2026 |
| Launch of the Urban Register and “Planning Newsletter” | From 1 January 2026 | From 1 July 2026 |
| Issuance of development conditions decisions under existing rules (if the municipality has not adopted a general plan) | Until 31 December 2025 | Until 30 June 2026 |
The primary reason for extending the deadlines is the concern that many municipalities may not have sufficient time to implement the reform under the current schedule. According to information from the Ministry of Development and Technology, by the end of January 2025, nearly 75% of municipalities had submitted spatial data sets for general plans to the spatial data sets and services registry, indicating that at least this proportion of municipalities has started to prepare general plans. Meanwhile, the remaining 25% of municipalities have either not commenced work at all or are still at a very early stage.
Impact of changes on development conditions decisions
The 2023 spatial planning reform introduced significant changes to the issuance of development conditions decisions, including:
- Limiting the validity period of decisions – under the new rules, development conditions decisions will be valid for a maximum of five years.
- Restricting decisions to development completion areas – development conditions decisions may only be issued for areas designated as development completion areas.
This second change has raised significant concerns regarding reform deadlines. Development completion areas are to be defined in general plans. Therefore, if a municipality does not adopt a general plan, it will not be possible to issue development conditions decisions under the new rules. Extending the deadline to adopt general plans is therefore intended to prevent the suspension of development conditions decisions.
Legislative stage
The draft act is currently at the government review stage within the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers. The planned date for the Council of Ministers to adopt the act is the first quarter of 2025, after which, the draft will be submitted for parliamentary proceedings.
