Efficiency of land use planning on the local level versus social participation

Abstract

The main reason for low efficiency in land use planning in Poland seems to be not so much the limited availability of the areas to be developed as the lack of cohesion between investment and protective objectives of public authorities and private land users. One of the causes of such status quo is wrong regulations concerning legal consequences of public participation in land use planning. The purpose of land use planning process is to prevent the conflicts from happening by revealing and mutual balancing of the interests between legal and natural persons as well as by determining, in this particular context, possibilities of realizing the tasks (mainly in infrastructure) by public subjects. Without sanctions (administrative or judicial) connected with faultiness in balancing of the actual interests that are submitted, participation loses its practical and legal significance.