Inclusion of unauthorized buildings in the city plan & changes to building regulations with local spatial plans

The Ministry of Environment is attempting to give the green light for the inclusion of more than 400,000 acres in city plans across the country through fast-track procedures, activating the new local spatial plans (LSPs). This essentially involves the inclusion of unauthorized buildings located on the outskirts of existing settlements, whose inclusion procedures have been pending for many decades. In recent decades, urban land planning has come to a standstill. However, with the LSPs, the building landscape will be clarified, limiting the “sprawl” of city boundaries through them, resulting in unregulated construction and conflicts of use outside the building plan, protecting coastal areas and demarcating high-yield agricultural land to strengthen the countryside.

Today, circumventing the legislation that applies to construction in areas outside the plan, we see uncontrolled construction, without roads and infrastructure, a plethora of buildings even in forests and coastal areas, illegal divisions of agricultural land which are then sold (Attica, Chalkidiki, Crete, etc.), the construction of small tourist units without biological treatment, etc. Under these circumstances, the Ministry of the Environment is moving to immediately restrict unplanned construction throughout the country by activating local spatial plans.

These spatial plans will be implemented by municipalities, which will receive €200 million in funding, with loan coverage from the European Investment Bank.

What are local spatial plans?

Local spatial plans are sets of texts, maps, and diagrams that define the model for spatial organization and development, land use, building conditions and restrictions, and any other measures, conditions, or restrictions required for the integrated spatial development of a municipality.

These plans will be drawn up by each municipality and will address all aspects of construction in three areas: “integrity – building conditions – land use” with the aim of creating a land bank, accelerating urban planning projects by returning urbanized land to citizens, defining productive and business activities per region, and limiting unplanned construction.

Where are the T.C.S. carried out?

Local spatial plans cover the area of a municipality. They may also be drawn up at inter-municipal level, following relevant decisions by the municipal councils concerned.

Local spatial plans are harmonized with the guidelines of regional spatial planning frameworks and contain the necessary provisions for achieving their objectives.

What exactly do the T.C.S. determine?

Local spatial plans define for each municipal unit the framework for its organization, which is:

land uses
density
the building coefficient
the general assessment of needs in public spaces, public services, and public infrastructure and networks in general.
other building terms and restrictions depending on the category of the area (e.g., residential, tourist, industrial, etc.).

What are the categories of areas?

The categories are:

a) Residential Areas

That is, the urbanized areas of the municipality that serve the living and organized economic and social life and activity of citizens. Residential areas include plots of land within city or settlement plans, settlements with established boundaries, as well as areas where other plans have been drawn up, e.g., local street plans for the construction of workers’ housing, or areas for holiday and tourist accommodation.

b) Areas of productive and business activities

Areas within or outside the plan and outside the boundaries of settlements of the relevant municipality may be designated as areas for productive and business activities, which, due to their location and existing infrastructure, are suitable for the siting of individual or organised productive and business activities.

c) Protected Areas

Protected areas are defined as areas covered by Local Spatial Plans that possess particularly valuable natural or cultural features that need to be protected, promoted, and highlighted. These areas are demarcated and restrictions or prohibitions are imposed on land use and construction, as well as on activities and operations in general, for reasons of protecting the natural or cultural environment and landscape. These areas also include areas subject to special legal protection regimes, such as, in particular, sites of archaeological or historical interest, forests and woodlands, coastlines and beaches, rivers, lakes, and streams, as well as areas subject to the national system of protected areas. This category also includes areas that have been designated as high-yield agricultural land.

d) Land use control areas

Land use control areas are defined as areas of the relevant municipality that are not subject to urban planning and are intended for urban planning (outside the plan and outside settlement boundaries), particularly around residential areas or areas of productive and business activities, in which specific restrictions on land use and building conditions are laid down with a view to the rational distribution and correlation of land uses, so as to avoid potential conflicts between them and the uncontrolled consumption of natural resources.

So, could it be that in an area where you are currently building a house, the T.H.S. will prohibit it?

After the approval of the local spatial plans of each residential, productive or other development is permitted only if it is compatible with the uses of land and the other terms and restrictions that are specified by them. In fact, the law provides the possibility to the current Minister of the Environment and Energy, during the preparation of local plans, to suspend the granting of building permits or and works in the area or in parts of it and to prohibit the division of properties beyond the the specified in the same decision limit area. The suspension and prohibition shall apply until the approval of the local spatial plan.

What are the provisions for unplanned construction?

With local spatial plans, unplanned construction will be maintained, at least until the completion of urban plans in each of the country’s 325 municipalities. However, there will be restrictions on unplanned construction, only in relation to the construction of residential buildings, while for other categories of buildings (hotels, industries, commercial enterprises, etc.), the regime provided for in the 1985 Presidential Decree will be maintained.

What are the exceptions for building outside the plan that are abolished by the T.C.S.?

The possibility of building sports fields (plots outside the city plan) with an area of less than 4 acres is abolished for:

a. Sports fields located within the boundaries of cities and towns that had a minimum area of two thousand (2,000) square meters on April 24, 1977, and are used for the practice of sports, may be converted into residential, commercial, or hotel use, provided that the area of the sports field is not less than 1,500 square meters.

b. The fields that on May 31, 1985, were located on international, national, provincial, municipal, and community roads, as well as on abandoned sections thereof and on railway lines, provided that they have:

aa. The fields that exist on 12-11-62 and have: Minimum frontage: ten (10) m, Minimum depth: fifteen (15) m, Minimum area: seven hundred and fifty (750) sq. m.

bb. The fields that exist on 12-9-64 and have: Minimum frontage: twenty (20) m, Minimum depth: thirty-five (35) m, Minimum area: one thousand two hundred (1200) sq. m.

c. The fields that exist on 17-10-78, and have: Minimum frontage: twenty-five (25) m, Minimum depth: forty (40) m, Minimum area: two thousand (2000) sq. m.

dd. Fields created between October 17, 1978, and May 31, 1985: Minimum area: four thousand (4,000) square meters.

Who is responsible for drafting and approving the T.C.S.?

The process of drafting a local spatial plan is initiated either by the relevant municipality or by the Ministry of Environment and Energy.

Local spatial plans are approved by presidential decree issued on the recommendation of the Minister of Environment and Energy.

My plot of land is located in a Residential Control Zone and I have been waiting for decades for it to be included in the city plan. What happens now?

With the new T.C.S., the boundaries and regulations of approved Residential Control Zones may be modified, if deemed necessary from an urban planning perspective to meet residential, production, or business development and reconstruction within the relevant municipal unit. After the approval of the Local Spatial Plans, the Residential Control Zones that have been incorporated into them cease to apply and the regulations of the Local Spatial Plan now apply.

With what coefficient of construction are the plots built on the plan? as soon as they are included in the plan?

In residential areas proposed for urban planning based on Local Spatial Plans, maximum building coefficient limits are set as follows:

1. In residential areas

a) for areas used for residential purposes, the building coefficient is 0.8

b) for areas designated as urban centers, the building coefficient is 1.2

c) for areas used for tourism and recreation, the building coefficient is 0.6

d) for areas used for holiday homes, the building coefficient is 0.4

e) for areas with facilities of public utility, the building coefficient is 1.2

2. In areas of productive activities

a) for areas used for wholesale trade, the building coefficient is 1.2

b) for areas used for productive activities , the coefficient is 1.6.