Flexibility of land use plans: Between supporting development and opportunism. Evidence from Poland

• Nowak, Maciej ^[5] ; Śleszyński, Przemysław ^[1] ; Cheba, Katarzyna ^[2] ; Blaszke, Małgorzata ^[5] ; Szopik-Depczyńska, Katarzyna ^[3] ; Ioppolo, Giuseppe ^[4]
  1. [1] Polish Academy of Sciences

     Polish Academy of Sciences

     Warszawa, Polonia

     
  2. [2] West Pomeranian University of Technology

     West Pomeranian University of Technology

     Szczecin, Polonia

     
  3. [3] University of Szczecin

     University of Szczecin

     Szczecin, Polonia

     
  4. [4] University of Messina

     University of Messina

     Mesina, Italia

     
  5. [5] West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, Faculty of Economics, Department of Real Estate, Żołnierska 47, 71-210 Szczecin, Poland

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• Localización: Land use policy: The International Journal Covering All Aspects of Land Use, ISSN 0264-8377, ISSN-e 1873-5754, Nº. 135, 2023
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The main objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between the flexibility of spatial planning at the local level and the natural and socio-economic development indicators of municipalities. Seventy municipalities located around the most dynamically developing large urban centers in Poland (Krakow, Poznań, Tri-City, Warsaw, and Wrocław) were selected for the study, in which the records of 1131 local spatial plans enacted in 2017–2019 were analyzed in detail in terms of indicators including, but not limited to, characterizing the average area of the plans, the duration of the development procedure, and the intensity of residential development, the biologically active area. Development characteristics were identified through 30 indicators in six thematic groups (demographic, socio-professional, economic and settlement structures, natural environment, and spatial planning). The relationships between the two groups of indicators were analyzed using factor analysis. On this basis, three clusters were identified, explaining 32.9% of the variation. Such a relatively low result may indicate that the spatial policy pursued by local governments is highly individualized. It may also be concluded that the flexibility of spatial planning in general is weakly related to the characteristics of development, including natural and socio-economic development, and therefore its absence should not be an obstacle to it.