This component of the Catching-up Regions Initiative includes cooperation with the Rzeszów Functional Area and the municipality and town of Staszów.
The Podkarpackie Region attempts to develop a common vision of the spatial development for the Podkarpackie Functional Area (the development of studies and land use planning) in 13 municipalities forming the Area. The development is directed at support in the development of the study and formulating boundary conditions for the future land use plan for the municipality and town of Staszów. Within this framework, model frameworks for the preparation of land use plans will be developed.
The meaning of land use planning
The European Commission jointly with the Ministry of Development and the World Bank identified land use planning in Poland as one of the areas contributing to the sustainable regional development of Poland after improving them. Low coverage by land use plans (the plans cover 28% of Poland’s area) impedes the long-term sustainable development of towns and municipalities and slows down the investment processes. In the strategic context, land use plans help in the implementation of the long-term, coherent development policy, while at the operational level, they improve the investment process, e.g., by accelerating the issuance of building permits. It is significant to individuals planning the expansion of the house and economic entities considering investments in the specific area (e.g., a new production facility, new office building, the new commercial center, and the new residential district).
The Podkarpackie Region: the Rzeszowski Functional Area (RFA)
The Regional Functional Area is a dynamically developing social and economic center. The development results in managing the most attractive plots (e.g., the biggest ones, with good transportation routes). Further sustainable development of RFA requires the coherent programming of developmental processing (planning the infrastructure for business, residential, recreational and protected areas, etc.). The requirements include the creation of convenient investment conditions followed by the well-conceived vision of the land use. As the result of consultations with local authorities, 13 municipalities forming RFA agreed that the joint planning of development in the functional area is needed and it will bring benefits for the whole RFA. The Polish law sets out that the land use planning (studies and land use plan) is the obligation and privilege of municipalities. The component aims at the development of the joint vision of RFA, which will be later translated into studies and land use plans for specific municipalities.
The Świętokrzyskie Region: The municipality and town of Staszów
The municipality and town of Staszów are currently working on the study on the directions and modalities of the land use. The World Bank supports the Municipality in this process and in the development of boundary conditions for the creation of a land use plan for the municipality and town. Additionally, the World Bank, in cooperation with Kielce, conducts work directed at the improvement of the investment process (including issuance of building permits) which is closely connected with the land use. Kielce already has world-class IT solutions (GIS systems), which improve the issuance of the building permits and spatial administration within the town and is striving for improvement of the remaining elements of the investment process.