New regulation of territorial planning and urbanism of Andalucia

The Government Council of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia has approved on November 29, the General Regulation of Law 7/2021, of December 1, promoting the sustainability of the territory of Andalusia, according to the authorization contained in its final provision first.

STRUCTURE OF THE REGULATION

The 430 articles in the approved urban regulation are divided into nine titles.

The formation of Certifying Urban Entities is described in its Preliminary Title as an innovation and as a new tool for public-private cooperation to benefit municipalities. These organizations will be able to work together with the local governments on the verification and control tasks. Additionally, it refers to the right of citizen participation, includes the idea of the urban planning agent, and creates the Register of Certifying Urban Planning Entities of Andalusia, in which the authorized Certifying Urban Planning Entities will be registered.

Title I contains the rules of governing the land regime, which is divided into urban and rural areas, the direct application of the law, and the uses and activities on rural land.

Title II regulates the regime of urban transformation actions, including the proposal for the delimitation and management of urban transformation actions, urban transformation actions on urban land and rural land and urban development uses.

Tital III includes territorial planning w ith specific reference to the protection of the coastline and the landscape, it outlines its guiding principles, goals, and general concepts.

Title IV, urban planning is covered. The decisions and tools for this purpose are established, along with the tools for urban planning, with the difference between general, detailed, and complementary.

Title V covers Urban execution, and its goal is to make the information contained in the urban planning tools visible.

Title VI covers the building activity including the execution of building works, trying to intervene in building activity (urban planning licences, responsible declarations, and previous communications), conservation and rehabilitation of buildings, and execution by replacement for failure to comply with building, rehabilitation, and conservation duties.

Title VII includes the rules governing administrative, inspection, establishing territorial and urban legality, and penalizing regimes.

Title VIII incorporates the measures of environmental and territorial adaptation of territorial buildings. These measures include the incorporation of irregular buildings into urban planning, the environmental and territorial adaptation of groups of irregular buildings, and the regime of irregular buildings.

Finally, title IX stands out as a novelty that the Regulation dedicates its last Title to deserted habitat, the regulation of the occupation of the subsoil of a certain geographical area by means of caves, establishing particular rules that allow recognizing this type of traditional settlements in the planning instruments.