Comments on decree-law 5/2012 of urgent measures in urban planning and for the Andalusian coast protection

Abstract

This paper addresses the study of the Decree-Act , of November the 27th, which enacted urgent measures on urban planning matters and on the protection of the Andalusian coastline. This decree modified the previous Act of Land-Use Planning (known as LOTA in Spanish) in order to set up a new territorial plan called Plan for the Protection of the Coastal Corridor (known as PPCLA in Spanish). This plan can be seen as an inheritor of the Guidelines for the Planning of the Andalusian Coastline, whose aim was an unified arrangement of the seashore.

This study analyses the objectives of the Decree, its territorial scope, its contents, its procedure of approval and the temporary suspension of those partial plans affected by the territorial scope foreseen in the Decree-Law. planThis study also deals with the modification of the Act of Land-Use Planning carried out by the Decree. This modification is aimed to make clear the prevalent character of the Andalusian Land-Use Plan over any local planning and the correct adaptation of the latterto the Decree - Law 5/2012. Furthermore, the paper addresses the adequacy of the Decree to the principles that enable the use of that kind of norm. In this sense, the use of Decree-Law for such regulation deserves a negative assessment and justifies, indeed, its enactment as a parliamentary act.

The study concludes that the Plan for the Protection of the Coastal Corridor will have a significant impact in our coastline, regarding the coastal planning. Also the “right to build” of land owners included in the scope of the Coast Act and currently designated as “non-developmental lands”, “developable sectorized lands” and “non-sectorized developable lands” will be affected by the Decree. This is so because its conversion could entail their reclassification as non-developmental areas and, therefore, limits for future buildingon them and, even, a restriction for more aggressive uses. The sole aim of this new regulation is to maintain the lands in an status as similar as possible to the natural and original one.