The somewhat incomprehensible interpretation of the limits to urban growth in the Spatial Planning Plan of Andalusia

a contradictory story

Abstract

The irruption of the Spatial Planning Plan of Andalusia was a major upheaval in andalusian urban planning. The regulation of the compact city model prescribed in its Rule 45 and, specifically, the imposition of limits on the decision- making capacity of city councils to promote urban growth, impacted on a situation characterized by the validity of territorial models that showed evident signs of overclassification of land. This casuistry based the need for the Regional Administration to establish criteria and rules to evaluate the suitability of the innovations for territorial planning - comprehensive revisions, partial revisions, specific modifications or sectorization plans - to be proposed in the General Urban Planning Plans. This initiative was implemented through the formulation of Administrative Instructions -instruments without normative force- which was paradoxical, to say the least. In just seven years - between 2007 and 2014 - a total of four Instructions were formulated, the content of which shows a somewhat incomprehensible interpretation of the urban development actions that form part of the growth that should be considered computable in order to verify compliance with the limits imposed by the aforementioned provision. The analysis carried out in the article will certify the erratic, changing, volatile and unpredictable nature of the territorial policy developed in the Andalusian region during this period.