With 48 pct of the country’s urban planning about to expire, the government extends current plans’ validity until 2023

The government approved yesterday an emergency ordinance (OUG) that allows municipalities whose General Urban Plans (PUG) expire this year to extend their validity until 2023. 

In total, this year, about 48 percent of the country’s total Urban Planning are about to expire, another 6 percent in 2019, and 7 percent more in 2020.

Most of the urbanization documentation was carried out before 2003, and the law in force no longer permitted their prolongation after the end of 2018. Prior to the amendment, urbanism law provided that any PUG may be prolonged once, but not more than ten years from the date of expiry.

The Emergency Ordinance adopted by the Government provides for the possibility to extend the validity of the plans until 2023, provided that the City Hall has initiated the updating procedures before the expiry of the validity period.

In Bucharest case, the PUG of the city was carried out in 2000. Despite the guarantees from autorities, it is still in the first stage of elaboration of the four, during which no public consultation took place, says the 2018 report of the Architects’ Order in Bucharest.

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”Although Bucharest is growing, it does not develop on the basis of a current and flexible general urban plan. The current Plan was implemented in 2000. Its ten-year validity period was known, the City Hall had time to prepare the next PUG, demarches for the new urban plan began only in 2012.  In the last ten years, the number of cars in Bucharest, as well as the volume of office and retail space have evolved exponentially leaving much following the old plans and regulations set out in the current General Urban Plan,” states Bucharest members of OAR in this year report.

Bucharest’s PUG, still in first phase

In October 2014, an association headed by the Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism handed over to the municipality the grounding studies of the first stage of development. In December 2015, interim mayor of Bucharest, Razvan Sava, declared that the new PUG is still in the first phase of the four, the main cause of the delay being at that time the absence of urban data held by the capital sectors, institutions and utility providers.

In the same way, even if urbanism law binds all country architects to complete a master’s program or postgraduate studies in urban planning and landscaping by July 13, 2018, the government found that time was insufficient. Consequently, this emergency ordinance extended the deadline until 2023.

The government’s motivation was that many mayors, whose chief architects do not have the necessary studies, can no longer approve PUGs, PUZs or PUDs to issue building permits and permits, an important bottleneck in the implementation of private and public investment, including through European funds.