Land use, spatial and upban planning, landscape (Valencia): implementation, impacts and effectiveness

Editor's note 20Mar14: Source D142-5

Assessment and protection of the landscape is one of the major objectives of the autonomous community of Valencia due to the increasing importance of the service sector, such as tourism. Regional Law (4/2004) on Territorial Planning and Landscape Protection aims for the:

• improvement of the urban environment and its impact on the landscape,
• accessibility of citizens in urban areas,
• efficiency of urban mobility and the promotion of public transport,
• quality, rationality and efficiency in the management and implementation of public utilities and facilities in the city or countryside, seeking quantitative and qualitative convergence with developed urban areas,
• implementation of a polycentric system of cities,
• development of a forecast for housing, subject to a regime of public protection areas in the urban plans,
• active participation of citizens and administrations in the process of territorial and urban planning.

The main instruments & procedures are Landscape Studies as an instrument of territorial planning support (Chapter II, Art. 11), which identify geographical landmarks and those characteristics that constitute the territory concerning landscape in the field of planning. Furthermore, Landscape Integration Studies (Art. 23) are needed for infrastructure projects, urban growth and in cases requiring an Environmental Impact Assessment.

Land use is regulated at both national and regional level.

Legal framework for the Land Use Policy in Valencia

Source: Authors

Law 6/1994 of the Generalitat Valenciana regulates urban development. This Valencia Urban Act, marked a break from the traditional state planning system, which blamed and attributed land urbanization action to owners, a situation that previously generated great difficulty to convert land for development in urbanized areas because it was complex and costly. However, the new law introduced a development agent with the idea of encouraging owners planning to convert land for development. It also reduced the price of land, thus promoting the creation of urbanized land.

A new Land Use Policy (the Law 8/2007) replaced the previous land use act approved in 1998. This was the fourth policy to address land use management in Spain since the mid-20th century. Titles I and II, which reduce the price of land aiming to reduce speculative interest on the land and promote housing, are especially innovative. There is a mandatory reservation of 30% of the land for housing. However, this fact became controversial. According to this law, land is classified in two different categories: rural land and urban land (Art. 12). The land that is classified as rural land will be used in accordance with its nature and must engage a rational use of natural resources (Art. 13). This article is also reserved for acts of an exceptional nature and specific uses of public or social interest.

With regard to urban planning, the Law regulating Land and Town Planning (1956) and its amendment (1975) institutionalized Spanish urbanism by providing a series of figures for municipal planning, but left out the master plans: the National Plan and the Master Plan Territorial Coordination were never applied. That resulted in extreme urbanization according to the General Urban Plans. The Soil System Act and Ratings (1998) was in favour of making land available for development, resulting in increases in the price of housing and land, a weakening of planning as a regulatory tool and the expansion of urban sprawl, often without accompanying services and infrastructure. The construction sector in Spain became the engine of the economy: the period from 1997 to 2006 has been characterised the "prodigious decade of Spanish urbanism" (Burriel, 2008). Valencia urbanism has been criticised extensively at all levels up to the European Parliament.

Spatial Planning policy, Landscape Protection Policy and Forestry Policies, nationally and regionally, are policies that in principle favour continuing agricultural and environmental improvements. However, on many occasions, they have generated opposite effects. For example, Landscape Regulations in the Community of Valencia (Law 4/2004) allowed the reclassification of soil – changing to building land about 1000 acres. The regional Forest Law or the reformed Forest Act permit building on burned soils, whereas before it was forbidden for at least 30 years.

The main environmental policy actors in the Generalitat Valenciana (regional government) have been 

• the Environment Agency (late 1980s);
• the Department of Environment (1991-2002), with responsibility for protection of natural resources, water quality and resources, environmental impact assessment, waste management, air pollution control, and conservation, protection, development and rational use of the physical environment, and hunting and inland fishing;
• the Department of Planning and Housing (post-2003) which has taken over all environmental competences, incorporating a Directorate General for the Environment and a Department of Environmental Quality.

Since 2003 an Advisory Council has been in operation, and includes representatives of various regional ministries and municipalities, as well as universities, business organizations and chambers, trade unions, organizations of the agricultural sector, NGOs and consumer federations.

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