Adjustment of legally binding local plans

Traditionally, and by law, new urban areas in Denmark are regulated and planned through legally binding local plans. Recently a tendency has occurred: The municipalities make the legally binding local plans quite open for future adjustment, and they are using a substantial amount of ‘empowerment provisions’ which empower the municipalities to later ruling. This way of making plans postpones the actual regulation of an area (i.e. the planning permission) making it an individual ruling for instance at the application of building permits. Case studies show examples of this way of regulating an area, which seem to be beyond the scope of the Danish Planning Act.

This paper deals with this problem through case studies and a legal analysis of present law. If the combination of the legally binding local plan and subsequent added requirements is misused, it will weaken the legal rights of the citizens (property owners) and in general the justice in land use planning.

The scope of the paper is to establish to which degree the permission permission can be postpones, and to which degree the use of empowerment provisions legally may be used in the planning process. In detail this will include the considerations of legal rights, the extend of the legal use of empowerment provisions and the combination of the use of legal binding local plans and other legal instruments such as easements and sales agreements.