In outline, what legislative and governmental controls apply to strategic planning/zoning across regions and in localities?
Strategic planning/zoning in Slovakia is governed by a combination of acts, subordinate legislation and policy. The law and policy is contained in primary legislation (mainly in the Spatial Planning Act and Building Act – soon to be ineffective and replaced by the new Building Act as of 1 April 2025), secondary legislation and regional and local urban studies, and land-use/zoning plans.
Spatial planning legislation deals with the arrangement and functional use of land. It lays down principles of spatial planning and it proposes the development of land and landscape. In the land planning process, we distinguish between the following documentation:
Land planning materials are as follows:
The basic tool of land development and environmental care in the Slovak Republic, its regions and municipalities is the zoning documentation. This documentation addresses the spatial arrangement and functional use of the land, harmonizes the interests and activities affecting land development, the environment and ecological stability and establishes the directions of spatial arrangement and the functional use of land. Land-use/zoning documentation is elaborated on at national and regional level and for municipalities and parts of municipalities. It consists of:
On the basis of a zoning plan of a municipality and a zoning plan of a zone, zoning permits are rendered. We distinguish between the following zoning permits:
The new Act on Local Development Fee, as amended, introducing a new one-time local fee for development ("Fee") became effective as of 1 November 2016. The Fee applies to buildings, which were permitted by a building permit, buildings which were notified to the respective building office, buildings on which the decision to allow the alternation of the building was issued (only until 1 April 2025) or buildings which were additionally permitted after November 2016 (only until 1 April 2025). The Fee can be established by a generally binding regulation of the municipality in its territory, a separate part thereof or a separate cadastral area on a voluntary basis. The municipalities have the right to impose the Fee in the amount of €3 up to €35 per m2 of the above-ground building floor area. The Fee will be paid as one-time fee and will then become the income of the municipalities' budget. Furthermore, different rates of the Fee may be introduced by the municipality for residential buildings, buildings used for agricultural production, industrial buildings and buildings used for storage, etc.