Article | Last updated: 2014-01-24 | Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation
All municipalities are required to have a municipal master plan. The municipal master plan is the municipality’s overriding governing document. It provides the framework for the development of the municipal community and management of the land use resources.
Municipal planning shall promote municipal, regional and national goals, interests and functions. The municipal master plan consists of a land use element and a social element with an implementation element. The municipal sub-plan is a plan for specific areas, topics or areas of activity, and the municipality is free to decide the areas for which it is expedient to make plans. The implementation element shall be revised annually and it shall contain an action programme for the implementation of the social element for the next four budget years. The implementation element shall specify the plan and form the basis for the municipality’s prioritisation of resources and planning and cooperation functions.
During the first year of the electoral term, the municipal council shall prepare a municipal planning strategy that concerns strategic choices relating to the development of the municipality and the need for future plans. The main question is whether to revise the municipal master plan in whole or in part, and what this revision shall entail. This applies to long-term land use, the sector’s activities and an assessment of the municipality’s planning needs in the electoral term.
From plan to project – formal possibilities under the law.
Relationship between the municipal planning strategy and the municipal master plan process.