Cabinet Regulation No. 515 regarding national spatial plan

Disclaimer: The English language text below is provided by the Translation and Terminology Centre for information only; it confers no rights and imposes no obligations separate from those conferred or imposed by the legislation formally adopted and published. Only the latter is authentic. The original Latvian text uses masculine pronouns in the singular. The Translation and Terminology Centre uses the principle of gender-neutral language in its English translations. In addition, gender-specific Latvian nouns have been translated as gender neutral terms, e.g. chairperson. Translation © 2005 Tulkošanas un terminoloģijas centrs (Translation and Terminology Centre) Republic of Latvia Cabinet Regulation No 515 Adopted 26 November 2002 Regulations regarding the National Spatial Plan Issued pursuant to Section 6, Paragraph two of the Regional Development Law I. General Provisions 1. These Regulations prescribe the procedures for the development, public consultations, implementation and monitoring of the national spatial plan. 2. The national spatial plan is an aggregate of documents, which includes: 2.1. the long-term spatial development prospects for Latvia; 2.2. binding parts of the national spatial plan; and 2.3. guidelines for the national spatial plan; 3. The long-term spatial development prospects for Latvia are the State basic parameters of sustainable spatial development (hereinafter – basic parameters), and the Cabinet shall approve such by an order. 4. The basic parameters shall provide an overview regarding the existing and long-term spatial structure – open space, distribution of population and infrastructure in relation to a human being and his or her way of life from the aspect of the utilisation of values and territory. 5. There are two parts to the basic parameters: 5.1. the first part shall be an informative analytic characterisation of the spatial structure of the State, also of the current situation in the utilisation of the territory, and the national treasures shall be reflected therein, as well as trends for spatial development shall be depicted; and 5.2. the second part shall be a spatial vision after 20 years, in which there shall be depicted the desirable future spatial structure of the State in descriptive and graphic form, as well as the strategy and action for the achievement of the vision. Translation © 2005 Tulkošanas un terminoloģijas centrs (Translation and Terminology Centre) 2 6. In the binding parts of the national spatial plan (hereinafter – binding parts), the national interests and requirements shall be determined for the utilisation of the national territory and the planning of development. 7. The guidelines of the national spatial plan are recommendations for the planning of development, which shall be drawn up on the basis of the prospects, in order to implement a common policy for the spatial development of the State (hereinafter – guidelines). 8. The database necessary for the development of the national spatial plan shall be created and maintained, as well as the originals of the national spatial plan shall be stored by the Ministry responsible for national-level spatial planning (hereinafter – the responsible Ministry). 9. Persons are entitled to familiarise themselves with the documents of the national spatial plan and the database of the national spatial plan in accordance with the procedures set out in the Freedom of Information Law. II. Development of the National Spatial Plan 10. The national spatial plan shall be developed by assessing the State regional development planning documents, as well as the spatial planning guidelines of the Council of Europe, European Union and Council of Baltic Sea States. 11. The development of the national spatial plan shall be financed from the funds of the State basic budget in accordance with the funds provided for in the State budget law of the current year for the development of the national spatial plan. 12. In order to co-ordinate the development of the national spatial plan and ensure management of the development, the Minister responsible for national-level territorial planning (hereinafter – the responsible Minister) may establish an inter-institutional national spatial plan steering group or working groups. 13. The procedures for the development of the national spatial plan shall be as follows: 13.1. the responsible Ministry shall prepare and the responsible Minister shall approve a working plan for the process of the development of the national spatial plan, as well as for public consultations (hereinafter – working plan), as well as the terms of reference for the development of each document of the national spatial plan (hereinafter – terms of reference), including public consultations; 13.2. the responsible Ministry shall draw up a draft of the national spatial plan documents or a part thereof and the responsible Minister shall take a decision regarding the transferring thereof for public consultations; 13.3. the responsible Ministry shall summarise the results of the public consultations, prepare a report regarding the public consultations and the draft of the national spatial plan document or a part thereof for subsequent processing; 13.4. the responsible Minister shall evaluate the results of the pubic consultation and the draft of the national spatial plan document or a part thereof and shall take a decision regarding the submission thereof for evaluation by the National Regional Development Council or regarding improvement of the document; Translation © 2005 Tulkošanas un terminoloģijas centrs (Translation and Terminology Centre) 3 13.5. the responsible Minister shall submit the draft of the national spatial plan document or a part thereof for evaluation by the National Regional Development Council; 13.6. after consideration by the National Regional Development Council the responsible Ministry shall prepare and the responsible Minister shall submit the guidelines or a part thereof for consideration to the Cabinet, attaching the report on the public consultations; 13.7. after consideration by the National Regional Development Council, the responsible Ministry shall prepare draft Cabinet regulations and the responsible Minister shall submit these to the Cabinet on the basis of the draft document of the binding part; and 13.8. after consideration by the National Regional Development Council, the responsible Ministry shall prepare the draft Cabinet recommendations and the responsible Minister shall submit these to the Cabinet on the basis of the draft guidelines document. III. Public Consultations regarding the National Spatial Plan 14. Public consultations regarding the national spatial plan, also the participation of the public in the process of planning is an integral part of the preparation of the national spatial plan. 15. The responsible Ministry shall: 15.1. inform the public, publishing a notification regarding the commencement of the development of documents for the national spatial plan and information regarding the essence and contents of such documents in the newspaper Latvijas Vēstnesis [the official Gazette of the Government of Latvia] and on the Internet home page of the responsible Ministry; 15.2. organise public consultations regarding the documents of the national spatial plan (which shall continue for not less than eight weeks) in accordance with the following procedures: 15.2.1. at least one week prior to the public consultations publish a notification regarding the public consultations in the newspaper Latvijas Vēstnesis and on the Internet home page of the responsible ministry, as well as indicate where it is possible to become acquainted with the draft of the national spatial plan document or a part thereof turned over for public consultations; 15.2.2. after public consultations in respect of the national spatial plan, prepare a report regarding the public consultations and publish this on the Internet home page of the responsible ministry; and 15.3. organise the familiarisation of the public with the national spatial plan. IV. Implementation of the National Spatial Plan 16. The guidelines shall be implemented in accordance with a Cabinet order. 17. The national interests specified in each binding part and the requirements for the utilisation of the territory of the State and the planning of development shall be observed and implemented in accordance with Cabinet regulations. 18. The guidelines shall be observed and implemented in accordance with Cabinet regulations. Translation © 2005 Tulkošanas un terminoloģijas centrs (Translation and Terminology Centre) 4 V. Monitoring of the National Spatial Plan 19. In order to ensure the monitoring of the national spatial plan, the responsible Ministry shall: 19.1. provide an opinion to the Planning Region Development Council and to the district or territorial local government, as well as to the National Regional Development Council regarding the compliance of the spatial plan of the planning region and district or the local government territory with the national spatial plan; 19.2. propose to the Planning Region Development Councils, district or basic local government units to mutually harmonise the relevant territorial spatial plan with the national spatial plan, if the spatial plan does not comply with the national spatial plan; and 19.3. each year by 31 March prepare a report on the observance of the national spatial plan and publish this in the newspaper Latvijas Vēstnesis. 20. In order to ensure the continuity and updating of the planning process, the responsible Ministry once a year shall assess the national spatial plan documents and, where appropriate, submit to the National Regional Development Council a proposal regarding a review of the national spatial plan documents and the making of amendments. 21. The national spatial plan documents shall be reviewed and amended in accordance with the procedures set out in Paragraph 13 of these Regulations. Prime Minister E. Repše Minister for Special Assignments Minister for Regional Development I. Gaters