Urban Planning and Construction Regulations in Andalusia

Posted on Dec 9, 2024 in Geography

Urban Planning and Construction Regulations

1. Land Readjustment

Concept: Land readjustment refers to the planning operation consisting of grouping or restructuring farms, parcels, or lots within the scope of a unit. There are two methods: voluntary or forced.

2. Methods of Action

For each execution unit, the appropriate operating system will be determined from the following:

  • a) Expropriation (Public)
  • b) Cooperation (Public)
  • c) Compensation (Private)

3. Body Responsible for Fair Price Fixation and Bonus

  1. The appraisement of the property and rights shall be determined by applying the criteria established by general law.
  2. The payment of fair compensation may occur according to the expropriated party by delivery or exchange with other farms belonging to the acting administration or the beneficiary of expropriation.
  3. The appraisement is fixed by agreement or, in the final decision, by the Provincial Valuation Commission.

4. Planning Permission

Planning permission shall be the sole responsibility of the city councils. It is required for the following types of acts:

  1. Major works: Requires a blueprint and execution plan.
  2. Minor works: Does not require a project of any kind.
  3. Habitability or first occupation: Acts such as parcel planning concerning the sixth section of Chapter II, earth movement, clearing of forested areas, site development, and infrastructure.

Acts of construction or building and use of soil or subsoil by individuals engaged in public lands are also subject to prior municipal planning permission.

5. Violations and Penalties

Any act or omission classified as an urban infringement in this law will result in the adoption of the following measures: the law needed to protect the urban environment, the need for punitive liability, and compensation for damages from those responsible. In any case, measures will be taken to rectify the alterations produced.

Classes of violations: They are classified as minor, serious, and very serious.

Minimum penalties:

  • a) Mild: 600 €
  • b) Serious: 3000 €
  • c) Very serious: 6000 €

The fines will go to construction equipment and activities such as municipal planning.

6. Provincial Valuation Committees

  1. Created as province-wide decentralized organs of Andalusia specializing in eminent domain.
  2. The Provincial Committees will meet to review the procedures for determining fair compensation for all forced expropriation when the expropriating administration is the Autonomous Community.
  3. They consist of the following members:
    • Chairperson
    • Members: (4 technicians, 1 notary, 1 optional technician, 1 technical representative)
    • Secretary

7. Types and Regulation of Allowable Uses

  1. Global Use, Detailed Use, Uses
  2. Compatible Uses: Those uses allowed to be implemented by the standards of this plan or partial ordinances.

Regulation

  • a) Required Uses: These are specified in the content of building permits issued by the Mayor.
  • b) Provisional Uses: Those that remain prohibited by these standards, so be legally established temporarily.
  • c) Uses Outside Organization: Those that have been legally developed prior to the effective delivery of the overall plan but are banned in it.
  • d) Uses Outside Ordinance: Those pre-existing that, without being banned, violate some of the elements or parameters regulated.
  • e) Pre-existing Uses

8. Types of Residential Uses

Permanent housing serving people.

Classes of residents according to their organization on the plot, there are three categories:

  • A. Single-family housing construction
  • B. Two-family housing construction
  • C. Multi-family housing or collective housing

Under the legal regime, they could be submitted:

  1. Housing subject to a regime of public protection (VPO)
  2. Free housing

9. Plot and Solar

Plot: A plot is defined as any portion of buildable urban land, bounded for the implementation of development and construction, to give autonomy to the building by building units, to serve as a reference to the intensity of the building and the number of homes, and to ensure the minimum unit of construction.

Solar: A solar is a plot that meets the surface conditions and urbanization that dictate the law of the land and is suitable to be built immediately, before pointing to alignments and flush under GMU.

10. Parks and Gardens

Includes spaces for trees and landscaping, which aims to:

  1. Ensure the health, rest, and recreation of the population
  2. Improve environmental conditions of urban areas
  3. Protect and isolate rapid transit routes
  4. Develop playgrounds
  5. Create isolation zones
  6. Improve the aesthetics of the city
  7. Any other similar purpose

For the purposes of its detailed regulation, the following are distinguished:

  • A. Urban park
  • B. Garden
  • C. Landscaped area

If a park is less than 2500 m2, only parking is permitted. However, if it is larger, it may also have social and sports facilities, occupying 20% if they are uncovered or 40% if they are covered.

11. Occupancy of Plots

  • It is the projection on the floor of buildings above and below ground, including the outgoing parts within the plot area.
  • Each area sets the maximum occupancy rate of edification within the plot.
  • Basements, leveling, and recesses do not exceed the maximum occupancy rate of the plot.

A basement can have a 25% increase in its ordinance, provided it is for parking, enforces the separation of public and private boundaries, and ensures the landscaping conditions of the rest of the plot.

12. Types of Setback

It is the retreat of buildings on the alignment of the road or party walls:

  • Throughout the alignment against an apple
  • On each floor of a building
  • On the upper floors of a building
  • Ground floor in the formation of arcades or colonnades

13. Separation of Public and Private Boundaries

Minimum clearances of the buildings in front of the public highway at the bottom of the plot, the side edges thereof, and between buildings of the same plot are the minimum distances at which a building may be placed. Specific ordinances are identified in the area.

  • The resulting works in basements or excavations, slopes, or land sales must comply with the parameters of the boundary separations.
  • Sports facilities and swimming pools that are not buildable bodies above ground may be at a minimum distance of 2m from public and private boundaries.

14. Regulatory Heights

  • The maximum buffer height is that which buildings can reach according to the values contained in each of the ordinances of the area. Each area carries a maximum height of plants. The height and number of plants have to comply jointly.
  • The building height is measured from the lower bound reference to the intersection with the upper level of the last forged. Above, there may only be:
  • The roof of buildings (slope less than 50%). The maximum flight of the deck will not be higher than the eaves. The maximum height of the ridge is 2.75 m.
  • Railings of facades, as well as the separation between roof elements, will have a maximum height of 1.20 m (opaque) and 1.80 m (transparent).
  • The access caissons to the terrace, with a height of 2.70 m and a maximum occupancy of 15% of the surface of the cover.

15. Ground Floors and Mezzanines

a) Ground Floor: Defined as the floor of the building flush with the ground or within the tolerance that makes a standard. Regardless of the ordinance establishing the zone, the plant height is set at 3.50 m (commercial use) and 2.50 m (residential use (minimum free height)). Except for the use of parking, where justified, the ground floors and mezzanine items must meet the following conditions:

  • It may not be usable for housing.
  • A minimum of 2 m will be set aside from the facades.
  • It will not exceed 40% occupancy on the local plant where headroom is located.
  • Its minimum headroom is 2.20 m, 2.50 meters above and below the floor.

b) Basement: Defined as the basement located below the ground floor. A buried or half-buried basement is one whose roof is less than 1.50 m above the ground. For the use of car parks, warehouses, or multi-family housing for commercial facilities, the maximum area of buildable roof will not be computed. For other uses, it will be reckoned at 100%. The surface of the basement may reach the maximum occupancy ordinance specifies permitted for each zone, and the boundaries separating public and private must be met.