Spatial planning at the local level is carried out by developing and approving comprehensive plans for the spatial development of the territories of territorial communities, general plans of settlements, territorial zoning plans and detailed territory plans, their updating and making changes to them.

The order of development and updating of spatial planning documentation at the local level are determined by the central body of executive power, which ensures the formation of state policy in the field of spatial planning.

The composition and content of spatial planning documentation at the local level is defined by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in the Decree No.926 of 2021 “On the approval of the Procedure for the development, updating, amendment and approval of spatial planning documentation”, DBN B.1.1-14:2021 “Composition And Content Of Spatial Planning Documentation At The Local Level” and the development task, which is drawn up and approved by the customer in agreement with the developer.

Spatial planning documentation at the local level is developed taking into account the data of the state land cadastre on an updated cartographic basis in digital form. The procedure for exchanging information between the urban and state land cadastres is established by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

Approval of updated spatial planning documentation at the local level is carried out in accordance with Articles 17, 18 and 19 of the Law “On Regulation of City Planning Activity”.

The validity period of local-level spatial planning documentation is not limited.

At the local level, there are different types of spatial planning documentation, and decisions about their development, updates, and changes are based on specific criteria:

1. If there is approved spatial planning documentation for a particular area (complex plan, general plan of a settlement, detailed plan of a territory), only updates or changes are allowed, unless there are significant alterations in the administrative and territorial structure or boundaries of the territorial community.

2. Amendments to comprehensive plans or settlement plans may occur once a year, based on spatial planning monitoring outcomes or state necessity, and following monitoring of the documentation's impact in line with the Law of Ukraine "On Strategic Environmental Assessment".

3. Local councils have the authority to update spatial planning documentation at the local level. Decisions to update or change spatial planning documentation are supported by the relevant spatial planning and architecture authority, informed by spatial planning monitoring. Changes cannot be made without prior monitoring.

When developing or changing spatial planning documentation, considerations include state interests, the concerns of neighboring communities, local community interests, and public interests as documented in concepts, strategies, projects, programs, and other relevant information about the territories involved, including civil protection matters.

Comprehensive Plan for the Spatial Development of the Territory of the Territorial Community

The Comprehensive Plan is developed and approved to ensure sustainable development of the territorial community while balancing state, public, and private interests. It considers the concept of integrated territorial development and facilitates coordinated decision-making for the holistic spatial development of settlements as a unified system within and beyond their boundaries.

The Plan covers the entire territory of the territorial community, excluding cases where it includes only the territory of a settlement and incorporates planning decisions for the prospective use of the entire territory, including the administrative center, within the framework defined by the Procedure and the tasks of the Plan.

The Comprehensive Plan includes general plans for settlements, detailed plans for areas within the community, and other planning documents aligned with the comprehensive plan:

●      Detailed plans for territories become integral parts of the comprehensive plan, specifying elements of general settlement plans.

●      Zoning plans for settlement territories are developed as part of general plans and become part of the comprehensive plan upon approval.

●      Plans for historical areas, if applicable.

●      Detailed plans for state or local budget funded social infrastructure objects and other developments are included, and their information is entered into the State Land Cadastre after plan approval.

The plan is developed at the decision of the respective local council. Reasons for plan development or changes include the absence of a plan, monitoring results proposing changes, or decisions by the Cabinet of Ministers due to state necessity.

The Comprehensive Plan undergoes spatial planning documentation expertise and strategic environmental assessment.

The local council reviews and approves the Comprehensive Plan within three months of submission.

Public access to Comprehensive Plan materials, except classified or restricted information, should not be restricted.

General Plan of the Settlement

The General Plan of the Settlement is both a type of spatial planning documentation at the local level and land management documentation and is intended to substantiate the long-term strategy of planning and development of the territory of the settlement. If the territory of a territorial community is not limited to the territory of one settlement, General Plans of settlements within such a community are developed as part of a comprehensive plan or included in it.

The general plan defines:

• Main principles and directions of planning organization

• Functional purpose of the territory

• Formation of the social service system for the population

• Organization of the street and road and transport network

• Engineering equipment

• Civil protection of the territory and the population against dangerous processes

• Protection of the natural environment

• Protection and preservation of cultural heritage

• Preservation of the traditional character of the environment of historical settlements

• Sequence of implementation of decisions

• Phased development of the territory

• Historical-architectural reference plan for settlements in the List of Historical Settlements of Ukraine

A mandatory component of the General Plan of the Settlement is the Zoning Plan of the territory of this settlement. The zoning plan determines the conditions and restrictions of the use of the territory within the defined functional zones. General Plans of settlements can be combined with Detailed Plans of the entire territory of settlements or its parts.

For the settlements listed in the Historical Settlements of Ukraine an obligatory and integral component of the general plan of the settlements is the historical-architectural supporting plan.

The composition, content and procedure for developing the historical and architectural reference plan of the settlement are determined by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in the Procedure for developing, updating, amending and approving urban planning documentation. The historical-architectural reference plan is developed in accordance with DBN B.2.2-3:2021 Composition And Maintenance Of Historical-Architectural Supporting Plan Of The Settlement”.

The decision on the development of the General Plan is taken by the relevant village, settlement, or city council. The executive bodies of village, settlement, and city councils, Kyiv and Sevastopol city state administrations are the customers who organize the development, amendment, and submission of the general plan of the settlement for consideration by the relevant village, settlement, and city council.

General plans of cities are subject to mandatory strategic environmental assessment and spatial planning documentation expertise. Examination of planning documentation of villages and settlements can be carried out by the decision of the clients.

Detailed Plan of the Territory

The detailed plan of the territory details the provisions of the general plan of the settlement or the comprehensive plan and determines the planning organization and development of part of the territory of the settlement or the territory outside its boundaries without changing the functional purpose of this territory. The detailed plan of the territory is developed taking into account the restrictions on the use of land.

The detailed plan of the territory defines:

●      principles of planning and spatial organization of buildings;

●      red lines and building regulation lines;

●      functional purpose, mode and parameters of development of one or more land plots, distribution of territories in accordance with building regulations, state standards and rules;

●      town planning conditions and restrictions (in the absence of a zoning plan of the territory) or clarification of town planning conditions and restrictions according to the zoning plan of the territory;

●      the need for enterprises and public service institutions, their location;

●      expediency, scope, sequence of building reconstruction;

●      sequence and volume of engineering preparation of the territory;

●      system of engineering networks;

●      the procedure for organizing transport and pedestrian traffic;

●      the order of complex landscaping and greening, the need to form an eco-network;

●      boundaries of coastal protective strips and beach zones of water bodies (in the absence of a zoning plan for the territory).

A detailed plan of the territory is developed by decision of the relevant village, settlement, city council in order to determine the planning organization, spatial composition and parameters of for the buildings and landscape organization of the quarter, microdistrict, other part of the territory intended for complex development or reconstruction.

The detailed plan of the territory must contain all information defined in Article 45-1 of the Law of Ukraine "On Land Management", including the boundaries and legal regimes of all land plots and all restrictions on land use. After approval of the detailed plan of the territory, information about land plots on which social infrastructure objects (education, health care, culture, housing and communal services) are located, which are communally owned by the territorial community, must be entered into the State Land Cadastre.

Detailed plans of territories simultaneously with their approval become integral components of the general plan of the settlement and/or the comprehensive plan.

The detailed plan of the territory is considered and approved by the village, settlement or city council within 30 days from the day of its submission.

The detailed plan of the territory is not subject to spatial planning expertise, but is subject to a strategic environmental assessment.

Changes to the detailed plan of the territory are permitted provided they comply with the comprehensive plan (if any), the general plan of the settlement and the zoning plan of the territory.

Based on the approved detailed plan of the territory, a land management project can be created, which, once approved, becomes part of the detailed plan. Changing the purpose of a land plot is not allowed if it conflicts with the zoning plan or detailed plan of the area.

War Changes

Integrated Development Concept of the Territorial Community

This type of spatial act, which is not a spatial planning document, appeared after amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the Regulation of Town Planning Activity” and a new Decree “On Approval of the Procedure for Developing the Integrated Development Concept of the Territorial Community” in 2022.

The concept of integrated development provides:

●      reflects the strategic directions of the development of the territory based on the integration of all key areas - social and economic development, preservation of the environment and historical heritage, optimization of engineering and transport infrastructure, etc.

●      involves a wide range of stakeholders, in particular, residents of the community and business entities that are registered and/or carry out or intend to carry out economic activities on the territory of the community

●      determines the long-term, interdisciplinary, spatial and socio-economic priorities of the territory's development

●      corresponds to state, regional and local development programs.

It is developed by order of the local self-government body and approved by its decision.

The community receives as a result of the development of the Concept the comprehensive analysis of the modern spatial development of the community territory, determination of issues and features of prospective development, the alternative scenarios of spatial development of the territorial community, a vision of sustainable spatial development in the form of an Integrated map of spatial development of the community, a matrix of prioritization of Concept implementation projects, taking into account industry focuses and territorial aspects and the road map for the implementation of the concept of integrated development of the territory of the territorial community.

At the request of the customer, the results of the Concept development can be placed on the Spatial Platform of the community to ensure access to the public, investors and other interested parties.

Spatial Planning Cadastre

In accordance with the Law of Ukraine "On Regulation of City Planning Activities", the authorized body of spatial planning and architecture creates and maintains the planning cadastre. The spatial cadastre is a state system for storing and using geospatial data about the territory, administrative-territorial units, environmental, engineering and geological conditions, information resources of building regulations, state standards and rules to meet information needs in territory planning and construction, forming a branch component of state geo-information resources .

The procedure and structure of the spatial planning cadastre, the procedure for providing information from the cadastre are determined by: Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 559 "On the urban planning cadastre"; the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine "On Approval of the Regulations on Data Sets Subject to Public Disclosure in the Form of Open Data", Order of the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, and Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine "On Approval of Requirements for the Structure and Format of Publication of Information on Urban Planning Documentation on the Internet" and normative documents of the DBN B.1.1-16 :2013: "Composition and content of the urban cadastre", DSTU-NB B.1.1-18:2013 "Instructions on the formation and support of the urban cadastre".

War Changes

The updated regional development policy will utilize a Geographic Information System (GIS) and DREAM - the State Digital Ecosystem for Recovery Management. The GIS, integrating state digital registries, will enable the development of regional and local strategies based on real data, elevating the implementation of state policies and management to a new level. The initiative also addresses the need for legislative changes to systematically coordinate planning documents at all levels, emphasizing a comprehensive approach to update outdated development schemes and transition all strategic documents into a digital format aligned with European integration processes and recovery challenges.

3.5.3 Spatial Planning Documentation Expertise

The expertise (examination) of the spatial planning documentation is regulated by the “Procedure for the examination of urban planning documentation.” According to paragraph 2 of the Procedure, the following spatial planning documentation is subject to examination:

●      General scheme of planning the territory of Ukraine;

●      Planning schemes of certain parts of the territory of Ukraine;

●      Planning schemes of the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, regions, districts;

●      Comprehensive plans for the spatial development of the territories of territorial communities;

●      General plans of cities;

●      Changes to the specified urban planning documentation.

By the decision of the clients, projects of general plans of settlements, villages, detailed plans of territories and changes to them can also undergo the examination.

The purpose of conducting an examination of spatial planning documentation is to determine the compliance of the content of planning documentation with legislation, building regulations, state standards and rules, decisions of executive authorities and local self-government bodies on issues of planning and development of territories, as well as the requirements of tasks for the development of urban planning documentation.

The examination is carried out by expert organizations, consisting of certified experts in the relevant areas of professional activity, architects who have received the appropriate qualification certificate, and certified land surveying engineers.

3.5.4 Strategic Environmental Assessment of Spatial Planning Documents

According to the Law of Ukraine "On Regulation of Urban Development" all the urban planning documentation is subject to mandatory strategic environmental assessment (SEA) - strategies, plans, schemes, urban planning documentation, national programs, state target programs and other programs and program documents, including any modifications to them.

The legal basis for SEA in Ukraine:

● Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment (ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine No. 562-VIII of 01.07.2015)

● Law on Strategic Environmental Assessment (No. 2354-VIII of 20.03.2018) 

● Methodological Recommendations for the Implementation of Strategic Environmental Assessment of State Planning Documents (order of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine No. 296 of 10.08.2018) 

● Procedure for Monitoring the Consequences of the Implementation of the State Planning Document for the Environment, including for Public Health (resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No.1272 of 16.12.2020) 

● Criteria for Determining the Consequences for the Environment, including Public Health (order of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, No. 213 of 28.10.2020).

Holding public hearings in the SEA procedure is mandatory as defined in the “Procedure for Involving the Public in the Discussion of Issues that May Affect the State of the Environment”

During the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of local spatial planning documentation projects, public discussions are held in accordance with the Law "On Regulation of Urban Planning Activities". This process offers ample opportunities for active stakeholder and public participation. SEA documents are constantly posted on the websites of regional authorities, which ensures accessibility and transparency.