MASTER’S THESIS Planning Law and its Implementation in Serbia Planning Practice in Petrovac na Mlavi and Subotica Assistant Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Thomas Dillinger E280/7, Center of Regional Planning and Regional Development Department of Spatial Planning Vienna University of Technology Faculty of Architecture and Planning Robert Kolerovic, BSc Student ID: 0626019 Hetzendorferstraße 48 1120 Vienna Vienna, 3rd November 2014 Abstract Serbian cities and municipalities are facing many challenges when adopting spatial and urban plans and implementing them. One aspect, which is often mentioned by Serbian planners, is that the implementation of legal obligations, which are provided mainly by the 2009 Law on Planning and Construction, is insufficient. Another main aspect is that the degree of plan implementation is not very high. Both aspects lead to the hypothesis that the adoption of spatial and urban plans is done formally, especially because of the legal obligation, but the role and importance of the plans is neglected in reality, which is why plan implementation seems to be poor. The framework and preconditions of the case studies Subotica and Petrovac na Mlavi are different which is intended. Subotica is a city in the very north of the rather prosperous Autonomous Region of Vojvodina. Petrovac na Mlavi on the other hand is a municipality close to the Romanian border in the east of Serbia and is strongly influenced by agricultural structures. It can be concluded that smaller municipalities like Petrovac seem to have more problems with adopting and implementing plans, especially in regard to capacities of planning staff. The local level, i.e. cities and municipalities, is overstrained with the provided planning system. The 2009 Law on Planning and Construction requires the adoption of many different spatial and urban plans (municipal spatial plans, arrangement schemes, general urban plans, general regulation plans, detailed regulation plans, urban projects). The capacities of Serbian cities and municipalities are absolutely not sufficient to do this in an appropriate way. That is why they are already overstrained to adopt this large number of different plans. Adopting these plans takes a very long time. Because of that, there are absolutely no capacities to have the implementation of these plans in mind. In order to achieve a higher degree of plan implementation, reshaping and simplification of the planning system on the local level, with regard to the provided planning instruments, has to be forced. With a clearer structure of local planning instruments, plan implementation could reach a higher degree. Also the question, whether plans are realistic, has to be considered. The analysis of planning documents in the two case studies hypothesizes that the provided planning ideas, measures and goals are too ambitious. One main step towards a higher degree of plan implementation is to create realistic and realizable plans. Kurzfassung Städte und Gemeinden in Serbien stehen im Bereich der örtlichen Raumplanung vor zahlreichen Herausforderungen. In diesem Zusammenhang wird immer wieder die mangelhafte Umsetzung der gesetzlichen Verpflichtungen im Rahmen des serbischen Bau- und Planungsgesetzes 2009 genannt. Weiters wird auch eine mangelhafte Implementierung von Raumordnungsplänen im Allgemeinen hervorgehoben. Die Pläne werden zwar gesetzeskonform erlassen, jedoch wird von serbischen Planerinnen und Planern immer weider beklagt, dass das Bewusstsein über deren Notwendigkeit größtenteils fehlt und deshalb auch die Implementierung der Pläne unzureichend ist. Die Rahmenbedingungen und Ausganssituationen der beiden Fallbeispiele sind relativ unterschiedlich, dies ist jedoch bewusst so gewählt. Subotica ist eine mittelgroße Stadt im nördlichen Teil der relativ wohlhabenden Region Vojvodina. Petrovac na Mlavi ist eine etwas kleinere Gemeinde im östlichen Teil Serbiens und stark von landwirtschaftlichen Strukturen geprägt. Kleiner Gemeinden, wie zum Beispiel Petrovac scheinen größere Probleme bei der Erlassung und vor allem der Implementierung von Plänen zu haben, insbesondere weil personelle Kapazitäten nur unzureichend vorhanden sind. Die örtliche Ebene in Serbien ist mit dem derzeitigen Raumplanungssystem überfordert. Das Bau- und Planungsgesetz 2009 sieht die Erlassung von zahlreichen, formal unterschiedlichen Plänen vor (lokale Raumordnungspläne, generelle urbanistische Pläne, generelle Regulierungspläne; detaillierte Regulierungspläne; urbanistische Projekte). Serbischen Gemeinden und Städten fehlt es jedoch zumeist an Kapazitäten, um den gesetzlichen Verpflichtungen entsprechend nachzukommen. Dies führt zu einer gewissen Überforderung und vor allem zu fehlenden Kapazitäten, um sich der Implementierung von Plänen zu widmen. Um einen höheren Implementierungsgrad zu erreichen, ist eine Umstrukturierung und Vereinfachung des serbischen Raumplanungssystems notwendig, um so Gemeinden und Städte zu entlasten. Die Zahl der vorgesehenen Planungsinstrumente auf der örtlichen Ebene muss verringert werden und effizienter eingesetzt werden. Zusätzlich muss auch die Umsetzbarkeit der Pläne beachtet werden. Die Analyse von relevanten Planungsdokumenten in den zwei gewählten Fallbeispielen lässt vermuteten, dass die vorhandenen Raumordnungspläne zu umfangreich und anspruchsvoll sind. Deshalb muss auch hinterfragt werden, ob die erlassenen Pläne überhaupt umsetzbar bzw. realistisch sind. Affidavit I hereby affirm that this master’s thesis represents my own written work and that I have used no sources and aids other than those indicated. All passages quoted from publications or paraphrased from these sources are properly cited and attributed. The thesis was not submitted in the same or in a substantially similar version, not even partially, to another examination board and was not published elsewhere. Vienna, 3rd November 2014 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 8 2. Serbia in the past and today ..........................................................................................14 2.1. Former Yugoslavia and its disintegration ....................................................................14 2.2. Serbia after 2000........................................................................................................18 3. Spatial planning in former Yugoslavia and today’s Serbia ................................................23 3.1. Historical development of the planning system ...........................................................23 3.1.1. Planning in socialist period...................................................................................26 3.1.2. Planning in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s .............................................................28 3.2. Current system of spatial planning in Serbia ..............................................................33 3.2.1. Territorial organization of the Republic of Serbia ..................................................34 3.2.2. Legal framework of spatial planning .....................................................................34 3.2.3. Republic Spatial Planning Agency .......................................................................36 3.2.4. Spatial and urban plans .......................................................................................38 3.2.4.1. The Spatial Plan of the Republic of Serbia ....................................................38 3.2.4.2. Regional spatial plans ...................................................................................39 3.2.4.3. Spatial plans for special purpose areas .........................................................41 3.2.4.4. Municipal spatial plans ..................................................................................41 3.2.4.5. General urban plans ......................................................................................43 3.2.4.6. General regulation plans ...............................................................................43 3.2.4.7. Detailed regulation plans ...............................................................................45 3.2.4.8. Urban projects ...............................................................................................46 3.2.5. Procedure for passing planning documents .........................................................47 3.2.6. Reconciliation of planning instruments .................................................................48 3.2.7. Implementation programs ....................................................................................49 3.3. Spatial planning in Serbia in summary .......................................................................52 4. Case studies.....................................................................................................................55 4.1. Case study Subotica ..................................................................................................55 4.1.1. Subotica today and in the past .............................................................................55 4.1.2. Spatial Planning in the City of Subotica ................................................................57 4.1.3. Municipal Spatial Plan of Subotica and its implementation ...................................57 4.1.3.1. Implementation of superordinate planning documents ..................................58 4.1.3.2. Implementation of the Municipal Spatial Plan of Subotica .............................62