The president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, announced last week a modification of the Territorial Planning Law to speed up the granting of licenses with the objective, he assured, that “this is the land where it is easiest to renovate a house, open a company or communicate with the Administration”. Mazón announced this at the Night of the Valencian Economy, when he defended that it would be an “initial reform” in a context of less bureaucracy for companies and citizens, the same day that he had announced other important fiscal measures.
In practice, the proposed modification – which has already been published in the Accompaniment Law, the regulations that will be approved with the Valencian Budgets – affects article 238 of the Territorial Planning, Urban Planning and Landscape Law, of 2021, and has consequences on the licensing procedure. It is also, as the draft law itself states, a regulatory change to “promote public-private collaboration.”
The novelty is that now the citizen, faced with the administrative traffic jam, will be able to choose to present, along with the technical project, a certificate of conformity from an Urban Planning Collaborating Entity of the Valencian Community, the so-called ECUV. These, which can be professional associations or private entities, are a total of 8 in the Valencian Community.
ECUVs make it possible to streamline licensing processes in town councils and are a figure introduced by the Botànic to try to unblock the granting of licenses and responsible declarations in town councils. It is with Law 1/2019, of February 5, of the Generalitat that the collaboration of the private sector in the verification and control of urban planning actions is included for the first time in the Valencian legal system.
Now, the Ministry of the Environment explains, the figure of the “responsible declaration” will be introduced to expedite licenses for the construction of new homes based on basic projects. The Consell hopes that the measure will serve to alleviate the situation of “paralysis” in which the construction licenses for new homes are found and which affects, they clarify, “all the municipalities” of the Valencian Community.
However, sources familiar with the text explain that the Consell’s proposal may be a twist, enough to minimize municipal autonomy in the granting of licenses.
Meanwhile, the PSPV has criticized some of the proposed changes linked to territory following the appearance of Councilor Ruth Merino in Corts Valencianes. Thus, the deputy spokesperson for the PSPV-PSOE in Les Corts Valencianes, María José Salvador, has warned that with the “elimination” of the Territorial Protection Agency, “free rein is given to speculative strategies”, while at the same time she has accused the Popular Party to “unprotect” the town councils in urban planning matters with this decision and has asked the Consell if it has “agreed” on it with “the more than 300 municipalities that have joined” the organization.