Admissibility of submission of a citizens’ draft resolution on the preparationof a local area development plan

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to analyse the problem of admissibility of the "opening" of a local spatial development plan by way of a "citizens' resolution initiative" and to answer the question: may such matters not be the subject of a draft resolution drawn up by the inhabitants of a municipality? The author presents an example from the practice of one of Polish cities, where a group of 300 inhabitants of a municipality submitted to the city council a draft resolution on accession to a change of a local spatial development plan. In the course of work on the project it turned out that it had received a negative legal opinion, which resulted in taking the initiative off the city council's work schedule (and its actual withdrawal). The author presents the theses of this opinion and criticises them. The thesis presented in the paper is that the provisions of law (and findings of scientific output) do not allow to assume that a draft resolution "opening a local plan" may not be the subject of a citizens' legislative initiative.