New Spatial Planning Law: Mobile Homes Enter Built Environment

The Ministry of Spatial Planning has published a draft of the new Spatial Planning Law, which introduces stricter and more clearly quantified rules for camps. The maximum built environment of camps is increased from 10 to 30 percent, with mobile homes and other portable units explicitly counted towards built environment for the first time. At least 40 percent of landscaped greenery must be maintained, and the proportion of traffic and parking areas is limited to 30 percent of the total area of the camp.

While it was previously stated that accommodation units and accompanying facilities in the camp must be at least 25 meters away from the shoreline, the proposed law now differentiates between camps outside and within settlements. In designated building areas outside settlements, accommodation buildings, according to the proposed law, cannot be planned closer than 100 meters from the shoreline, with exceptions for open facilities such as pools, playgrounds, promenades, and areas for tents and campers. In camps within the building area of settlements, a strip of 25 meters without closed accommodation facilities is maintained.

In practice, this means that mobile units no longer ‘fall out of the balance’ of built environment, so camps with a high proportion of mobile homes will need to adjust their capacities to meet the combination of built environment and traffic restrictions.

Notably, a transitional provision is particularly important: existing camps, whose realization began in accordance with previous regulations, can remain in the area for a maximum of eight years from the law’s entry into force, during which time they must implement improvements to the spatial conditions in the camp area. This provision effectively eliminates ‘eternal exceptions’ and introduces a deadline by which the current state must be brought up to new standards.

The law also brings a number of other innovations aimed at modernizing spatial planning, digitizing the preparation of plans, and improving the management of maritime property. For example, construction of buildings is restricted to a distance of less than five meters from the boundary of maritime property in the building area of settlements and less than 25 meters in designated building areas outside settlements, except in already built-up areas where such distancing would disrupt the existing construction direction. After public consultation, the draft will go through government procedures and be submitted to the Parliament. The public discussion is open until October 4, 2025, on the e-Consultation portal.