The Community of Madrid has taken another step towards a major reform of its urban planning rules by approving the bill for the Promotion and Balanced Development of the Region, known as LIDER.
Through this regulation, the regional government hopes to simplify housing construction by reducing bureaucratic procedures and cutting urban planning processing times from 12 to 4 years.
After approval by the Governing Council, the bill will now be sent to the Madrid Assembly for further parliamentary consideration.
The main goal is to reduce the shortage of new housing
The main objective of the bill is to address the shortage of new-build housing, which has been growing year after year, and to simplify the entire planning process through a unified regional vision.
According to the authors of the project, the needs of each municipality, environmental and landscape protection, infrastructure creation, public services and social, cultural and economic characteristics will all be taken into account.
Municipal Strategic Plans should speed up urban planning
One of the main innovations in the project is a new model of Municipal Strategic Plans – PEM.
This will allow municipalities to approve their urban planning documents within 4–6 years, cutting by more than half the time currently required, which on average exceeds 12 years.
In addition, development planning deadlines will be reduced from 7 to 4 years and, in certain cases, may be completed in just one year through urban planning ordinances.
In practice, a municipality that today wants to approve a new neighbourhood or change the designated use of a plot for housing construction may need more than 10 years to complete all formalities.
Shorter waiting times mean that available land can reach the market sooner and, as a result, more housing can be offered on the Spanish property market.
Land classification will be simplified
The law will also simplify land classification, reducing the number of categories from five to three: urbanised land, protected rural land and unprotected rural land.
The purpose of this measure is to make land management easier and provide greater certainty and clarity for owners, municipalities and investors.
Until now, this situation has caused doubts, led to litigation and in many cases stopped projects for years.
Under the new model, any owner, investor or municipality will be able to understand much more clearly what can and cannot be done on each plot.
Municipalities will gain more autonomy
At the same time, the bill strengthens municipal autonomy.
Municipalities with more than 15,000 inhabitants will be able to approve all their urban planning instruments, detailed studies and catalogues of protected assets and areas independently.
The regional government will retain its role of ensuring legal compliance.
A new model for neighbourhood regeneration
According to the regional government, LIDER also includes an innovative model for Spain that will allow municipalities to regenerate neighbourhoods and improve public and private spaces without passing the costs on to residents.
The law will also make it easier to protect historic heritage, as it will no longer be necessary to amend all planning documents in order to protect a single building.
For smaller municipalities, the project includes a special regime that allows urban planning to be adapted to their needs.
As a new measure, the Community of Madrid is launching a technical support service to help these towns draw up their urban planning documents.
This support will include preliminary studies, environmental procedures and the preparation of reports required to implement their proposals.
Connection with other housing initiatives
LIDER complements other regional government initiatives aimed at reducing bureaucracy and accelerating housing construction.
Along the same lines, Law 3/2024 on urban planning measures to promote protected housing is already in force.
Thanks to it, permits for the construction of 3,679 properties were granted in its first year, with the goal of reaching 10,000 in the future.
In addition, the region has launched an urban planning accelerator that centralises the processing of reports in order to shorten deadlines and facilitate the development of housing and economic activity projects.
Rules for events and entertainment will also be updated
The LIDER project also provides for the updating of rules on public performances and recreational activities that have been in force for almost 30 years.
The aim is to adapt them to the current reality of leisure, culture, gastronomy and major events held in the region.
Municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants will be responsible for authorising exceptional events organised within their territory.
The sanctions regime will also be updated, and the use of open flames, sparklers and other pyrotechnic devices will be banned in hospitality and entertainment establishments unless they have specially designated areas for this purpose.