ROD owners fear for their future. There is a voice from the government

As we have already reported, the owners of the Family Allotment Gardens (ROD) are concerned about their future. This is related to the amendment to the Spatial Planning and Development Act passed last year.

The amendment introduces a new planning tool for the entire commune – a general plan. It will be an act of local law, with which both local plans and decisions on development conditions will have to comply. It is to simplify, accelerate and unify procedures for spatial planning in communes. Communes have until 2025 to adopt general plans.

The general plans of the communes assume, among other things, the introduction of so-called planning zones. The regulations provide for the possibility of creating thirteen types of such zones, and allotment gardens have been specified in only three of them. Allotment gardeners fear that there is a real risk that decisions will be made regarding a significant part of the allotment gardens that will open the possibility of their liquidation.

– The regulations open the door to eliminating gardens, and this is true all over Poland. If the general plan, which replaced the study, assumes that single-family housing will be built on the garden area, then allotment holders will not be able to do anything – said Anna Zaniewska, member of the board of ROD Siekierki in Warsaw, in an interview with “Gazeta Wyborcza”.

Ministry on the future of ROD

The Polish Allotment Gardeners Association has sent a letter to the Ministry of Development and Technology on this matter. In response, the ministry assures that the new regulations are not intended to eliminate allotment gardens, informing that large and medium-sized allotment complexes are to be included in a separate green and recreation zone, while individual allotment gardens will be included in the multifunctional zone. The ministry – as reported by Radio Zet – assures that final decisions regarding the division of the area of ​​municipalities into individual zones will be preceded by public consultations.

Importantly, allotment holders themselves can apply for the zone in which their allotment garden should remain. The Polish Allotment Holders Association reminds that applications can be submitted “within 21 days of the announcement by the commune of the commencement of preparation of the draft general plan”.

It is estimated that there are around 5,000 RODs in Poland, used by around 4 million people. A kind of boom in the purchase of such plots occurred during the pandemic, when, in the face of the restrictions introduced, Poles wanted to have a piece of land where they could escape from the difficult everyday life.