City planning plans the usage of land, by which the various usage and building purposes in various areas are controlled.
City planning consists of designing how residential areas, jobs, parks and traffic areas are placed within the urban structure. The purpose is to create good living environments, promote sustainable development for communities, ensure quality of construction and support open and interactive designing procedures.
What is City Planning?
City plans are legal plans for the future, portrayed in a map and based on national objectives for area usage, on the Law on Land Use and Construction and the regulations in connection to it and on the objectives of the city.
The annually-published city planning review reports current city planning projects.
There are three levels of plans: province plan, general plan and detailed plan. A more general plan acts as a directive when drawing more detailed plans.
The province plan presents the principles of land use and community structure in the province and identifies the regions necessary for the province’s development. The province plan includes the effects and needs of the entire province and its regions. The period of the province plan is 10 to 20 years. The province plan is drawn up and approved by Regional Councils and then confirmed by the Ministry of the Environment. The province plan directs general planning.
The general plan directs a city’s or its district’s community structure, land use in general and coordinates various activities. The realisation of the general plan takes, depending on the extent and purpose of the plan, from 3 to 5 years or even up to 10 years. The general plan is drawn up and approved by the municipalities. The general plan directs the detailed plan.
The detailed plan is an area usage plan based on the general plan generating the prerequisites for construction. The detailed plan directs construction and other land use required by local circumstances, cityscape or landscape, good construction procedures, promotion of the existing building stock and other directive purposes of the plan. Detailed plans are drawn up and approved by municipalities.
A detailed shore plan is a plan on area use and construction based on the province or general plan. A detailed shore plan is the only plan a land owner can draw up. Before undertaking to draw a detailed shore plan, land owners must contact their municipality. A municipality can also draw up a detailed shore plan. If no plan is in effect, a construction permit for building a residential building on the shore can be applied for only after the construction has received a positive deviation decision from a Regional Environment Centre.
The pages of city planning display the public and pending general and detailed plans. The pages also include the detailed plans that came into effect during 2008 in the municipalities that formed the new City of Kouvola. The plans are available as downloadable plan maps and decrees.
The pages also contain up-to-date information about the City’s planning targets, deviation and planning needs solutions, construction and other land use related projects and reports.
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