Spatial planning and related attempts for institutional reforms in Greece in the period of economic crisis: an assessment of necessities and outcomes

Abstract

The economic crisis in Greece has led to the need for reforms the main aim of which is to promote growth. An important reform has been in the area of spatial planning. It has been put into force by the l.4447/16, that replaced l.4269/14, which had never been implemented. Its main objectives are to integrate regional and urban planning into a single institutional framework, accelerate its integration and simplify the whole procedure by reducing planning levels from six to three. A key innovation of spatial reform is the introduction of a new category of plans, the Special Spatial Plans (SSPs), which are applied at the third hierarchical spatial level, the municipal, the same as the Local Spatial Plans (LSPs), but on a smaller scale than those and focus on strategic investments. The present paper aims to examine the latest developments in spatial planning in Greece and present a brief description of the previous institutional framework. Its main objective is to assess whether the new spatial reform will improve the effectiveness of spatial planning, contributing to its integration at all levels and at the same time to the handling of the current economic crisis.