Access to Urban Planning Documents (UA0036)

Ensuring citizens’ unhindered access to public information by means of: ensuring free public access to urban planning documentation and geo-information data (including in electronic form) Expected result: practices of using the “For internal use only” classification revised concerning urban planning documentation, particularly general urban development plans; general urban development plans published according to the Law of Ukraine on Regulation of Urban Planning Activities; central executive authorities’ regulatory legal acts, particularly lists of data constituting restricted information, brought into conformity with the Law of Ukraine on Access to Public Information, the Law of Ukraine on Amending Some Legislative Acts of Ukraine in Connection with the Adoption of the Law of Ukraine on Information and the Law of Ukraine on Access to Public Information to ensure citizens’ access to geo-information data created at the state budget expense, particularly largescale maps and plans Lead institution: Ministry of Regional Development Supporting institution(s): Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Agrarian Policy, State Agency of Land Resources, State Agency of Forest Resources, regional state administrations, Kyiv City State Administration, NGO Eastern Ukrainian Centre for Civic Initiatives, unspecified NGOs and international organisations Start date: Not specified End date: 31 December 2014

5.2 Access to urban planning documents

Commitment Text: 5.2. Ensuring citizens’ unhindered access to public information by means of: ensuring free public access to urban planning documentation and geo-information data (including in electronic form).

Expected result: practices of using the “For internal use only” classification revised concerning urban planning documentation, particularly general urban development plans; general urban development plans published according to the Law of Ukraine on Regulation of Urban Planning Activities; central executive authorities’ regulatory legal acts, particularly lists of data constituting restricted information, brought into conformity with the Law of Ukraine on Access to Public Information, the Law of Ukraine on Amending Some Legislative Acts of Ukraine in Connection with the Adoption of the Law of Ukraine on Information and the Law of Ukraine on Access to Public Information to ensure citizens’ access to geo-information data created at the state budget expense, particularly large-scale maps and plans.

Lead institution(s): Ministry of Regional Development

Supporting institution(s): Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Agrarian Policy, State Agency of Land Resources, State Agency of Forest Resources, regional state administrations, Kyiv City State Administration, NGO Eastern Ukrainian Centre for Civic Initiatives, unspecified NGOs and international organisations

Start Date: Not specified                                                         End Date: 31 December 2014

Commitment aim

This commitment was designed to improve public access to urban planning documentation and geo-information data, particularly in electronic and machine-readable form. It would result in better public access to government-held information, reduce possibilities for corruption in urban planning and construction, better inform local communities about local area development plans, and empower local communities to exercise more effective control over local authorities.

Status

Midterm: Limited

Ukrainian law on Regulation of the Urban Planning Activity^{[Note 15: http://bit.ly/1O2mNof. ]} provided that all urban planning documents (“general urban plans,” “detailed territory plans,” etc.) be open to the public. However, in practice, this provision was not properly enforced, as relevant documentation or its parts were often classified. Such classification did not comply with the new access to information legal framework enacted since 2011. Prior to the commitment, local authorities and entities responsible for map development failed to comply with the requirement to review the classification of urban planning documents in line with the new legal framework. Those who did review relevant documents, in most cases, automatically extended classification, contrary to the law. The Ministry of Regional Development argued that the current legal framework could not be implemented, and that materials with restricted access (e.g., layout of water supply networks and civil defence objects) could not be separated from the rest of the urban planning maps. The ministry proposed to amend the law to reverse relevant provisions.^{[Note 16: Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) Progress Report 2014-15: Ukraine, 33-34. ]} There was also the issue of funding, as redrawing of urban plans was costly. In the new urban planning documents developed through electronic means, separation of restricted parts from the rest of the urban planning materials was easy (because such electronic documents allow multi-layering). Achieving the same result in the hard-copy paper plans required a significant investment of time and money. According to ministry representatives, more than 20,000 cities and other dwellings had urban planning documents, but only 1,800 plans had been published online, including about 1,500 general plans.^{[Note 17: Ibid, 34. ]}

End of term: Limited

No further progress has been achieved since the midterm report. On the contrary, the Ministry of Regional Development proposed to roll back the transparency requirement and close access to some information in the urban plans, by making public only a summary of the plan.^{[Note 18: Written interview with Volodymyr Shcherbachenko, NGO East-Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives.]} Local authorities also continued to deny access to urban plans, despite clear provisions of the law allowing such access.^{[Note 19: See, for example, the case of Vinnytsia: http://bit.ly/2mSUovN, http://bit.ly/2oeSAxn.]}

Did it open government?

Access to information: Marginal

The commitment had only a marginal impact on open government. It resulted in the publication of some urban planning documents, but failed to achieve its goal of ensuring free public access to all urban planning documentation and geo-information data (including in electronic form). According to NGOs working on urban development issues, the law on free access to urban planning documents is not complied with in most cases. Very few information holders reviewed the classification of relevant documentation, which still remains under restricted status.^{[Note 20: Written submission by NGO East-Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives.]}

Carried forward?

The commitment was carried over to the new action plan. The new plan aims to amend Article 18 of the Law on Urban Planning (by December 2017), align local urban planning documentation with the legal requirements for their openness (by December 2017), and develop the software and hardware system of the national urban planning cadaster and launch it in test mode (by June 2018).