Zoning fee as a public levy

The zoning fee constitutes a public levy paid to the commune by the owners or perpetual users of properties. The purpose of the zoning fee is to compensate for the costs incurred by the local government units due to the adoption or change of the local spatial development plans. The subject fee may be collected pursuant to the provisions of local law if the market value of the property increased due to the implementation of a new or amended local spatial development plan. It should be observed that the zoning fee is an element of settlements between the commune and entities, whose property value changed with the adoption of the new local spatial development plan or change of the previous plan. The provisions do not clearly describe the legal nature of the zoning fee. Nonetheless, the public and legal status of the aforesaid fee was confirmed by judicial decisions. Since the commune is not the taxpayer, the fee constitutes its own income. It is due to the fact that the zoning fee does not follow from the Act and does not have an unpaid character. The obligation to pay the zoning fee is the result of a specific spatial policy of the commune. Even though they were the subject of many judicial decisions, the provisions of the Act on 27 March 2003 on Spatial Planning and Development referring to zoning fees still raise a lot of interpretation doubts as to their amount, date of payment or the very grounds for their existence. The objective of the article is to show the public and legal character of the aforesaid benefit. The author is trying to prove that such an institution is by all means necessary, but its structure requires certain amendments, which could be made using the test method in the form of an analysis of legal acts and selected judicial decisions.