Flexibility of land use plans: Between supporting development and opportunism. Evidence from Poland.

The main objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between the flexibility of spatial planning at the local level and the natural and socio-economic development indicators of municipalities. Seventy municipalities located around the most dynamically developing large urban centers in Poland (Krakow, Poznań, Tri-City, Warsaw, and Wrocław) were selected for the study, in which the records of 1131 local spatial plans enacted in 2017–2019 were analyzed in detail in terms of indicators including, but not limited to, characterizing the average area of the plans, the duration of the development procedure, and the intensity of residential development, the biologically active area. Development characteristics were identified through 30 indicators in six thematic groups (demographic, socio-professional, economic and settlement structures, natural environment, and spatial planning). The relationships between the two groups of indicators were analyzed using factor analysis. On this basis, three clusters were identified, explaining 32.9% of the variation. Such a relatively low result may indicate that the spatial policy pursued by local governments is highly individualized. It may also be concluded that the flexibility of spatial planning in general is weakly related to the characteristics of development, including natural and socio-economic development, and therefore its absence should not be an obstacle to it. • The level of flexibility of local spatial development plans in the surroundings of the largest cities varies greatly • The weak link of flexibility and development features is indicative of the individualization of spatial policy • There is an impact of environmental and landscape features on the extent and level of flexibility in spatial development plans [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]