Summary

Open proceedings as a category of administrative proceedings is one of the expressions of the principle of openness and participatory democracy. Planning procedure is one of the categories of open proceedings. This article looks at some of the problems associated with planning procedure as an open proceeding.

The article analyses the nature of planning procedure as an administrative proceeding, and the need to apply the Administrative Procedure Act in planning procedures. The author clarifies that, as opposed to administrative proceedings, planning procedure is a case of a proceeding that is open to all, resulting in a wider circle of participants in the procedure, and making the proceedings last longer and becoming more expensive. This, however, must not lessen the protection of the rights of the individuals. For this reason, the procedural requirements set out in the Administrative Procedure Act should be viewed as the minimum requirements for good administrative practice in open proceedings, and they should also be applied in planning procedures, thereby ensuring individuals their basic right to good administration as set down in §14 of the Constitution.

The legislator, in addition to proceedings open to all in the planning procedure, has also foreseen proceedings open to all in the administrative court procedure that may follow a planning procedure. The sense of such an approach is debatable – keeping in mind both the protection of individual rights and the danger of overloading the administrative courts. Proceedings open to all cannot substitute for the obligation of local government to direct and manage the spatial development of the local government area.