Zakopane without new houses? Falling population changes building plans.
Zakopane is becoming less and less accessible in terms of housing construction, and one of the reasons for this situation is... the decreasing number of permanent residents of the city. As a result of new regulations, which introduce algorithms that make the allocation of building land dependent on the number of residents, the city has fewer and fewer possibilities of designating new land for single-family or multi-family housing. Instead, it will only be possible to designate land for services.
The changes in Zakopane's spatial planning are the result of nationwide regulations imposing on municipalities the obligation to develop so-called general plans. As a result of this reform, the Zakopane municipality, during public consultations, received 2,500 applications, most of which concerned the conversion of green areas into construction areas.
The formula that has been introduced limits the number of available building areas, because it is based on the number of residents. Since Zakopane has been experiencing a steady decline in the number of permanent residents, it will no longer be possible to designate new areas for residential construction. On the other hand, there are no such restrictions for service areas, which means that it will be easier to build hotels or guesthouses, but building a single-family house in the future may prove more difficult.
The mayor of Zakopane, Łukasz Filipowicz, points out that applications for new construction areas will most likely be rejected because the current regulations are rigid and do not allow for the arbitrary allocation of new construction plots. Although, fortunately, under the new rules, it will not be necessary to reclassify existing construction areas as green areas, residents may still encounter difficulties in planning new housing investments.
Theoretically, residents can build service facilities, such as hotels, but this involves higher investment costs, as well as higher fees, including property tax. Such changes could make Zakopane even more tourist-oriented, which could be controversial among those who would like to build their homes in this picturesque town.
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