1 Theme: Participation and justice in land use planning Adjustment of legally binding local plans By Line Hvingel, Christian Aunsborg, Finn Kjær Christensen and Michael Tophøj Sørensen Department of Development and Planning, Aalborg University Abstract Traditionally, and by law, new urban areas in Denmark are regulated and planned through legally binding local plans. Recently a tendency has occurred: The municipalities make the legally binding local plans quite open for future adjustment, and they are using a substantial amount of eŵpowerŵeŶt provisions which empower the municipalities to later ruling. This way of making plans postpones the actual regulation of an area (i.e. the planning permission) making it an individual ruling for instance at the application of building permits. Case studies show examples of this way of regulating an area, which seem to be beyond the scope of the Danish Planning Act. This paper deals with this problem through case studies and a legal analysis of present law. If the combination of the legally binding local plan and subsequent added requirements is misused, it will weaken the legal rights of the citizens (property owners) and in general the justice in land use planning. The scope of the paper is to establish to which degree the permission permission can be postpones, and to which degree the use of empowerment provisions legally may be used in the planning process. In detail this will include the considerations of legal rights, the extend of the legal use of empowerment provisions and the combination of the use of legal binding local plans and other legal instruments such as easements and sales agreements. 1. Introduction In 2011 Aalborg University conducted an empirical study of the two latest published binding local plans 1 from all the Danish municipalities (Post 2010). The overall conclusion of the study is that the take the task of making local plans serious and are making plans that seem both meaningfull and usefull. But when looking into the details of the plans a slightly different picture appears. The Planning Act (The Ministry of Environment 2009) defines a set of minimum rulings that need to be complied with in the local plans. In a number of the analysed plans these demands do not seem to be met. Furthermore many of the local plans do not seem to have enough rulings in order to secure the desired plans of the area. Add to this that the plans contain a substantial amount of provisions which empower the municipalities to later ruliŶg, for iŶstaŶĐe Subdivision of the land may only be executed after the acceptance from the Municipal Council of a composed subdivision plan. Before approving the buildings a plot over the buildings placement as well as drawings of the buildings´ plan, facade and sectional view must be presented to the Municipal Council. There must also be accounted for the regulation of the terrain (Post 1 A binding local plan is a juridical plan regulating the future development of an area. The binding local plan is made in persuance of the Planning Act (Consolidated Act No. 937 of 24 September 2009)