Institutional Problems of Spatial Policy during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Polish Case

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and its economic consequences have caused several repercussions in various spheres, including real estate management and spatial policy. In Poland, public authorities (the government) was triggered to develop the so-called "Anti-Crisis Shields", a legal act introducing transitional solutions to various spheres of life. Some provisions also covered the sphere related to spatial policy. Consequently, new dilemmas have arisen regarding the way of applying spatial policy tools in the new situation. The article aims to isolate and evaluate new conditions and dilemmas related to spatial policy tools in the Polish spatial management system. After a brief description of Poland's spatial management system and its main problems, attention was paid to: (1) the emerging dilemma of what is more important in the conditions of a pandemic: the speed of planning processes or protection of critical values in the spatial management system; (2) new directions of activities related to the use of spatial policy tools, especially in the context of ensuring social distance and more comprehensive health protection; and (3) new conditions for public participation.  Based on the analysis, a new direction of spatial policy changes caused by the pandemic crisis was proposed. The investigation covers a new problem of public authorities' inefficiency during a pandemic. From this perspective, we evaluated the spatial planning legislation introduced during the COVID-19 in detail.