Legal Acts in English

The present Law shall govern the following: the conditions and modalities of spatial planning and development, the development and use of buildable land and the construction of facilities; carrying out supervision over the application of this Law and supervisory inspections; other issues of significance in the development of space, landscaping and use of buildable land, and the construction of facilities.

The provisions of this Law shall not apply to planning and development of land, and/or construction and removal of facilities which are, in terms of the law governing defence, considered military complexes, or military facilities, as well as to the construction of facilities which are, in terms of the law governing mining, considered mining facilities, installations and devices.

Certain expressions used in this Law shall be understood to mean as follows:

1) (deleted)

2) (deleted)

3) (deleted)

4)  "Use of land" shall be understood to mean the mode of using the land as determined by a planning document;

5)  "Predominant use of the land" shall be understood to mean the mode of using the land for multiple uses, of which one is prevalent;

6)  "Public area" shall be understood to mean space determined by a planning document for landscaping or the construction of buildings for public purposes or public areas for which general interest is planned to be established, in compliance with a separate Law (streets, squares, parks etc.);

7)  "The scope of a plan" shall be understood to mean a spatially or administratively determined whole for which the preparation of a spatial or urban plan is provided for in compliance with the Law;

8)  "Urban renewal" shall be understood to mean a set of planning, construction and other measures for renewing, putting in order or restructuring a built up part of a city or urban settlement;

9)  "Alignment" shall be understood to mean the line separating a particular public area from areas foreseen for other public and miscellaneous uses;

10)  "Building line" shall be understood to mean the line on, above and beneath the ground surface and water up to which it is permitted to build the basic footprint of a building;

11)  "Nomenclature of statistical territorial units" shall be understood to mean a set of notions, terms and symbols which describes groups of territorial units with levels of grouping, and which includes the criteria on which the grouping was carried out, and which is adopted by the Government at the proposal of the republic authority competent for statistics;

12)  "Gross unfolded building floor area" shall be understood to mean the sum of floor areas of all floors of the building above ground, measured at the level of the floors in all parts of the building - the outer measurements of perimeter walls (with cladding, parapets and railings);

13)  "Occupancy index of a lot" shall be understood to mean the ratio of the footprint of the horizontal projection of constructed or planned building and the total area of the buildable lot, expressed as a percentage;

14)  "Construction index of a lot" shall be understood to mean the ratio (quotient) of the gross unfolded building floor area of constructed or planned building and the total area of the buildable lot;

15) "ESPON (European Spatial Planning Observation Network)" shall be understood to mean the European network of institutions involved in the gathering of information and indices for spatial planning;

15a) "Inspire Directive" shall be understood to mean a document setting out the basic rules aimed at establishing the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Union, which is implemented in Serbia through the National Spatial Data Infrastructure;

16)  "Inhabited location" shall be understood to mean a developed, functionally unified space in which conditions are provided for people to live and work and satisfaction of the common needs of inhabitants;

17)  "City" shall be understood to mean a settlement which is defined as a city by Law;

18)  "Village" shall be understood to mean a settlement whose population is predominantly involved in agriculture, and which is not the capital of the municipality;

19)  "Buildable area" shall be understood to mean an orderly and developed part of a settled location, as well as an underdeveloped part of an area designated by the planning document for the protection, development or construction of buildings;

20)  "Buildable lot" shall be understood to mean a part of buildable land, with access to its roadway surface, which is developed or foreseen for development in plans which is defined by the coordinates of the breaking points in the state projection;

20a) "Buildable complex" shall be understood to mean an entirety consisting of inter-connected independent functional entireties or land registry lots which may have different purposes;

20b) "Residential complex" shall be understood to mean a spatial whole comprising several connected independent functional wholes, i.e. cadastre lots, having a predominantly residential purpose (family or multifamily housing) and within which green and free surfaces are formed, on the land intended for other purposes;

20c) "Residential block" shall be understood to mean a rounded spatial whole, within a construction area of an inhabited place, or regular geometrical form of a predominantly residential purpose (multifamily housing by a rule), bordered by public traffic surfaces, and within the block, internal roads are formed, vehicle-pedestrian lanes, free and green surfaces for public use. Depending on the manner of construction, the residential blocks may be built borderline or freely, i.e. open, semi-open and closed. An open residential block comprises freestanding facilities of the multifamily residence on land which is publicly used. The semi-closed residential block comprises facilities built in a discontinued line. The closed residential block comprises facilities build in a non-discontinued line, on all sides of the block. Condominium shall be understood to mean a special type and form of organisation in a closed residential block, with common amenities in facilities and on buildable land (park, children's playground, etc.), which are jointly owned by all owners of separate parts of the facilities constructed within such a complex. The right to register joint ownership of the buildable land around the facility shall be acquired upon construction of all facilities in the complex, i.e. upon obtaining exploitation permits for all facilities in the condominium;

20d) "Commercial-industrial complex" shall be a whole comprising of a number of inter-connected independent functional wholes, i.e. cadastral parcels, which may have a different intended purpose in manufacturing, non-manufacturing or other economic activities, i.e. energy generation. The competence to issue the documents for constructing in a commercial-industrial complex shall be determined individually for each facility within the complex;

21)  "Developer" shall be understood to mean the person/entity for whose needs the building is being built, and in whose name the building permit is made out to;

22)  "Facility" shall be understood to mean a building connected with the ground, built from purposefully connected construction products, i.e. construction works, and making up a physical, functional, technical - technological or biotechnical entirety (buildings and engineering facilities and the like), which may be underground or overground;

22a) "Public Facilities" shall be understood to mean facilities intended for public use and such facilities may be public facilities in public ownership on the basis of special laws (line infrastructure facilities, facilities required by state authorities, territorial autonomy and local government authorities, etc.) and other public facilities in all forms of ownership (hospitals, health centres, retirement homes, educational facilities, indoor and outdoor sports and recreational facilities, cultural facilities, transport terminals, post offices and other facilities);

22b) "Class" within the meaning of this Law shall be a group of construction facilities or works, which are grouped according to common characteristics in terms of structural and technological complexity, environmental impact and purpose, i.e. the risk associated with their execution or use;

23)  "Building" shall be understood to mean a facility with a roof and external walls, built as an independent usable whole, which offers protection from weather and external influence, and is intended for residential use, pursuing a trade, or for storing and guarding animals, goods, equipment for various production and service trades, etc. Buildings are also deemed to be facilities which have a roof, but not (all) walls (e.g. eaves), as well as facilities which are predominantly or entirely underground (shelters, underground garage parking, etc.);

23a) "Engineering facilities" shall be understood to mean all other facilities which are not buildings: railways, roads, bridges, airport runways, pipelines, communication and power lines, etc;

24)  "Auxiliary facility" shall be understood to mean a facility which is linked to the primary facility, and is built or may be built on the same lot as the primary residential, business, or public facility (garage parking, storage, septic tank, wells, cisterns, etc.);

24a) "Economic facilities" shall be understood to mean the buildings for livestock rearing (horse stables, cattle stables, poultry, goat, sheep and pig sties, as well as the facilities for raising pigeons, rabbits, decorative poultry and birds); supporting facilities for raising domestic animals (drains for livestock, concrete runways for solid manure, etc.); fodder and feed storage facilities (haylofts, concentrated feed holds, concrete lined silo pits and silo trenches); produce storage facilities (granaries, cribs), fisheries, lime-burning factories, coal pits and other similar farm facilities (facilities for implements and vehicles, smoking, drying and other facilities;

24b) "Ski slope" shall be understood to mean an organized and marked surface of a public ski centre, as organized public surface which are defined in line with the law governing public ski centres. Building land shall not be allocated for a ski slope, and may be on all types of lands (building, agricultural and forest), but rather the rules and regulations for landscaping shall be applied to the organization of a ski slope, along with the mandatory anti-erosion protection and it may be in all forms of property;

24c) "Ski-tow" shall be understood to mean a ski lift which, by means of a cable, tows people with the appropriate equipment on the ground;

24d) "Ski track" shall be understood to mean a specific towing installation with specific technical and technological properties. Specific towing installations shall be: conveyor belt, zipline and alpine coaster, or other related equipment which is used for winter and/or summer activities and which transports passengers in a standing position or by means of a cable;

24e) "Equipment" shall be understood to mean the devices, machines, processing installations and other products comprising the facility, which may be also independently installed into the facility for the purpose of technological or other process for which the facility is intended;

24f) "Basic requirements" for the facilities shall be the requirements which the facility is to meet during the economically acceptable trade age, set forth by special regulations;

25) Deleted;

26) "Line infrastructure facility" shall be understood to mean a public road, public railway infrastructure, underground railway, air traffic infrastructure (takeoff/landing runway, taxiway, platform and the like, as well as facilities in their function), operational coast in the port area, power transmission line, petroleum pipeline, product pipeline, gas pipeline, derivational pipeline, high transport facility, electronic communication line infrastructure, water and sewage infrastructure and the like, which may be above ground or underground, the construction of which is provided for by the corresponding planning document, as well as the facilities used for their specific purposes;

26a) "Tunnels" (road, rail or for special purposes) shall be understood to mean a special type of underground infrastructure facilities, the construction of which does not affect the use of land on the surface with existing purpose, along with any technical limitations as defined by a planning document;

26b) "Underground parts of the infrastructure and the irrigation system" shall be understood to mean a special type of underground infrastructural facilities built for agricultural purposes, and the construction of which, on agricultural and forest land, as well as on the building land used for agricultural purposes, does not disturb the use of land on the surface of terrains of the existing purpose and the issuing of location requirements for the construction of such facilities cannot be conditioned by the existing, i.e. sufficient development of the planning documentation for the area on which lots are located on which construction is planned;

27) "Utility infrastructure" shall be understood to mean all infrastructure facilities for which the work execution decision and/or building permit is issued by a local self-government unit, as well as the facilities for public purposes that are public property of a local self-government unit, autonomous province and the Republic of Serbia, which are designated by means of an act of the local self-government unit, autonomous province and the Republic of Serbia as facilities of special importance;

27c) "Landslide" shall be understood to mean a form of erosion arising from natural and seismological events whereby a part of rocky or loose mass is separated from the substrate, resulting in an uncontrolled slide across the sliding surface;

27)  "Preparatory works" shall be understood to mean the works which precede the construction of a facility relating to the following in particular: demolition of existing facilities on the lot, relocation of the existing infrastructure on the lot, land clearance on the lot, removal of the used construction material ( debris) to a landfill, provision  of space for delivery and storage of building material and equipment, construction and setting of facilities, installations and equipment of a provisional character for work execution purposes (building site fencing, containers, etc.), earthwork, work ensuring the safety of neighbouring facilities and safety and stability of  ground (piles, diaphragm walls, supporting walls, etc.), ensuring trouble-free traffic in and use of surrounding space;

28)  "Technical documentation" shall be understood to mean a set of design designs produced to: establish the concept of the facility, develop conditions, the method of construction of the facility, and for the needs of maintenance of the facility;

29)  "Construction of the facility" shall be understood to mean the sum of operations which include: preliminary works, the production and control of the technical documentation, preparatory works for construction, the construction of the facility, and professional supervision during the construction of the facility;

31) "Construction" shall be understood to mean the execution of construction and building trade works, the installation of construction products, plant and equipment;

32) "Reconstruction" shall be understood to mean the execution of construction and other works on an existing facility in unchanged size and volume affecting the fulfilment of the basic requirements for the facility, changing the technological process; changing the outside appearance of the facility or increasing the number of functional units; replacing devices, plant, equipment and installation with increased capacity;

32a) "Reconstruction of line infrastructural facility" shall be understood to mean the execution of construction works in a protective zone, in accordance with a special law, which may result in a change of dimensions, volume, position or equipment of the existing facility, as well as the execution of works which encompass the works of large scope, replacement of elements on the existing line facilities, which do not change its entire operation;

33) "Addition" shall be understood to mean the execution of construction and other works for the purpose of creating new space beyond the existing dimensions of a facility and topping it up, making with it a new structural, functional or technical entirety;

34) "Adaption" shall be understood to mean the execution of  construction and other works on an existing facility by which: the organization of space in the facility is changed, the replacement of appliances, plant and equipment of the same capacity is carried out, whereby stability and security of the facility remain unaltered, the structural elements of the facility remain unaltered, the outside appearance of the facility remains unaltered and the safety of adjoining facilities, traffic, fire protection and environment remains unaffected;

35) "Repairing" shall be understood to mean the execution of construction and other works on an existing facility by which the repair of appliances, plant and equipment is carried out, i.e. the replacement of structural elements of the facility, whereby the exterior elevation remains unaltered and the safety of adjoining facilities, traffic and environment, as well as the protection of natural and immobile cultural property, and/or its protected surroundings, with the exception of restoration, conservation and revitalisation works, remain unaffected;

35a) "Landslide Remediation" shall encompass all works whereby a landslide is remediated that has occurred on construction, forestal, agricultural, road or other type of land. Such works include clearing and removal of debris generated as a result of landslide, design, the provision of required technical documentation, as well as required construction conditions and the execution of construction works required for remediation and protection from the occurrence of future landslides;

36)    "Capital maintenance" shall be understood to mean the execution of construction and building trade works, i.e. other works depending on the type of facility, aimed at improving the conditions of using the facility during exploitation;

36a) "Current (regular) maintenance of facility" shall be understood to mean the execution of works for the purpose of preventing the damage caused by using the facility or for the purpose of repairing such damage, including inspection, repair and application of preventive and protective measures and/or all work necessary for keeping the facility on a satisfactory level of usability and such as whitewashing, painting, replacing of lining, replacing of sanitary facilities and radiators and other similar work, replacement of internal and external joinery and metalwork, replacement of the internal installations and the equipment without increasing the capacity and other similar works, in case they do not change the outer appearance of the building or do not affect the joint parts of the building and use thereof;

37)  "Restoration, conservation and revitalization works on cultural property" shall be understood to mean works carried out on immobile cultural property and their protected surrounding, in compliance with this and special laws;

38)  "Building site" shall be understood to mean specially marked land, i.e. facility, where construction, repairs or removal are being carried out, i.e. where maintenance work is being done on the facility;

39)  "Removal of a facility or part thereof" shall be understood to mean carrying out works of demolition of the facility or part thereof;

40)  "Standards of accessibility" shall be understood to mean mandatory technical measures, standards and conditions of design, planning and construction which ensure unhindered movement and access for persons with disabilities, children and the elderly;

41)    "Study of technical conditions for construction" (hereinafter: Study) shall be understood to mean a document issued by a holder of public authority within its competence in cases where a planning document does not contain the conditions or information for the preparation of technical documentation, which contains the appropriate conditions and information for the preparation of technical documentation, and in particular the capacities and the connection point to utility and other infrastructure according to classes of facilities and parts of the area for which such study is made;

42) "Holders of public authority" shall be understood to mean state authorities, autonomous province and local government authorities, special organisations and other entities exercising public authority in accordance with the law;

42a) "Designing, i.e. connection requirements" shall be understood to mean the requirements issued by the holders of public authority, within an integrated procedure, in the procedure of issuing the location conditions, at the request of a competent authority, in line with the planning document, and which are not to be issued in the form of an administrative act, but solely serve to define the precise conditions under which a facility whose construction has been foreseen by the planning document, may be realized and represent an integral part of the site conditions;

43)  "Financier" shall be understood to mean an entity that, on the basis of a contract signed and duly verified with the Developer, finances or co-finances the construction, extension, reconstruction, adaption, remediation or execution of other investment projects as provided for in this Law, and that, on that basis of such contract, acquires specific rights and obligations as prescribed by this Law for developers in line with such contract, with the exception of acquisition of property rights on the facility being constructed;

44) "Electric power plants" shall be understood to mean the facilities for the production, transformation, distribution and transmission of electrical energy;

45) "Strategic energy facilities" shall be understood to mean the facilities which have been identified as strategic in line with the regulations governing the area of energy;

46) "Building energy performance certificate" shall be understood to mean a document presenting the building's energy properties, having the prescribed contents, form, conditions and the manner of issuing and which has been issued through the Central Registry of Energy Passports (CREP);

47) "Central Registry of Energy Passports (CREP)" shall be understood to mean the information system through which certificates of building energy properties are issued and in which data bases are maintained on authorized organizations meeting the prescribed conditions for the issuing of certificates, the authorized engineers for building energy efficiency, who are the employees of the said organizations and of the issued building energy properties certificates;

48) "Seveso facility and Seveso complex" shall be understood to mean the facility and the complex which may affect the environment and which are identified in line with the regulations governing the environment;

49) "Technical mistake in planning documents" shall be understood to mean a mistake identified in the course of implementation of the adopted planning document, either in textual or the graphic part of the planning document, and referring to mistakes in titles, numbers, graphical symbols (points, lines and surfaces), as well as other obvious inaccuracies or illogicalities occurring in the textual or graphic part of the planning document (published in the text and the verified graphic presentations);

50) "Professional qualification" shall be understood to mean a qualification which, in accordance with special regulations, covers formal education and additional professional training and further development which take place during or after completion of formal education;

51) "Professional title" shall be understood to mean a title that gives its holder the right to perform professional activities specified by this Law and regulations adopted on the basis of this Law, the performance, i.e. manner of performance of which is conditioned by the possession of certain professional qualifications.

All expressions used in male gender form shall imply the female gender as well and vice versa.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Article 2 of the Law Amending the Planning and Construction Law (Službeni glasnik RS, No. 132/2014) amends Article 2 of the Planning and Construction Law by adding the new item 27c) after item 27b). As the Planning and Construction Law did not include an item 27b), the Editorial Staff has implemented this amendment by adding the item 27c) after item 27).

The planning, development and use of space shall be based on the following principles:

1) sustainable development through an integral approach to planning;

2) balanced territorial development;

3) rational use of land by encouraging measures for urban and rural renewal and reconstruction;

4) rational and sustainable use of non-renewable resources and optimal use of renewable resources;

5) protection and sustainable use of natural resources and immovable cultural property;

6) prevention of technical and technological accidents, protection from fire and explosions, protection from natural disasters, elimination of causes of climate change;

7) spatial planning and development for defence purposes;

8) reconciliation with European standards and norms in the area of planning and development of space;

9) promotion and use of information technologies that contribute to improved efficiency and effectiveness of public administration in construction matters;

10) public participation;

11) preservation of customs and traditions;

12) preservation of landscape specificity;

13) horizontal and vertical coordination.

The sustainable development referred to in paragraph 1, item 1) of this Article shall be understood to mean the harmonisation of economic, social and environmental aspects of development, rational use of non-renewable resources and the provision of conditions for greater use of renewable resources, so as to meet the needs of present and future generations and improve their quality of life.

The horizontal coordination referred to in paragraph 1, item 13) of this Article, shall be understood to mean linking with adjacent territories during planning, in order to resolve common functions and interests, as well as the networking and participation of all those involved in spatial development of the public and civil sectors, and citizens.

The vertical coordination referred to in paragraph 1, item 13) of this Article, shall be understood to mean the establishment of links between all levels of spatial and urban planning and the development of space, from the national towards the regional, and on to the local level, as well as providing information, cooperation and coordination between local initiatives, plans and projects with regional and national plans and actions.