Unjustified failure to take building plan into account when determining zoning plan🏠

A zoning plan determines what use is permitted on those plots by assigning zoning designations. In some cases, the council may change the zoning of a plot, for example because a particular use has not been carried out for years, or because a new use is desirable. The fact that such zoning changes do not always go as hoped is evident from the ruling of the Administrative Law Division of the Council of State of 17 September 2025.

The case concerned the change of zoning of a plot of land, whereby the company house was converted into a private residence (with an adjusted plot). When purchasing the property, the seller and the buyer had agreed that the seller would take care of a zoning plan revision. The plot had an agricultural zoning, which meant that the company house could only be occupied for business purposes. 

The seller entered into a prior agreement with the municipality to effect the zoning change. The buyers shared the building plan with the municipality, including the dimensions. However, when the zoning plan was adopted, it appeared that the council had not taken the buyers' building plan into account and had allocated too small an area for both the house and the garden. Both the seller and the buyers therefore lodged an appeal.

The council initially argued that no permit application or request for preliminary consultation had been submitted by the buyers and that a smaller area for the house and garden was therefore permissible. During the hearing, however, it also argued that the building plan was sufficiently concrete and had been communicated by the buyers in good time. The Division ultimately ruled that the zoning plan had been adopted without taking the buyers' building plan into account and that their interests had not been taken into consideration in the weighing of interests. The zoning plan should therefore not have been adopted in this manner.

The essence of this ruling is that if a building plan is sufficiently concrete and has been shared with the municipality in a timely manner, it must in principle be taken into account when adopting a zoning plan. 

You can read the ruling of the Council of State here.