In brief

  • All spatial planning and urbanism documentation now has a single written procedure, published in full: eight annexes over 407 pages, with numbered stages, deliverables and deadlines.
  • Approvals are no longer collected one by one. The documentation receives a single integrated approval, issued by a local commission or, for large plans, by a national one as well, and the defence and public order institutions have to answer within 15 working days at most.
  • A table of 13 rows shows, for each type of plan, who initiates it, who approves it and who adopts it. The detailed urban plan, the one that covers a single plot, is adopted by an order of the mayor, not by a decision of the local council.
Act: MDLPA Order no. 1.022/2026
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 724 and no. 724 bis of 28 August 2026
In force from: 28 August 2026

Three days after the Code of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and Construction entered into force, the ministry publishes the procedure without which the Code could not be applied: 410 pages that say, step by step, how an urban plan is drawn up, who approves it and on which forms. MDLPA Order no. 1.022/2026 has six articles and a list of references in its body; the substance sits in the bis edition of the same day. It is the second implementing act published in three days, after the 36 forms for the building permit.

Urban planning documentation is the plan that says what may be built on a piece of land: how high, how close to the neighbour, for what use. There are four kinds, from the general to the specific: the spatial plan, which covers a county or several localities; the general urban plan, which covers a whole locality; the zonal urban plan, which covers a neighbourhood or an area; and the detailed urban plan, which concerns one plot or a few. Until now the drafting rules were scattered across Law no. 350/2001 and its implementing rules, and practice differed from one county to another.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is that the procedure becomes a single text, with numbered stages. Each of the first five annexes follows the same skeleton: initiation, drafting in stages, approval, adoption, public information and consultation. For the zonal plan the stages run from stage 0, the urban planning certificate, to the handover of the database in GIS format and the decision adopting the plan.

The second effect is integrated approval. Instead of a pile of approvals obtained one after another, the documentation is filed with an integrated approval commission, which gathers into a single act all the specific conditions required by the member institutions. The commission analyses the file within 60 calendar days of registration at the latest and sends the applicant, once and once only, all the requirements. The single integrated approval is then issued within 15 working days at most from the filing of the complete documentation.

The third effect concerns the institutions’ deadlines. The approval of the institutions in the national defence, public order and national security system is issued within 15 working days at most. Where an approval already obtained merely has to be reconfirmed, because the technical solution has not changed, the issuing body has 5 working days at most. Additions requested through the national commission have to be filed within 6 months at most, and missing that deadline means a negative approval and refiling of the documentation.

The fourth effect is the electronic document. The documentation submitted for approval is sent to the commission in electronic format, signed with a qualified electronic signature, by uploading it to the national platform for urban and territorial planning and construction authorisation. Until the platform is up and running, it is sent by e-mail to all the members of the commission.

The fifth effect is the table of powers in Annex no. 7. Over 13 rows, for each category of documentation, it shows who initiates, who approves and who adopts. Romania’s territorial development strategy and the national spatial plan are adopted by organic law, by Parliament. The county spatial plan is adopted by the county council. The general urban plan and the zonal urban plan are adopted by the local council. The detailed urban plan is adopted by an order of the mayor and, where the territory covers at least two localities, by the president of the county council, with the prior approval of the mayors concerned.

The sixth effect is the paperwork. Annex no. 6 contains seven standard forms, from the application for the initiation approval to the approval of a detailed urban plan. The initiation approval replaces the opportunity approval of the previous regime and is issued on the basis of an opportunity study examined by the technical commission for spatial planning and urbanism.

The seventh effect is the age of the data. Underpinning studies have to present conclusions based on data no more than 3 years old at the date of drafting. Older studies may be used only if the author confirms that the information has not lost its validity.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

The most visible change is that the procedure exists as a single body of text. Under Law no. 350/2001, the framework content of the documentation was laid down in separate orders, and the sequence of stages was inferred from practice. Now each type of plan has its own chapter, with the same headings, and the tender specification for procuring a general urban plan comes with a 62-page model.

The logic of approval has changed as well. The previous regime required the applicant to obtain the approvals one at a time, from each institution, in whatever order each one imposed. The Code now forbids making one approval conditional on obtaining another first, with two exceptions, and the procedure repeats the ban: approvals are to be requested from all the approving bodies at the same time.

The identity of the person who decides locally has changed. For localities that have no specialist structure, or whose chief architect has no specialist qualification, the approval is issued by the chief architect of the core city of the metropolitan area, if the locality belongs to a metropolitan area set up under Law no. 246/2022, or by the county chief architect, on the basis of the reasoning of the county technical commission.

Finally, who adopts the detailed plan has changed. The detailed urban plan, the one usually required for a building on a single plot, is adopted by an order of the mayor, within 15 calendar days at most of the issuing of the chief architect’s approval, under Article 85 of the Code. It no longer goes through a local council meeting.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • A single text for the whole country, instead of a practice that differed from one county to another.
  • Written deadlines for the approving bodies: 15 working days for the defence and public order institutions, 5 working days to reconfirm an approval that has not changed.
  • All approval conditions are communicated to the applicant once, in one integrated act, rather than as each institution comes up with them.
  • The standard forms put an end to the argument about what exactly has to be filed and in what shape.
  • The table of powers answers, on a single page, the question that usually blocks a file: who signs.
  • The detailed urban plan leaves the calendar of local council meetings, where it could wait for months.

What remains a problem

  • The procedure rests on the integrated approval commissions, which on the date of publication were not set up everywhere, and the Code and the procedure give two different deadlines for creating them.
  • The national platform for urban planning is not yet working, and the fallback, an e-mail to all the members of the commission, does not leave as clear a trace of the date of registration.
  • The 407 pages of annexes are published only in the bis edition, which has to be bought; the order in the ordinary edition says nothing about the content.
  • The 6-month deadline for additions runs against the applicant, and the penalty is a negative approval and starting the procedure again from scratch.
  • Adopting the detailed plan by an order of the mayor takes the debate in the local council out of the equation, and with it the votes of the opposition councillors.
  • Annex no. 7 does not take over the deadlines from the Code, so anyone reading only the table will not find out how long each approval takes to issue.

Practical advice

  1. If you have a zonal urban plan in progress, check which stage it had reached when the Code entered into force, on 25 August, and when the procedure published now took effect. The stages already completed stand, but approval follows the new rules.
  2. Ask the town hall or the county council for proof that the local integrated approval commission has been set up. Without it, there is nowhere to file the documentation.
  3. Use the forms in Annex no. 6, not the old templates. The application for the initiation approval is F_01 and the initiation approval itself is F_02; for a plan covering at least two localities, the approval is F_03.
  4. Check how old the underpinning studies are. Beyond 3 years, you need written confirmation from the author that the information is still valid.
  5. If you receive a request for additions from the national commission, note the date. You have 6 months at most, and overrunning is not excused: the documentation receives a negative approval and has to be refiled.
  6. For a detailed urban plan, follow the chief architect’s approval. From the moment it is issued, the mayor has 15 calendar days to issue the order adopting the plan.
  7. If the locality has no chief architect with a specialist qualification, ask from the outset who issues the approval: the chief architect of the core city of the metropolitan area or the county one. A file lodged with a body that has no power over it comes back.

Frequently asked questions

Where do I find the text of the annexes?
In Official Gazette of Romania no. 724 bis of 28 August 2026, pages 3 to 409. The order in the ordinary edition, no. 724, contains only the six articles and the reference to the bis edition.
What is the single integrated approval?
One act that replaces the approvals obtained separately from each institution. The integrated approval commission gathers the conditions of all its members and communicates them to the applicant once, and the approval is issued within 15 working days at most of the filing of the complete documentation.
Who adopts a detailed urban plan?
The mayor of the commune, town, city or Bucharest district, by order, within 15 calendar days at most of the chief architect’s approval. Where the territory covers at least two localities, it is adopted by the president of the county council, with the prior approval of the mayors concerned.
Does the opportunity approval still exist?
The Code replaced it with the initiation approval, which is issued on the basis of an opportunity study examined by the technical commission for spatial planning and urbanism. The old name has nonetheless survived in a few places in the procedure and in the footnotes to the forms.
How old may the underpinning studies be?
No more than 3 years from the date the documentation is drawn up. Beyond that threshold they may be used only if the author expressly confirms that the information has not lost its validity.
What happens if I do not file the additions requested?
Additions requested through the national integrated approval commission have to be filed within 6 months at most. If that deadline is missed, the documentation receives a negative approval and has to be refiled for approval.

Errors and inconsistencies in the published text

  • Annex no. 4, the chapter on the approval of the zonal urban plan. The text reads „Avizul tehnic al arhitectului-șef se emite în termen de maxim 15 zile de la depunerea documentației complete și corecte”, that is, the chief architect’s technical approval is issued within a maximum of 15 days, whereas Article 75(2) of Law no. 169/2026, the provision the sentence restates, says „15 zile lucrătoare”, 15 working days. The very next sentence in the same annex keeps the wording „15 zile lucrătoare” for the reply to an incomplete documentation, and Annex no. 5 correctly reproduces the 15 calendar day deadline for the adoption of the detailed urban plan, so the procedure routinely distinguishes between the two kinds of days. The result is that, for one and the same approval, the procedure gives a deadline roughly a week shorter than the law it implements.

Editorial analysis

The order solves a real and long-standing problem. The Code of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and Construction entered into force on 25 August and repealed Law no. 350/2001, but it could not work without the procedure it refers to in dozens of articles. Without this text, every chief architect would have had to improvise from the beginning of September. A three-day gap is a reasonable delay for a document of 410 pages.

What is not visible when reading the order shows up when the procedure is placed next to the Code it implements. Annexes nos. 1 and 2 reproduce the rule in Article 92(10) of the Code, under which local authorities are to set up the local integrated approval commission within 60 working days at most of the entry into force of the Code, which means 17 November 2026. The Code also contains, in Article 576(2), a deadline of 45 working days from publication for setting up and making those same commissions operational, that is 12 October 2026. The two dates are 36 days apart, and the contradiction is the Code’s, not the order’s. The procedure carries it forward: it reproduces only the longer deadline, the one the chief architect looking for an answer will read, and says nothing about the other.

The second observation concerns a name that has not been updated. The Code replaced the opportunity approval with the initiation approval. The old term nevertheless survives in three places in the procedure, including in the exception to the ban on making one approval conditional on another, and in the footnotes to forms F_04 and F_06, which send the citizen to the „certificatul de urbanism emis în care este solicitată obținerea avizului de oportunitate”, the urban planning certificate in which the opportunity approval is requested. The footnote to form F_01, written by the same team, uses the correct name. This survival also comes from the Code, which keeps the wording in the same place, but the forms are the ministry’s own work, and there the correction depended on nobody else.

The third observation is about what is missing from the table of powers. Annex no. 7 shows who initiates, who approves and who adopts, but it does not say how long any of it takes. The deadlines are scattered across Annexes nos. 1 to 5, and anyone who opens the table to find out the route of a file will find nowhere, in one place, its calendar. A document that sets out to replace uneven practice would have gained a great deal from one more column.

What should be changed

  • Correcting the deadline in Annex no. 4. Adding the word „lucrătoare”, working, would align the procedure with Article 75(2) of the Code and would settle the difference of roughly a week on the chief architect’s approval, the very approval on which a plan reaching the agenda of the local council depends.
  • A note clarifying the deadline for setting up the commissions. The procedure cannot amend the law, but it can tell the reader that another deadline exists, in Article 576, and which of the two applies. Without that, some counties will work to 12 October and the rest to 17 November.
  • Updating the footnotes to forms F_04 and F_06. The correct name is initiation approval. A form that refers to an approval which no longer exists produces applications rejected for a reason that has nothing to do with the applicant.
  • A deadlines column in Annex no. 7. The table of powers is the only page anyone in a hurry will open; if it says who signs, it should also say how long it takes.
  • Publishing the annexes in open format on the ministry’s website. The 407 pages currently have to be bought in a printed bis edition, even though every urban planning file in the country depends on them.

Original text of the legal act

The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.

The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania

Official Gazette of Romania no. 724 and no. 724 bis of 28 August 2026 16 pages PDF, 120 KB the act starts on page 16

Open the official PDFDownload the PDF

The viewer is not shown on small screens. Use the buttons above to open or download the file.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.