Public Participation in Spatial Planning in Poland as an Element of Evidence Based Urban Planning – Case Study of Lodz

Abstract

The paper presents the problem of public participation in spatial planning in Poland. The author presents the Polish spatial planning system and shows the possibilities of local community participating in the process of preparing the local acts. Significant attention is paid to showing how information from local society could be used to take right decision and could become the basis of the evidence based urban planning on local level. To illustrate the theoretical problem presented in the first part of the paper, the author of the article used the case study of Lodz as the third largest Polish city. The author presents how inhabitants participate in the spatial planning process of the city. The analysis carried out in this paper shows that remarks from local society are one of sources of information and data about the space of gmina.