Urban tourism, if correctly planned, developed and managed, may create advantages and benefits both to urban communities and overall society. By systematically implementing planning based on intelligent management and town-planning regulations complying with the organizing and long-lasting growth requirements of towns, local and national communities, benefits can be maximized, whereas troubles minimized. Town planning should pursue the juridical requirements of the legislation in force, based on a flexible, comprehensive, integrated and ecological approach, being implementable on the principles of keeping the tourist sector’s long life.town planning, town-planning law, town plans, tourist town planning.

Carmen IORDACHE

Iuliana CEBUC

English

Research Papers in Economics

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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CARMEN IORDACHE and IULIANA CEBUC 
THE INFLUENCE OF JURIDICAL REGULATIONS UPON TOURIST TOWN-PLANNING 
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THE INFLUENCE OF JURIDICAL 
REGULATIONS UPON TOURIST TOWN-
PLANNING 
Carmen IORDACHE 
Iuliana CEBUC 
“Constantin Brancoveanu” University, Pitesti 
iordache72@yahoo.com  
iuliacebuc @yahoo.com 
 
Abstract  
Urban tourism, if correcly planned, developed and managed, may create advantages and benefits both to urban 
communities and overall society. By systematically implementing planning based on intelligent management and 
town-planning regulations complying with the organizing and long-lasting growth requirements of towns, local and 
national communities, benefits can be maximized, whereas troubles minimized. Town planning should pursue the 
juridical requirements of the legislation in force, based on a flexible, comprehensive, integrated and ecological 
approach, being implementable on the principles of keeping the tourist sector’s long life 
Keywords: town planning, town-planning law, town plans, tourist town planning. 
 
1. Introduction 
Modern town planning, as it is defined in specialized literature, provides the image of an art and 
science placed at inhabitants’ disposal irrespective of the organization of places they live in (villages, 
towns or cities). It aims at stimulating the complex growth of locations according to their potential and 
inhabitants’ expectations by accomplishing short-, medium- and long-term growth strategies.  
Urban planning is an instrument of town management. In the past, when it turned from an operational 
instrument into a legal duty, it became useless. Planning, as it has always been, is undergoing changes 
towards what they believe to be a more efficient working way. What looks a trend of the last decades is 
its market orientation, more precisely demand orientation, so that it can promptly meet it.  
Town planning always withdrew reacting to what they perceived as trouble during the previous system. 
The starting point was simply to understand the need for growth planning and the development issues 
have led to the wish for its legal support in order to counteract the private sector’s powerful forces, thus 
growth statutory planning has come into being. After a while, the lack in flexibility and possibility to take 
rapid action was seen as a problem and they looked for new ways to render planning more flexible.   
 
 
 
 
 
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Statutory planning is a system set up and specified by means of the law. Physical and spatial planning 
means the planning of territory areas, the use and service endowment of fields and it is supported by 
statutory elements. In most countries, the system is specified and approved at central level. Although 
subject to criticism, it has a lot of strong elements that comprise: (Davidson, 1996): 
￿ Protection of critical elements achieved by the law;  
￿ prevention of on-the-spot decisions based on private interests;  
￿ accurate regulations and directions that can be implemented by trained personnel.  
Criticism regards the following aspects: 
￿ Bureaucratic routine makes operating slow and rigid, and planning services are left solely in 
the administrative body;  
￿ Lawfulness makes changes difficult to occur. That makes plans easily lose their upgrading, be 
often irrelevant, ignored and avoided.   
The system is unefficient when administration is weak, when attitudes towards the law leave much to be 
desired and when corruption is something usual.   
2. Juridical regulations regarding town planning 
The  field  legislation  in  our  country  does  not  define  either  town  planning  or  territory  arrangement 
activities, but regarding them all it specifies their contents, typical features, objectives and their ways of 
accomplishment. Thus, Law no.350/2001 regarding territory improvement and town planning
1 provides 
in article 2 indentation 3 that “Territory spatial management is done by territory improvement and town 
planning that represent sets of general concern complex activities that contribute in balanced spatial 
development, natural and artificial patrimony protection, better living conditions in urban and rural areas 
as well as in ensuring territorial cohesion at regional, national and European level”.   
Juridical regulations regarding town planning start from the aspects regarding the property of fields. 
Once the urban boom has occurred, juridical regulations have undergone a massive improvement and 
diversification process originally aimed at town inside areas which has subsequently enlarged to the 
outside.   
Historically speaking, regulations’ development regarding town planning is strictly connected to the town 
planning rhythm. Public authorities have often interfered in order to cope with the complex issues that 
have occurred in town growth.  
                                                           
1 Law no.350 of 6 July 2001 regarding town rehabilitation and planning was issued in Romania’s Monitorul Oficial, part 1, no.373 of 10 July 
2001. It was amended and improved by Government Order no.69/2004,  Law no.289/2006, Government Order no. 18/2007, Law no.168/2007 
and  Government Order no.27/2008 issued in Monitorul Oficial no. 628 of 29 August 2008  
 
 
 
 
 
 
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It was not until mid 19th century that town planning and the juridical field intermingled only in terms of 
ideas related to the good arrangement of streets and buildings. The rare regulations that have occurred 
regarding town areas sometimes as true social constraints do not entitle town planning to govern the 
field of territory placement, town planning respectively.   
 The juridical regime of town planning has subsequently developed at two levels: on one hand, property 
right has been more and more strictly limited so that an individual owner has been compelled to 
surrender their properties to public interests. On the other hand, town planning regime has not only 
imposed certain restrictions, but its progress has also promoted certain guarantees to the administered 
ones.  Significant  development  has  been  aimed  at  decisions’  publicity  related  to  town  planning, 
consulting the administered ones by means of public inquiries, the battle against arbitrary circumstances 
etc.  
Along  with  this  regulating  manner,  public  service  activities  have  occurred  that  have  made  people 
assume the activities meant to improve urban areas, keep places clean and beautiful, and environment 
protection (Jacquot and Priet, 2001). 
Town planning law has had various definitions in specialized literature, yet several common elements 
have been identified. Thus, Jacquot (1989) stated that town planning law (): 
￿ can be defined as the set of rules and bodies set up to regulate area-related issues according 
to people’s improvement objectives;   
￿ is the set of rules regarding areas and their improvement;  
￿ is analyzed as an element of economic law when a place is seen as richness or economic 
resource.  
Town planning law is the juridical system’s branch comprising the set of juridical regulations regarding 
urban areas’ arrangement and improvement in compliance with the organization and long-lasting growth 
requirements of places, local and national communities (Dutu, 1998). 
The features of town planning law ensue from the ratio it has with akin branches: building law, territory 
improvement law and environmnent law.  
￿ Building  law  is  the  set  of  technical  norms  and  rules  regarding  the  volume  and  inside 
improvement of real estate and up to a certain extent it intermingles with town planning law 
which decides upon fields’ degradation in terms of their localization, set-up, outside image etc.     
￿ Territory improvement law aims at searching within national territory the best population 
distribution  according  to  the  natural  resources  and  economic  activities;  therefore,  territory  
 
 
 
 
 
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improvement has the objective to organize the national area, whereas town planning law has 
the purpose to deal with towns’ improvement.    
￿ Environment  law  comprises  the  set  of  juridical  norms  and  related  institutions  aiming  at 
environment protection, preservation and growth. Urban areas’ organization and the various 
conflicts generated (noise, atmosphere pollution etc.) have been the core of environmental 
trends’ occurrence and they are more visible in urban than in rural areas. Thus, town planning 
law has undergone an ample “environmentalization” process by developing the regulations 
related to environment protection and nature preservation. In this respect, accomplishing high 
quality  urban  environment  requires  along  with  the  steps  to  prevent  its  degradation,  more 
profound  norms  at  general  level  meant  to  make  town  planning  law  subject  to  the  new 
environment  requirements.  Nevertheless,  environment  law  is  much  more  comprehensive, 
including connections both to area-related issues and environment factors’ preservation.  
Most town planning rules are to be found in town planning documents and papers that provide the rule 
with a spatial form, which means a differentiation according to a respective area. According to article 44 
of Law 350/2001, town planning documentation refers to urban and rural areas and regulates the use of 
fields and the conditions in which they can be covered with buildings.    
They restate at urban and rural level the suggestions included in the improvement plans of national, 
area and county territories. Town planning documentation aims at specific regulations and sets rules 
directly applied to towns and parts of them up to the level of cadastral areas. 
According to the directions of article 45 (Law no.350, 2001), town planning documentation includes:  
a) General town plan and the local regulation related to it;  
b)  Area town plan and the local regulation related to it;  
c)  Detailed town plan.  
General Town Plan (GTP) – is the main instrument of operational planning and the legal basis to 
achieve  development  actions  and  programmes.    GTP  is  accomplished  according  to  the  town 
development strategy and represents the documentation setting the development objectives, actions 
and steps of a current or future town, on a certain term, complying with the actual multicriterial analysis. 
The documentation is joined by the respective town’s planning regulation. General town plan is the 
documentation  according  to  which  town-planning  certificates  and  building  authorizations  are  given 
within the respective town territory.  Its contents refers to the delimitation of in-town areas, meaning 
those with buildings or meant to shelter buildings, the territory’s division into functional zones and the 
organization of connections among them, the volume and structure of human potential within the town,  
 
 
 
 
 
 
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the classification of activities by branches and profiles, the set-up of regulations typical of the town, the 
identification of property of fields, the delimitation of protected areas and sites, the delimitation of places 
where  buildings  are  forbidden,  the  development  of  technical  networks,  the  rehabilitation,  the 
environment protection and preservation, the identification and prevention of pollution sources, the 
cleaning of waters, the rejection of wastes.   
Area  Town  Plan  (ATP)  –  is  the  urban  planning  instrument  that  provides  specific  regulations 
coordinating the integrated development of certain areas in a town and they are very complex or have 
high urban planning dynamics. Area town plan provides the correlation of integrated town development 
programmes in an area with the General Town Plan. It is the documentation referring to an area within a 
current  or  future  town,  analyzes  its  actual  situation  and  defines  all  the  town  planning  elements 
necessary to supply town planning certificates and building authorizations.   
The main objective of the Area Town Plan refers to : the set-up of an area’s town-planning architecture, 
the set-up of buildings’ arrangement and the suggestions regarding the use of fields, the organization of 
street  networks,    the  solutions  by  technical endowment,  the  set-up of  interventions allowed  within 
restricted areas, the juridical status and transfer of fields.  
Detailed Town Plan (DTP) – exclusively has the purpose of specific regulations ensuring the conditions 
to place, size and comply one or several sites in one or several adjacent areas in correlation with their 
neighbourhood. It represents the documentation stating the conditions to place and execute precise 
building  in  compliance  with  the  provisions  of  other  documentations  and  the  particular  conditions 
generated by the respective field.   
As  shown  above,  all  town  planning  documentations  comprise  requirements  related  to  material 
resources’ valuation, the improvement conditions of environment quality, the division between building 
areas and protected ones.   
Organizing urban areas and the negative consequences brought about by urban growth have generated 
along time the emergence of environmental trends which are more visible in towns than in villages.  
In order to ensure healthy life environment, two main fields of promoting ecological principles must be 
taken into account:  
￿ areas’ social and economic growth;   
￿ town planning and territory improvement.  
Thus, public local authorities’, businesses’ and individuals’ responsibilities refer to:    
 
 
 
 
 
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￿ the improvement of  urban micro-environment by protecting and preserving springs and other 
water sources inside towns and within their neinghbouring zones, bettering the landscape, 
keeping the streets clean;   
￿ the adequate placement of social and economic sites, and public utilities (industrial plants, 
transport  ways  and  means,  drainage  networks,  cleaning  units,  household/street/industrial 
waste warehouses, the environment, relaxation places, treatment and entertainment areas);    
￿ the obedience of the special protection regime in health spas, tourist and entertainment zones, 
historical monuments, protected areas and nature monuments. Therefore, it is forbidden to 
place sites or develop harmful activities within or too close to protected areas;  
￿ the adoption of proper architectural elements, the improvement of the number of inhabitants in 
a certain area along with maintaining, preserving and developing natural spaces (green areas, 
parks,  trees  and  bushes,  environment-friendly  landscape  arrangement,  recreation  and 
beautiful views);   
￿ the  rational  management  of  traffic  by  regulating  the  access  of  certain  vehicle  types  or 
preventing uncomfortable activities that disturb the people in certain town areas, especially in 
dwelling, spa or relaxation zones;  
￿ compulsory rules regarding the improvement and maintenance of yards and the areas around 
them, the green areas inside yards and among buildings, the cleaning of trees and bushes;  
￿ the  local  set-up  of  projects  to  rehabilitate  public  toilets,  and  maintain  and  develop  street 
networks;   
￿ people’s training and attendance to such activities.  
The planning of tourist placement and improvement indicates the precise place of buildings and other 
structures and landscapes, supplying the following ideas (Stănciulescu, 2004): 
￿ avoiding environment risks that can have effects upon the local facilities or environment. The 
riskiest circumstances are:   
￿ landslides when it is about buildings on top of hills, on unsecure fields as well as those in low 
and moor lands;   
￿ occurrence of tides and coast erosion near beaches.  
￿ maintaining adequate urban relationships among the buildings/groups of buildings in an area 
and recreation/scenery/preserved areas 
￿ maintaining visibility plans and directions towards visually attractive sites. Visibility plans refer 
to  attracting  visibility  higher  than  a  certain  height  level  and  keeping  clear  views  among 
buildings and other structures such as beaches, coast views or mountain sceneries.   
 
 
 
 
 
 
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BIBLIOGRAPHY: 
Davidson, F. (1996), Planning for Performance – Requirements for Sustainable Development, IHS 
series, Rotterdam  
Dutu, M. (1998), Town Planning Law, Economica Publishing House, Bucarest  
Jacquot, H.(1989), Droit de l’urbanisme, deuxieme edition, Dalloz  
Jacquot, H. and Priet, F. (2001), Droit de ľ urbanisme, Edition „Dalloz”, Paris  
Stănciulescu G. (2004), Management of Sustainable Tourism in Urban Areas, Economica Publishing 
House, Bucarest  
Law no.350 of 6 July 2001 regarding town rehabilitation and planning (2001) 
 

THE INFLUENCE OF JURIDICAL REGULATIONS UPON TOURIST TOWN-PLANNING

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