LITHUANIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Evaldas Klimas and Vygintas Kuprys, WALLESS
4. Planning and Zoning 4.1 Legislative and Governmental Controls Applicable to Strategic Planning and Zoning Strategic planning is usually organised by the government and municipalities and is imple - mented via spatial planning. The Law on Spatial Planning provides for spatial plans at the nation - al, municipal and local levels. The government and the Ministry of Environment organise and implement the master plan of the Republic of Lithuania. The councils of municipalities approve the mas - ter plans of municipalities, which are organised and implemented by the administrations of municipalities. The administrations of municipalities organise and control the implementation of the detailed plans, which are at the lowest level of the spatial planning hierarchy. There are also special spatial plans, which are used to plan territories for exceptional use (pro - tected areas, projects of state importance, etc). These plans are organised and implemented by various authorities. All real estate owners and developers should adhere to the regulations set by special plans, despite the solutions outlined in the detailed plans. 4.2 Legislative and Governmental Controls Applicable to Design, Appearance and Method of Construction Design and construction processes are gov - erned by the Law on Construction and construc - tion technical regulations.
The appearance of future buildings is reviewed by the municipality. The public and municipali - ties may also request a review of the project by regional architecture councils. The so-called advice of these councils is mandatory when participants (usually local communities) com - plain during a public hearing at the pre-design stage. In some cases, the design ideas of the larger buildings have to be selected through a design contest. The design documentation of a project is reviewed by municipalities and other competent institutions, depending on the type of the build - ing and its location (Department of Cultural Her - itage, National Public Health Centre, Directorate of a certain protected area, etc). The method of construction and related solu - tions provided in the design are reviewed by the municipalities. Municipalities usually rely on the mandatory expertise embodied in the design, which has to be carried out by the builder when evaluating the more technical matters of the construction, such as solutions of chosen struc - tures and chosen construction methods. The construction process is supervised by the State Territorial Planning and Construction Inspectorate under the Ministry of Environment, which may also check the design documentation upon the reasoned claim. 4.3 Regulatory Authorities The main regulations on development are indi - cated in laws, which are approved by the Lithua - nian Parliament. By-laws regulating the develop - ment and designated use of individual parcels of real estate are adopted by the Ministry of Envi - ronment and the Ministry of Agriculture. Munici - palities and the National Land Service under the Ministry of Environment are the main bodies that
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