Thoughts upon the present state of the laws as to Town Planning and to such reforms as these might undergo

Abstract

The Laws governing Spanish Town Planning have developed towards great complexity and technical perfection upon grounds that establish the most precise model for any altering of land use so that this might thus prove to be productive of its rightful development allowance or urban development utility, the model used for these being that which would extend to the city the one proper to any private lot. Planning Legislation as to property rights owes its specific tone to its being grounded upon a making public of planning activity that would be those in keeping with a private usage, this by a mere making of the landowner into an ex lege private development agent, this in all except the case of compulsory purchase, the aforesaid being always understood to only be the case when the planning process is the operative consideration in question. Such a legal special pleading, when taken to its ultimate consequences-a making of any landowner at all into an ordinary developer or businessman- puts his very status in question as it does that necessary separations as between land owner's rights be who he may and the developer's idem, to act in such capacity.