Integrated investment plan (ZPI): a new route for developers

The integrated investment plan (zintegrowany plan inwestycyjny, ZPI) is one of the most important tools introduced by Poland's 2023 spatial planning reform. It allows an investor to initiate the adoption of a local zoning plan for a specific project – in exchange for commitments to the municipality. For developers, it is a way to obtain development rights where there is no local zoning plan. For landowners, it is a chance to sell a plot whose potential would otherwise be limited.

What a ZPI is

A ZPI is a special form of local zoning plan (miejscowy plan zagospodarowania przestrzennego, MPZP). It differs from an "ordinary" plan in three ways:

• The initiative lies with the investor. The procedure starts at the request of an investor, who presents a draft plan for its project.
• It is based on an urban planning agreement. Before the plan is adopted, the investor and the municipality negotiate and sign an agreement setting out their mutual obligations.
• The plan covers a main and a complementary investment. Alongside the investor's project (e.g. a residential scheme), the plan provides for a complementary investment serving the local community.

The urban planning agreement – what the municipality can expect

The urban planning agreement (umowa urbanistyczna) is the key element of a ZPI. In it, the investor may undertake, among other things, to:

• deliver a complementary investment – e.g. a road, school, nursery, green space or technical infrastructure,
• transfer property or parts of it to the municipality,
• cover the cost of the complementary investment or of preparing the plan.

The municipal council is under no obligation to adopt a ZPI. Nor can it amend the draft on its own – it can either adopt it or return it to the investor with proposed changes. A ZPI is therefore a negotiation in which the value of the investor's commitments must be balanced against the benefits the plan brings.

ZPI versus "lex deweloper"

Since 2018, investors have been able to use the special housing act, known as "lex deweloper", which allowed residential projects to be located regardless of the local zoning plan. The special act is temporary and its period of application is coming to an end. Its role is being taken over by the ZPI – a more formal tool, but one that gives the investor a lasting basis in the form of a local zoning plan.

The key question of timing: ZPI and the end of the land-use study

A ZPI, like any local zoning plan, must comply with the higher-level planning document. Until a municipality adopts its general plan (plan ogólny), that document is the study of conditions and directions of spatial development (studium uwarunkowań i kierunków zagospodarowania przestrzennego). Under current rules, these studies expire no later than 30 June 2026.

In practice this means that:

• today, a ZPI can be prepared on the basis of the land-use study,
• once the study expires – in a municipality that fails to adopt a general plan in time – adopting new local zoning plans, including ZPIs, will as a rule be impossible, except for sufficiently advanced procedures,
• once a general plan is adopted, a ZPI will have to comply with its zones and urban planning standards.

For investors considering a ZPI, the message is clear: decisions to start the procedure are worth taking now, bearing in mind the municipality's realistic timetable.

Kraków and the ZPI

Kraków is one of the cities where ZPIs attract the most interest from investors. More than 80% of the city's area is covered by local zoning plans, but many of them do not allow multifamily housing where market and infrastructure conditions would support it. A ZPI makes it possible to change this – provided an urban planning agreement is negotiated with the city that reflects its expectations regarding social infrastructure and green space.

Update of 24 October 2026: ZPIs in Kraków after the land-use study expired

Since this article was published, the situation in Kraków has changed fundamentally. Kraków's study of conditions and directions of spatial development expired on 1 September 2026, and the city has no general plan. At the beginning of September the special housing act ("lex deweloper") also ceased to apply – proceedings started earlier continue. The ZPI has therefore remained the main tool for rezoning land for housing, but during the planning gap it operates under special rules.

Procedures that crossed the "threshold" before 1 September 2026. Transitional provisions allow a local zoning plan procedure – including a ZPI – to be completed if, before the study expired, a date had been announced for the draft's public display or for the start of public consultation. Such a ZPI can be adopted despite the absence of a general plan, but it must comply with the former study as worded before it expired. This was the case with Kraków's first ZPI: the plan for the "Bronowice Małe – Rondo Ofiar Katynia" area (13.1 ha) was adopted by Kraków City Council on 16 September 2026 (resolution no. LIX/1279/26), i.e. after the study had expired. The plan has been in force since 9 October 2026. According to press reports, it is accompanied by an urban planning agreement worth approx. PLN 23 million.

Procedures that did not cross that threshold. If neither public display nor consultation had been announced before 1 September, a ZPI can, as a rule, not be adopted until the General Plan of the City of Kraków comes into force. After that, the draft will have to comply with the general plan – its planning zones and urban planning standards (height, intensity, biologically active area). In practice this may mean changing the parameters of the project or even repeating part of the procedure. Given that the draft general plan has not yet been made public and the city has a new administration, the time horizon of such procedures is hard to predict today.

Scale. According to city data (as at 9 October 2026), Kraków has 1 integrated investment plan in force and another 39 in preparation. Publicly available information does not show how many of them crossed the threshold that allows the procedure to be completed on the basis of the study – this has to be established individually, from the announcements in each procedure.

Risk after adoption. Even an adopted ZPI is subject to supervision by the voivode, who may declare the resolution invalid within 30 days of its delivery. Nationwide, there have already been supervisory decisions annulling ZPI resolutions. For procedures completed in the transitional period, on the basis of a study that is formally no longer in force, this risk is particularly significant.

What this means for transactions. If the sale of a plot depends on a ZPI being adopted, the preliminary agreement should today provide for:

• establishing the stage of the procedure and whether public display or consultation was announced before 1 September 2026 – on the basis of documents in the Public Information Bulletin (BIP), not the parties' declarations,
• a condition covering not only the adoption of the ZPI, but also the expiry of the voivode's deadline for a supervisory decision without the resolution being annulled,
• a realistic deadline for procedures that must wait for the general plan, and rules for renegotiating the price if the general plan restricts development parameters.

What a ZPI means for a landowner

A landowner who does not plan to run the ZPI procedure themselves can sell the plot to a developer who will. Such a transaction, however, needs the right structure:

1. A conditional preliminary agreement – the final agreement is concluded only once a ZPI allowing a specified type of development has been adopted.
2. A long time horizon – the procedure involves negotiations, drafting and approvals, so the agreement must provide for realistic deadlines and rules for extending them.
3. A price linked to the outcome – the price may depend on the usable floor area of apartments (PUM) permitted by the adopted plan, with an agreed minimum price.
4. Allocation of costs and risks – who bears the cost of the draft plan and of the obligations under the urban planning agreement, and what happens if the plan is not adopted.

A well-structured transaction allows the owner to share in the increase in land value that a ZPI brings, without bearing the cost and risk of the procedure.

Frequently asked questions