Town Planning

"Gómez-Acebo & Pombo has a strong multidisciplinary team of lawyers who are very efficient with quick answers and tackle issues as fast as they can."

Chambers & Partners Europe

The Town Planning practice area is made up of town planning lawyers located in Bilbao, Valencia, Barcelona, Lisbon and Madrid who practice law in all the municipalities of the Iberian peninsula.

Our team, however, includes not only lawyers and professors, but also an expert town planning architect, which allows us to provide not only purely legal advice but also a very technical vision and approach to our town planning advice, as required by this specialization.

We advise public bodies and private companies on the preparation of planning and land enforcement instruments and follow up on their processing, until their definitive approval, as well as in the investigation and documentary analysis, issuance of reports, opinions and expert reports, as required. All this in accordance with the different applicable land and sector-specific legislation (environmental, transport, water, cultural heritage, etc.).

The diversity of the work carried out covers all the stages of the town planning process, from its beginning with the idea of undertaking an urban transformation (the analysis of its opportunity and viability or the drafting of a Feasibility Diagnosis), preliminary actions with public authorities, drafting of planning, management and development instruments and expropriations.

Our areas of activity include:

• Processing of projects for the legalisation or updating of industrial, commercial or other facilities that may have been left outside spatial planning or ordinances as a result of the revision of town planning instruments or the amendment of zoning rules and regulations. In general, the valuation of real estate assets through their adaptation or urban transformation.
• Preparation and processing of spatial planning instruments: local land-use plans, zone division plans, zone land-use plans, detailed studies, infrastructure delivery plans and interior reform plans.
• Preparation and processing of town management instruments: repartitioning, Cooperation and expropriation (compulsory purchase/eminent domain) projects.
• Drafting, negotiation and processing of town development agreements.
• Constitution and advice of compensation boards, management committees, development agents, conservation entities and other related entities.
• Drafting of due diligence reports and feasibility diagnosis. Preparation of reports and legal opinions of all types related to town planning.
• Advice on the processing and obtaining of building, activity and first occupation and operation permits, commercial and tourist licences and authorisations on undeveloped land.
• Construction: construction contracts (works and civil engineering); FIDIC contracts; turnkey construction and refurbishment contracts; project management and control contracts; security contracts; architectural design contracts.
• Advice on town planning aspects of the development, acquisition and financing of projects of public interest on undeveloped land (especially in the renewable energy sector).
• Administrative appeals and judicial review applications in town planning matters: penalties, expropriations, authorizations, licences, closure orders and relations with town planning and management instruments.