Social involvement in spatial planning of rural communes – current status, new challenges and prospects

Spatial planning is a basic policy belonging to the tasks of local governments. Each local government, including rural communes, should involve local actors in consultation processes. The change in the regulations on spatial planning highlights the essence of social participation. They emphasize the importance of geoparticipatory tools, which are to support the traditional consultation methods used so far. The aim of the article was to indicate the level of participation in its current form, which may be a starting point for further research when new participation methods are popularized. Additionally, an analysis of the spatial differentiation of participation in the creation of spatial policies of rural communes was made. Based on the conducted research, it was possible to indicate local government units that provide documentation of the planning process on websites, as well as those that omit this information aspect. The set goals were in line with the methodology used, based on a detailed analysis of the websites of rural communes in the Łódź province. In particular, it included resolutions of commune councils and orders of mayors. In addition, the availability of documents related to consultations via commune geoportals was assessed. The obtained results allowed us to indicate that among 72.8% of the surveyed communes it was possible to determine the level of involvement of local actors in the process of preparing a study of the conditions and directions of commune development.