The importance of territorial zoning in determining the legal regime of land

In the Concept of Long-Term Socio-Economic Development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020¹ tasks are set to reduce investment and entrepreneurial risks, increase the average level of housing provision, and decrease the share of population living in areas with an unfavorable environmental situation. Solving these tasks is hard to imagine without establishing a well-coordinated mechanism for determining the legal regime of lands.

The legal regime of land is determined by various methods, including the division of land into categories, specific types of territorial zoning, the establishment of zones with special conditions for land use, and others. A single land plot may simultaneously be subject to the legal regime of a particular category of land, a territorial zone, and a zone with special conditions for land use, which often leads to conflicts between these legal regimes. In this situation, the primary issue becomes the harmonization of methods for determining the legal regime of land, as well as understanding the role and place of each such method within a unified system.

Land use zoning is intended to ensure a transparent definition of the legal status of land, which will contribute to: 1) increasing guarantees for owners and other holders of property rights and obligations on real estate; 2) attracting investments in real estate; 3) solving housing problems; 4) creating a stable financial basis for socio-economic development of municipal formations through increased revenues from land tax to local budgets (until the introduction into force of the property tax); 5) ensuring sustainable territorial development.

Zoning documents are approved by normative legal acts and are subject to official publication. For projects of territorial planning and land-use zoning documents, mandatory public hearings are provided for. Participants in public hearings have the right to submit their comments and proposals, which are subject to mandatory consideration when approving the relevant documents, thus influencing the determination of the legal regime of lands.

At the same time, legislation does not fully define the relationship between functional zoning within the institution of territorial planning and urban development zoning. This often leads to judicial disputes, creates difficulties in law enforcement, and prevents the proper realization of the potential of territorial planning and urban development zoning in determining the legal regime of land. The significance of ecological zoning in defining the legal regime of land has not been sufficiently studied.

The situation is exacerbated by the absence in the legislation of the Russian Federation, scientific literature, and legal practice of unified terminology applicable to norms regulating social relations related to territorial zoning.

Considering the above, it can be noted that defining the legal regime of land based on individual types of territorial zoning is accompanied by a large number of both theoretical and practical legal problems, the difficulties in resolving which are largely due to the insufficient development of the relevant topic in scientific literature. The aforementioned grounds have determined the choice of the theme of this study.

Degree of scientific development of the research topic. Individual issues of the legal regime of land have been studied in scientific works by G.A. Aksenenko, V.P. Balezin, L.E. Bandorin, S.A. Bogolyubov, M.M. Brinchuk, V.A. Borov, G.A. Volkov, E.A. Galinskaya, M.Yu. Galatin, A.K. Golichenkov, O.L. Dubovik, I.I. Evtykhieva, B.V. Erofeev, Yu.G. Zharikov, G.L. Zemlyakova, O.A. Zotova, I.A. Ikonytskaya, N.V. Kichigin, M.I. Kozyr, O.I. Krassov, N.I. Krashnov, N.N. Melnikov, E.L. Minina, T.V. Petrova, E.K. Trutneva, V.V. Ustyukova, A.V. Cherednikov, V.E. Churkin and others.

Individual issues of territorial zoning were studied by L.E. Bandorin in the dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Juridical Sciences «Permitted Use of Land Plots» (2011), O.A. Zolotova, in the dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Juridical Sciences «Legal Regime of Land in Protective Zones» (2013), A.V. Cherednikov in the dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Juridical Sciences «Urban Planning Zoning as a Means of Ensuring Public Ecological and Private Interests» (2012).

Also, a significant contribution to the study of the legal regime of lands and zoning of territories has been made by other scholars, whose works are listed in the bibliography. However, the comprehensive significance of territorial zoning in determining the legal regime of lands has not been considered in legal research.

Subject of research comprises norms of environmental, land, and urban planning legislation regulating social relations related to territorial zoning, law enforcement practice, and scientific literature.

Purpose of the study – to identify legal consequences of zoning territories for determining the legal regime of lands.

To achieve this goal, the following tasks were set:

• determine the content of land zoning;
• consider individual types of land zoning (urban planning zoning, functional zoning, ecological zoning), determine the relationship between the aforementioned types of land zoning in order to define the legal regime of lands;
• determine the relationship between land zoning, categorization of lands by purpose, and establishment of zones with special usage conditions in order to define the legal regime of lands;
• analyze the characteristics of land zoning in foreign countries (on the example of the United Kingdom, Germany and
• USA). The theoretical basis of the research was formed by the works of scholars in the field of general theory of law – S.S. Alekseev, N.A. Vlasenko, V.V. Lazarev, M.N. Marchenko, A.V. Mitskevich, B.C. Nerseyants, A.S. Pigolkhin; administrative law – D.N. Bakhrakh, A.F. Nosdrachev, Yu.A. Tikhomirov; civil law – S.N. Bratusya, L.A. Novoselova, O.N. Sadikov, E.A. Sukhanov, G.F. Shershenevich; environmental and land law – G.A. Aksenchenko, A.P. Anisimov, V.P. Balezina, R.D. Bogolepov, S.A. Bogolyubov, M.M. Brinchuk, M.I. Vasilyeva, G.A. Volkov, E.A. Galinovskaya, A.K. Golichenkov, O.L. Dubovik, I.I. Yevtykhieva, Y.G. Zharikova, I.A. Ikoniczkaia, N.D. Kazantseva, N.V. Kichigina, M.I. Kozyr', O.S. Kolbasova, N.I. Krassova, V.V. Kruglova, E.L. Minina, V.V. Petrov, T.V. Petrova, N.A. Syrodovea, V.V. Ustyukova, G.V. Chubukov and others.