7th Amendment to the LPlG NRW – Draft Bill Published by the State Government of NRW
The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia is planning to revise the State Planning Act (Landesplanungsgesetz NRW, LPlG NRW) in order to streamline procedures of spatial planning to reduce their duration while increasing reliability. To this end, it published a draft bill for the 7th amendment to the LPlG NRW on 18 November 2025. In the following, we provide an overview over the most important intended changes.
Shortening of Publication and Display Periods
The current minimum period of one month for the publication and display of planning documents (Section 9 (2) ROG) within the drafting procedure for regional spatial development plans is to become the standard period in North Rhine-Westphalia in order to further accelerate the planning processes. In complex procedures, longer publication and display periods will remain possible.
Strengthening of Plan Retention
Regional spatial development plans are to be less susceptible to legal challenges in the future. Higher requirements for the invalidity of such plans (in the future regulated in Section 15 LPlG NRW) will increase their reliability, especially for investors and project developers.
(Ir)relevance of Procedural or Formal Violations
In order to strengthen legal certainty and planning security, it is clarified that all violations of procedural and formal law are irrelevant if they ultimately had no effect on the final content of the spatial development plan. This is the case, if they did not affect the outcome of the weighing of interests. However, this shall not apply if a mandatory environmental assessment or the mandatory participation of the public has not been carried out or if there is a comparably severe error.
In concrete terms, this means the following for the prospects of the success of legal remedies: even if a procedural or formal error is considered significant in accordance with Section 11 (1), (4) and (5) sentence 1 no. 1 and 3 ROG, a secondary assessment is required in the future to determine, whether this violation has had any impact on the outcome of the weighing of interests. It must be substantially demonstrated that, without the violation in question, the outcome would have been different.
Introduction of a Limitation Period for Asserting Deficiencies in the Weighing Up Process
Beyond the provisions of Section 11 (3) and (5) sentence 1 no. 2 ROG, all deficiencies in the weighing up process during the drafting procedure of a spatial development plan will become irrelevant if they have not been asserted to the competent authority within five years of the plan coming into force.
Applicability of the Strengthened Plan Retention Regulation (Section 15 LPlG NRW) to Existing Plans
As part of the reform of the LPlG NRW, a second subsection has been added to the transitional Section 41 LPlG NRW. According to this, the strengthened plan retention regulations of Section 15 LPlG NRW also apply to spatial development plans that came into effect prior to the enactment of the 7th amendment of the LPlG NRW. This is intended to prevent a situation in which a plan can still be declared invalid years later – possibly due to new or amended legal requirements under the same law that did not apply at the time the decision was made – even though society now trusts in the validity and implementation of the plan.
Clearer Guidelines for Proceedings to Deviate from Spatial Planning Objectives
In accordance with Section 16 (2) of the LPlG NRW, a deviation from the objectives stated in the spatial development plan may also occur with regard to a plan that is (still) in the process of being drafted. A prerequisite for this is that the relevant provisions of the state regional planning plan currently being drafted have been incorporated into a draft plan after the participation procedure has been carried out, which takes into account the results of the participation procedure in accordance with Section 9 (2) ROG, and that these provisions have been brought to the attention of those involved in the procedure. The new sentence 5 added to Section 16 (2) LPlG NRW clarifies that it is not necessary to complete the entire participation procedure to fulfil this requirement. Rather, the respective provision from which the deviation is to be made must be considered. If a secondary participation process takes place due to significant changes in the spatial development plan and the relevant regulation (from which a deviation is intended) is not the subject of this secondary participation process because it didn’t change, it is considered to be part of the draft that already takes the results of the previous participation(s) into account. Therefore, if a secondary participation takes place due to significant changes, the unchanged regulations in the draft fulfil the above-mentioned requirements regarding deviation from the objective.
Accelerated Legal Review of Regional Plans
Regional plans and any amendments thereto must be submitted to the regional planning authority for review in terms of their function as landscape and forestry framework plans. In the future, the applicable objection period will be reduced from 6 weeks (project-related amendment procedures) or 2 months (all other procedures) down to a maximum of 4 weeks.
What happens next?
The first reading in the plenary session of the state parliament is scheduled for 26 November 2025. We will keep you updated on further developments!
