The City of Bolesławiec is working on a general plan. This is a very important document. It will determine where housing, services and other investments can be built in the future.
The City Office informed us that public consultations were held from 29 April to 29 May 2026. Only 13 comments were submitted, which is not many. It is possible that residents did not even know about these consultations. The office is now reviewing the comments. The draft plan is to be submitted to the Bolesławiec City Council in August 2026.
The most interesting figures, however, are the numbers. According to the authorities, the capacity of undeveloped residential areas is 10,800 residents. This means that the documents allocate space for housing for that many people. At the same time, the maximum demand for new residential development was calculated at 6,918 people. Put simply: on paper, Bolesławiec has more land for housing than its needs require.
The authorities also said that the calculations included 172.80 hectares of undeveloped residential areas covered by binding local plans, as well as 35.70 hectares of gaps in the built-up area.
We therefore asked whether the city had checked if these areas were actually ready for construction. Whether they have roads, utilities and real conditions for investment. The office’s answer is very important: the city has no such analysis.
Officials explain that regulations require the areas designated in local plans to be included in the calculations. Therefore, if an area is designated for residential use in the documents, it is treated as available for development. The problem is that for residents, “possible on paper” does not always mean “possible in reality.”
A plot may be designated for residential use in the plan, but in practice it may lack a good road, sewage system, utilities or reasonable building conditions. And this is precisely what the city did not analyze separately.
The city also admitted that a new development strategy is only now being prepared. The general plan and the strategy are being prepared in parallel. If the new strategy indicates that changes are needed, the plan will be reviewed later. This means that the city first wants to adopt a very important spatial planning document and only then potentially check it against the new development strategy.
In our opinion, this is an issue that councillors should examine very carefully before voting. The general plan is not an ordinary technical resolution. It is a document that will shape the city’s development for years.
However, we have serious doubts about whether the councillors even know what they will be voting on. Do they understand where these figures came from, what the capacity of the areas means, how a designation in the plan differs from the actual possibility of building, and what consequences this document will have for residents? The councillors’ actions so far do not inspire optimism.