The regime of minimum cultivation units on non sectorised developable land, common non developable land and protected non developable land in the legislation of the Community of Madrid

Abstract

The minimum cultivation unit in agricultural legislation, as set out in the Law of 15 July 1954, developed by the Decrees of 25 March and 22 September 1955 and the Order of 27 May 1958, was an ad hoc instrument used at the time to prevent in many regions of the country,  the continuation of land fragmentation ‘below limits considered unacceptable from a technical point of view’, which was contrary to agricultural development and modernisation, in a historical context of land consolidation.

Without prejudice to this purpose in the primary sector, the truth is that this instrument has been used in urban planning legislation in relation to the uses, activities and works on unplanned developable land under the TRLS 1976 -and its meanings in regional urban planning laws-, common undevelopable land and protected undevelopable land, insofar as it seeks to prevent ‘urban’ subdivisions on these types of land, the non compliance with which is classified as an urban planning offence.

With the advent of the Autonomous Communities, their urban planning and zoning legislation have regulated the uses, activities and works on the aforementioned types of land - or similar - with different scope and consequences, particularly in the area of restoring infringed urban planning legality and administrative sanctioning procedures, and even criminal proceedings under article 319 of the Criminal Code.

This article addresses these issues in the legislation of the Community of Madrid and in the relevant case law.