Colombia's urban legal framework

Urban and Regional Report 81 - 18 COLOMBTIA'S URBAN LEGAL FRAMEWORK By Luis Ricardo Paredes M. April, 1980 This report was prepared under the auspices of the City Stuay Research Project (RPO 671-47) as Citv Study Project Paper No. 21. The views reported here are those of the author, and they should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of the World bank or its affiliated organizations. This report is being circulated to stimulate discussion and comment. Urban and Recional Ecomomics Division Development Economics Department Development Policy Staff The WIorld Eank Washington, D.C.  ABSTRACT This paper presents a survey of recent laws, actions, and practices that provide the legal framework for the control and planning of urbarn development in Colombia, with special reference to Bogota. The legally defined urban planning powers are highly centralized in the Ministry of Development and the National Planning Department with residual planning responsibilities accruing to Departmental, Municipal, and soon to be defined Metropolitan bodies. In fact, the planning powers and activities of different agencies often overlap and pursue different objectives within the same urban area. The local planning agencies typically have little real power to implement their plans because of these inconsistencies, and because the national government has severely limited the ability of local authorities to invoke penalties against violators of zoning ordinances. In most Colombian cities the authorities have acted strongly to control invasion developments, but there has been a proliferation of illegal low- income housing developments in the absence of legally mandated affordable alternatives. Local agencies have moved only recently to increase the supply of low cost site and service projects and minimum norms (normas minimas) developments. The government has been reluctant to use expropriatioti powers to provide low income housing sites in urban areas. In some cases, expropriation powers have been used to compensate persons whose land has been invaded. As in many countries, Colombia has numerous instruments that could be used to promote housing for low income urban dwellers, but to date few of them have been exercised to the benefit of such groups.  PREFACE This paper forms part of a large program of research grouped under the rubric of the "City Study" of Bogota, Colombia, being conducted at the World Bank in collaboration with Corporacion Centr Regional de Poblacion. The goal of the City Study is to increase our understanding of the workings of five major urban sectors -- housing, transport, employment location, labor markets, and the public sector -- in order that the impact of policies and projects can be assessed more accurately. This paper presents a survey of recent laws, actions, and practices that provide the legal framework for the control and planning of urban development in Colombia with special reference to Bogota. Other City Study Papers dealing witn institutional factors and Colombian urban policy include: 1. Jorge Ignacio Cifuentes, "Urban Transportation in Bogota," Washington, D.C., The World Bank, Urban and Regional. Report No. 79-7, June, 1978, (City Study Project Paper No. 2). 2. Rafael Stevenson, "Housing Programs and Policies in Bogota: An Historical/Descriptive Analysis," Washington, D.C., The World Bank, Urban and Regional Report No. 79-8, June 1978 (City Study Project Paper No. 3).  TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction Section 1. The Territorial Subdivision of Power in 1 Colombia. Section 2. Urban Planning and Policy Making 4 Authorities Section 3. Land Use Control Authorities. 15 Section 4. Zoning 26 Section 5. Subdivided Land Sales Control 38 Section 6. Low income Urban Land Tenure Problems 43 Section 7. Real Property Rights: Consti.tutional Issues. 52 Section 8. Urban Land Reform 67 Section 9. Conclusions 72  INTRODUCTION Much has been said and written about Colombia's 'housing and urban development problems, but, to our knowledge, no attempt has been made to describe the legal framework within which these problems arise, develop and are either solved or ignored. This is, then, a description of the different government agencies' formal responsibilities and of the Constitutional and regulatory provisions pertaining to urban planning, zoning and land use, subdivided land sales controls, low income land tenure and property rights. There is also a section on Urban Reform in Colombia, which includes an update on rerent develop- ments in the field. This paper will surely elicit more questions than answers, particularly when some thought is givers tothe actual applicationi of the numerous laws which will be cited. It must be clear, though, that this is not a legal impact study. It is a formalistic description of Colombia's urban legal framework, and will hopefully clarify legal and institutional constraints which affect low income housing problems, but, more importantly, the paper will hopefully suggest legislative and regulatory courses of action under the Constitution which may help in dealing with these problems more effectively. - F > j < 4 < - 2i;ij: ,8YS@ > 2 A .i. 9 'h#tI',ig $9A4h49aR s kh :.tstt  I - THE TERRITORIAL SUBDIVISION OF POWER IN COLOMBIA (1) This section is intended to answer the question of which tier of government has the authority to regulate urban related issues; whether home-rule provisions exist in the Constitution which assign exclusive authority to municipalities, or whether the present Constitution centralizes authority in a geographic center. It will contain a general discussion of the internal geographic delegation of govern- mental authority in Colombia, as an introduction to Sections 2 and 3, which will refer in detail to delegation of planning and land use control responsibilities. The year 1886 marked the demise of several attempts to establish a federal division of power among the different "sovereign" states, due to internal political instability and a poor communications system in a country where topography severely isolated the various regions. In that year, the United States of Colombia became the Republic of Colombia, and a centralized Constitution was issued. State Legislatures were turned into administrative corporations and their power to legislate and tax was withdrawn. Local authority was, considerably diminished as a result of the latter. In particular, local administrative authority became directly dependent on centrally appointed officials.  -2 The Nation today is divided into twenty-three Departments and several other minor, albeit extensive divisdioxis, knowns as Intendenci and Comisarias. The latt