Town and Country Planning in Austria, considering Austrian spatial planning conference (örok)

This article is investigating the town and country planning in Austria. Although according to new definitions spatial planning in Austria has been started during fifties and sixties of the twentieth century, the issue has been set seriously on the Länder's agenda of planning as the main authorities since establishing Austrian Conference On Regional Planning (örok) in 1971.The programs implement at three levels (federal, land and local) in a complex system of power distribution. Federal administration(Bund) isresponsible for higher education, water management, railway transportation, highways and federal roads, mines, forestry and finance. The Länder take responsibility for building laws and zoning, nature protecting, fishing and hunting, agriculture and tax issues. The information is gathered in the regional level and there is coordination among the Bund and adjacentregions in preparing the regional plans and programs. The Länder provide the required recommendations for monitoring the municipalities and urban plans. The communities are the only level which the spatial planning is implemented in the whole area. This level includes 2342 municipalities (sometimes too small) except Vienna and 14 self-ruled cities. At this level the local plans are being proposed that are legally mandatory and they arerequired to anticipate the development principles, instrument and land use classification. The plans should be under surveillance and monitoring of the regional authorities. Accessing the European Union, spatial planning has entered a new era dealing with new political, economic and social circumstances and in accordance with interregional planning and new scopes in Europe Since1995.