On February 7th, Valenciana Law 1/2019 of February 5^th amending the planning of territory, urbanism and landscape of the Comunitat Valenciana (LOTUP) was published in the Official Journal of the Generalitat, the Generalitat. It is a far-reaching reform, which modifies more than 130 articles, re-lists, recasts and adds several articles and additional provisions, thus establishing a new and comprehensive approach to a rule that has an impact on institutions, businesses and the whole of Valencian society.

This was manifested in the conference entitled "Modification of the LOTUP: current situation and perspectives of urbanism in the Valencian Community," organised by Andersen Tax & Legal in Valencia, with the participation of 30 representatives of companies and institutions and in which José Vicente Morote, managing partner of the Department of Public and Regulatory Law of Andersen Tax & Legal, Argimiro Mayoral and Juan Eduardo García Osca, senior associates of Andersen Tax & Legal and Manuel Latorre, Municipal Secretary of the area of Urban Development and Housing of Valencia City Council, analysed the new regional regulations.

According to José Vicente Morote, the aim of the LOTUP modification is to favour urban renewal, actions of regeneration and rehabilitation, in order to facilitate interventions in urbanised land aimed at improving the quality of these areas which may be obsolete, underfunded and deteriorated or in those in situations of vulnerability. To this end, the urban standards and the percentage of public urban use are modified and a specific regime for urban regeneration actions is differentiated.

During his speech, Manuel Latorre, made an overall assessment of the reform and stated that it is not a simple modification but a new and global approach that affects more or less 2/3 of the LORTUP. In addition, he added that the rule has a first black hole such as the transitional law, since it does not have a global provision regulating the effects of the reform on the procedures in process.

The municipal secretary of Valencia City Council carried out a detailed analysis of the main modifications of the LOTUP, positively evaluating some aspects of the modification, such as the case of improvement of urban renewal, regeneration and rehabilitation actions, being more critical with other aspects, such as the case of regulation of acts subject to license or responsible declaration, where there are evident internal disagreements and inconsistencies in the Law.

Once Manuel Latorre's intervention was over, a debate began among the attendees on the different aspects of the reform, with special emphasis on the problem of the new regulation of actions to minimise impacts on undeveloped land.