Legal Mechanisms of Ensuring Environmental Rights in the Implementation of Urban Planning: Theoretical and Practical Aspects

Adoption of environmentally unreasonable urban planning decisions leads to significant environmental problems in certain territories causing massive violations of the right of citizens to favorable environment as a result of deterioration of environment or certain natural objects. The author has investigated the legal mechanisms of ensuring environmental rights in the implementation of urban planning activities in the context of their effectiveness. The paper has demonstrated the connection between town-planning and relations regulated under environmental law, analyzed objective and subjective environmental factors of town-planning, elucidated the necessity of taking into account ecological factors at the stage of territorial planning, determined the place and importance of urban planning activities in the mechanism of ensuring environmental rights of the man and citizen.

The author has examined constitutional foundations of ensuring environmental human rights in the implementation of urban planning activities, implementation of human rights in the principles of urban planning legislation. The author has determined an environmental component of the legal regulation of urban planning, the correlation between such basic concepts of town-planning and environmental legislation as “the right of citizens to a favorable environment,” “favorable conditions of life,” “sustainable development of territories.” The paper has also analyzed legal mechanisms enshrined in the Town Planning Code of the Russian Federation for the consideration of environmental factors and requirements in the process of territorial planning as a fundamental type of urban development at the stage of substantiation and preparation of draft documents of territorial planning of public entities of the Russian Federation and at the stage of coordination of projects between bodies of public administration and local self-government. The paper reveals a declarative and formal nature of the relevant procedures, substantiates the absence of effective legal mechanisms of taking into account environmental factors and requirements in the current town-planning legislation. The author suggests ways of improving the legal regulation of enforcement of environmental rights in the implementation of urban planning.

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