The Administration has to indemnify the owners for the deprivation of the faculty to participate in the urban management of an estate, even if the urban planning is executed by the system of a forced expropriation.
In the ruling of March 5, 2018, pronounced in a cassation appeal filed against a ruling of the High Court of Justice of Castilla-La Mancha concerning the setting of the fair appraisal of four plots of land affected by the execution of the “Proyecto de Singular Interés, Parque Industrial y Tecnológico de Illescas”, Spanish Supreme Court concludes that the Administration has to indemnify the owners for the deprivation of their faculty to participate in the urban management of an estate, even if the aforesaid project is executed by the system of a forced expropriation, as it considers that this faculty (art 38 of the Spanish Land Law) is an integral part of the property right.
Spanish Supreme Court considers that, unlike the initiative faculty (art. 39 of the Spanish Land Law) that is only recognized to the owner when the Administration does not implement itself the urban management of an estate or when it is the Administration itself that has conferred it to the owner, the Spanish Land Law assigns to the owner of land for development the faculty to participate in the execution of development instruments, regardless of whether the execution system is public or private. Spanish Supreme Court affirms that it is a faculty that the legislator has included in the property right when certain requirements are met.
Therefore, Spanish Supreme Court concludes that the Administration cannot exclude from the property right the faculty to participate in the execution of development instruments and, consequently, despite the fact that the aforesaid project of singular interest is supposed to be executed by a public system, the owners must be indemnified for the deprivation of their faculty to participate in the urban management of an estate.