Village renewal in spatial plans of the community: Example of the SP of Subotica community

Abstract

Spatial plans of communities, returned to legal framework in 2003 and imposed as obligation for all local communities in Serbia, present a strategic document for development, organization and protection of the whole territory of the community. The base for integral observation and treatment of the urban and rural settlements, within the local administrative area, has been set thereby. The current function of villages has been significantly changed regarding traditional organization and the essential role, that they used to have in the past. First of all, it is a consequence of an intensive deagrarization and industrialization/ urbanization, as a result of official (state) strategy in the middle of the 20. century. As a rule, these processes were painful for villages, leaving them depopulized, with varied age structure of the population and with new relation to agriculture, which led to economic stagnation, social fallow and unclear development perspectives as a consequence. The reconstruction of these areas is, therefore, of enormous interest for development of the whole territory of a community, as well as even intra-communal and broader, intra-regional and intra-national development.