Recreational farms and rurban areas - where city and countryside merge

Abstract

This article initiates from a consultation formulated by a municipality questioning the possibility of delimitation of rurban areas for the creation of recreational farms, due to having a vast rural territory that has been the object of disordered growth. With the application of an inductive method, the concept of urban and rural areas and the concept of rurban areas are discussed. Then, it is addressed the exponential increase in social inequality in urban and rural areas due to Covid-19. The article analyzes the legislation on the use and fractionation of rural and urban land (Land Statute and Urban Land Parceling Law) and on the definition of the urban perimeter (City Statute), as well as the tax rules on ITR and IPTU. Finally, reinforcing the competence of the municipality to plan its entire territory, urban and rural, but not to discipline the parceling of rural soil, the study concludes by the possibility of delimitation of rurban areas only within the urban perimeter, always noting that the transformation of rural soil into urban depends on technical and participatory process in accordance with the City Statute and the local master plan. At the end, some questions are formulated for future research and reflections.