Greenfield developments often use reclassified agricultural
land.
The reclassification of agricultural land to allow building (or
any non-agricultural use) is taken by the relevant land protection
authority, and involves the land being marked as 'other
areas' in the land registry records.
However, this does not automatically mean that the land will
remain building land for ever or that any building plan can be
carried out on it. Every reclassification decision applies only to
the project documents and zoning decision submitted as part of the
application.
Reclassification decisions are valid for five years, even though
they are called 'permanent' exclusions: the
reclassification only becomes permanent if the approved plan is
actually carried out on the land within that period. If this does
not happen, the decision will expire and the land will be
classified as agricultural land once again.
