The number of detailed plans has decreased since the introduction of the new planning law in 2015. In 2016, a total of 66 were submitted, but only 47 were submitted in 2019.

The number of detailed plans depends on the private sector and the processing time on the size of the potential plan.

Arvo Rikkinen, director of the Tallinn detailed planning service, said: "99 percent of the detailed plans are prepared for private land and are ordered by private developers, thus, the compilation of them is directly dependent on the economic situation in real state and in the private sector. During the economic crisis, a lot of detailed plans were canceled, because reviews of developing plans were required."

Even though the number of detailed plans has risen, the timescale for proceeding the plans has not. One reason is that bigger and more complicated plans have been submited.

Rikkinen said over 50 percent of detailed plans are finalized in under three years, but there are cases where there are disagreements which have been in the processing for 10 years and this increases the average. These cases have increased the average processing time of the last five years to 3.5 to 4.3 years.

Attempts are currently being made to update the register so the statistical average reflects the time spent in the active process. Procedures have also started to be terminated where the developer has not submitted a detailed plan to the agency within two years.

An example of a detailed plan is the Old City Harbor area behind the Port of Tallinn.

"A plan for the Meeruse port is being initiated in North Tallinn, and the detailed plans of the Krull quarter are being processed. In Lasnamäe, the detailed plan of the quarter between Smuuli and Vana-Kuuli streets is underway" Rikkinen said.

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