Interpretation
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires
"advertisement" means any word, letter, device, model, sign, placard, board, notice or representation, whether illuminated or not, in the nature of and employed wholly or in part for the purpose of public communication and includes any hoarding or similar structure used or adapted for use for the display of the communication but does not include any communication displayed inside a building;
"area action plan" means a local plan intended to address specific development planning problems of a specific area;
"Board" means the National Physical Planning Board established under section 4 ;
"building" means any structure or erection on, in or under any land and any part of any structure or erection of any kind whatsoever whether permanent, temporary or movable, and whether completed or uncompleted;
"building operations" include any building or erection operations, rebuilding operations, structural alterations or additions to buildings and other similar operations and the making of access roads, railways, waterworks, sewerage and drainage works, electrical and telephone installations and any road works preliminary to, or incidental to, the erection of buildings;
"building works" include waste materials, refuse and other matters deposited on land and reference to the "erection" or "construction of building or works" shall be construed accordingly;
"currency point" has the value assigned to it in Schedule 1 to this Act;
"density of development" means the maximum amount of development permitted or the maximum number of persons permitted to reside on any area of land;
"detailed plan" means a subcounty physical development plan that operationalises the provisions of a structure plan;
"development" means-
the making of any material change in the use or density of any buildings or land or the subdivision of any land; and
the erection of buildings or works and the carrying out of building operations; but does not mean-
the carrying out of works for the maintenance of, improvement or other alteration of, or addition to, any building where such alteration or addition does not exceed ten percent of the floor area of the building measured on the date this Act becomes applicable to the area in which that building or land is situated;
the carrying out, by a competent authority, of any works required for the construction, maintenance or improvement of a road, if the works are carried out on land within the road reserves; or
the carrying out, by any local government or statutory body, of any works for the purpose of inspecting, repairing or renewing any sewers, mains, pipes, cables or other apparatus, including breaking open of any street for that purpose and the installation of services by the local government or statutory body, where the local government or statutory body, within seven days, after completion of works carried out, restores the site to conditions that would not be injurious to users and the environment;
"development application" means an application made under section 36 for permission to develop land;
"development permission" means a development permission granted under section 35 by a local government to an applicant to develop land;
"district physical planner" means an officer responsible for physical planning in a district;
"district physical planning committee" means a committee established by section 10 ;
"dwelling" means a building or any part or portion of a building, used or constructed, adapted or designed to be used for human habitation, as a separate tenancy or by one family only, whether detached, semi- detached, or separated by party walls or floors from adjoining buildings or part or portion of the same building together with such out-buildings as are reasonably required to be used or enjoyed;
"enforcement notice" means a notice served by a local government under section 52 on an owner, occupier or developer of land, requiring that owner, occupier or developer to comply with the provisions of that section;
"existing building" or "existing works" means, respectively, a building or works erected, constructed or carried out before the date this Act becomes applicable to the area in which the building or works is situated, and includes a building or works commenced before, but completed after that date;
"land" includes any land covered with water, and any buildings or other things permanently attached to land, and any interest or right of easement in, to or over land;
"local government" includes-
a district council;
a city council;
a city division council;
a municipal council;
a municipal division council;
a town council; and
a subcounty council;
"local council" includes a local government council and an administrative unit council;
"subcounty physical development plan" means a plan for an area or part of an area of a city, municipal, town or urban council and includes a plan with reference to any trading centre, marketing centre or rural area;
"long-term plan" includes national, regional or district land use plans and urban structure plans, national, regional or district network plans for settlements, services, infrastructure and transportation;
"lower local government" includes a municipality, town, division and subcounty council;
"Minister" means the Minister responsible for physical planning;
"national physical development plan" includes a land use plan, general or subject specific, developed to cover Uganda as a whole;
"owner" means a person holding land under leasehold, mailo, freehold or customary tenure system and includes a lessee, tenant, spouse and agent;
"physical planning committee" includes a district physical planning committee, urban physical planning committee and a division or subcounty physical planning committee;
"regional physical development plan" means a physical development plan which covers more than one district;
"road" means any way open to the public for the circulation of vehicles which is maintained by the Government or an administration and includes any street, square, court, alley, bridge, footway, path, passage or highway whether a thoroughfare or not;
"safeguarding area" means any area adjoining any land owned or occupied by the armed forces of Uganda which is declared by the Minister by notice in the Gazette to be a safeguarding area for the purposes of this Act;
"special planning area" means an area that has spatial, socio-economic, physical and development problems and potential and which is declared as such under section 26 ;
"structure plan" means a broad development framework of a given area showing the proposed use of the various parts of an area and translating national and regional planning principles and guidelines into land use proposals;
"subdivision" in relation to land means the dividing of land into two or more parts whether by conveyance, transfer or partition or for the purpose of sale, gift, lease or any other purpose;
"subject plan" means a thematic plan that covers a particular subject, such as housing, transportation network or industrial development;
"urban authority" includes a city, municipal, division and town council declared as such under the Local Governments Act;
"urban physical planner" means an officer responsible for physical planning in an urban authority.
Section analysis Source linked
This section supplies the definitions or statutory meaning governing “Interpretation”.
“In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires "advertisement" means any word, letter, device, model, sign, placard, board, notice or representation, whether illuminated or not, in the nature of and employed wholly or in part for the purpose of public communication and includes any hoarding or similar structure used or adapted for use for the display of the communication but does not include any communication displayed inside a building;”
Use this definition when interpreting other provisions that employ the language addressed by “Interpretation”.
Operative requirements extracted from the consolidated text.
- "area action plan" means a local plan intended to address specific development planning problems of a specific area;
- "Board" means the National Physical Planning Board established under section 4;
- "building" means any structure or erection on, in or under any land and any part of any structure or erection of any kind whatsoever whether permanent, temporary or movable, and whether completed or uncompleted;
- "building operations" include any building or erection operations, rebuilding operations, structural alterations or additions to buildings and other similar operations and the making of access roads, railways, waterworks, sewerage and drainage works, electrical and telephone installations and any road works preliminary to, or incidental to, the erection of buildings;
- "building works" include waste materials, refuse and other matters deposited on land and reference to the "erection" or "construction of building or works" shall be construed accordingly;
- "currency point" has the value assigned to it in Schedule 1 to this Act;
- "density of development" means the maximum amount of development permitted or the maximum number of persons permitted to reside on any area of land;
- "detailed plan" means a subcounty physical development plan that operationalises the provisions of a structure plan;
27 further items remain in the statutory text above.
Express propositions in source-matched passages from judgments citing this section.
No judgment in the current Wakilii corpus expressly cites this section. Bare rule-number references are not assigned where the Order cannot be verified.
No section-specific note is recorded. Act-level consolidation history:
- [Amended by Physical Planning (Amendment) Act, 2020 (Act 2 of 2020) on 10 January 2020]
Act-level history only · Do not infer that every amendment changed this section