Green zones (ZS, ZU, ZO)

A zoning plan designates green zones to secure conditions for vegetation to exist and develop in a town or village. They mainly cover land with non-forest vegetation, and their permitted uses must not significantly restrict the main use, i.e. the greenery (Section 19 of Decree No. 157/2024 Coll.).

How to read it

The uniform standard for zoning documentation uses these codes:

• ZU - general greenery,
• ZP - parks and park-like greenery,
• ZZ - gardens and orchards,
• ZO - protective and buffer greenery,
• ZS - other settlement greenery,
• ZK - landscape greenery, such as field balks, copses or windbreaks,
• ZX - other.

In older zoning plans, which remain valid, the same codes may mean something else. The regional MINIS methodology used ZS for private and restricted greenery, mainly fenced gardens, ZP for natural-character greenery, and ZV for parks in public spaces. Read the code using the legend of the specific plan.

What it means for a buyer

A green zone next to a house gives more certainty that the view and quiet will stay, because buildings there must respect the main use. Protective and buffer greenery (ZO), however, is also a signal: the ministry's methodology mentions it along roads and railways or around large production and storage sites, see production zones and transport zones.

A back garden that lies in a green zone may restrict building a garage, pool or another house. Under Section 73 of the Building Act No. 283/2021 Coll., even minor buildings may only be built in line with the zoning plan.

Watch out for

• A public park may also be in a public space zone, not only in a green zone.
• Zone boundaries need not follow parcel boundaries; part of a plot may be in a housing zone and part in a green zone.
• The conditions are in the text part of the municipality's plan; the binding wording is the text and drawings of that plan.