The deliberation of space began with the formation of the first dwellings and dwelling complexes that transformed into the settlements and towns which we recognise today. Up until the beginning of the 20th century planners dealt solely with a restricted area, linked with the construction of new, and the development of existing, town settlements, just as urbanism.
It was only when, thanks to the Industrial Revolution, there was a great development of cities and the increase of city populations that planners realised that it was impossible to make urban development plans of large cities without observing the problems of the wider area. It was then that the application of a thorough viewing of the wider space, i.e. spatial planning, began.
Today with spatial plans an entire area of a state, county or town/municipality is regulated while with urban plans the area of a settlement or of some separate zone of a specific use – tourism, industry, business facilities etc. are regulated .
In Primorje-Gorski Kotar County the origins of spatial planning, in the form that we know it as now, began in the 1950s.
