The execution of planning involves putting into practice the determinations of the planning instrument. This is a fundamental aspect, since the general plan should not stagnate as a fixed or static element, and its dynamic mission involves executing and developing the urban development process.[1]​ The elaboration of the plan is aimed at its execution, and otherwise the plan is nothing more than a dead drawing.[note 1]​ Thus, the execution of planning implies acting according to its determinations and consequently requires a series of very different actions that lead from urbanization to building.

Building can generally be considered a private activity, and in this activity the Administration controls its development. En cambio, el proceso de urbanización se ha considerado tradicionalmente como responsabilidad de la Administración, pero la actual ley del suelo de 2007 (nota* la actual ley del suelo es la aprobada por RDL 7/2015, es un texto refundido que en su mayor parte asume lo contenido en la anterior ley del suelo) en su exposición de motivos[nota 2]​ y articulado establece la eliminación de la iniciativa de la urbanización por parte de los propietarios, a éstos les ha sido despojado ese derecho del contenido del right to land ownership in the new law.[note 3]​.

In the topic at hand, the execution of planning, is a purely urban matter, with which its competence is attributed exclusively to the autonomous communities, as indicated in the constitutional text and in the Constitutional Court Sentence 61/1997"). When the autonomous competence is established, there is a difference in criteria, however, there is an origin in these regulations and institutions that is common, which allows, at this time, a study of all the CCAA from the law urban planning that was common at the time.