Turkey's main regulation with respect to zoning for planned areas, Type Zoning Regulation for Planned Areas ("Old Regulation"), will now be replaced by the new Zoning Regulation for Planned Areas ("Regulation"), published in the Official Gazette of 3 July 2017. The Regulation shall be effective as of 1 October 2017 (except for the Provisional Article 3 which enters into force on the publication date of the Regulation), providing companies with a 3- month adaptation period to adjust their operations and bring them in line with the Regulation.
The Regulation has sparked a certain amount of controversy. Several civil society organizations in Turkey have alleged that the Regulation will cause significant problems for the construction sector and for architects, and that the sector's field experience and practical knowledge were not reflected in the Regulation. Below are some of the most important changes and novelties introduced by the Regulation:
(i) The Regulation sets forth and clarifies the definitions of certain terms that were used in the old Regulation, but lacked a clear definition under the previous law, such as: (1) atrium, (2) yard, and (3) preliminary project ("avan proje" in Turkish).
(ii) One of the most significant changes brought into effect by the Regulation is the abolishment of studio apartments, which are defined as dwellings that consist of one main room and one bathroom. Pursuant to Article 5(25) of the Regulation, every single detached dwelling must consist of at least: (1) one living room, (2) one bedroom, (3) one kitchen or cooking area, (4) one bathroom or washing area, and (5) one toilet. Pursuant to Article 29(1) of the Regulation, the minimum net area of these rooms will be as follows: (1) living room, 12.00 m2; (2) bedroom, 9.00 m2;(3) kitchen or cooking area, 3.30 m2; (4) bathroom, 3.00 m2; (5) toilet, 1.20 m2. Another difference between the Old Regulation and the Regulation is that, pursuant to the Article 29(4) of the Regulation, if the built-in kitchen and the living room and the bathroom and the toilet area are designated to occupy the same space, then the size of that space must be at least equal to the sum of the minimum area requirements set forth for each individual room.
(iii) Previously, nurseries , playgrounds and child-care units whose total area was less than 750 m2 and which did not have a commercial purpose, would not be included in the calculation of the floor area ("emsal" in Turkish), as long as such nurseries and childcare units did not exceed 5% of the total floor area. With the Regulation, only up to 75 m2 of nursery areas and child-care units which (i) do not have a commercial purpose, and (ii) are situated in basement or ground floors, will be excluded from the calculation of the floor area. The Regulation has imposed similar restrictions on other specific areas, such as leisure facilities or prayer rooms.
While the representatives of various stakeholder groups deemed this change to be restrictive and not beneficial to the public, the government has argued that this revision was necessary in order to prevent businesses from circumventing the law by including prayer rooms, balconies, etc., in their project plans, and thus extending the area on which they could build their houses. Furthermore, the Regulation declares that the sum of all such areas that are excluded from the floor- area calculation, but that are nevertheless allowed in the zoning regulations, cannot exceed 30% of the total floor area of the plot.
(iv) According to the Regulation, a project contract signed with the project owner should include a provision with regard to the transfer of the copyright of the intellectual and artistic work related to the project. If there is no project contract or there is no such provision in the contract, then the project owner will be deemed to have waived his copyright regarding the intellectual and artistic work, pursuant to the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works No. 5846.
This article was first published in Legal Insights Quarterly by ELIG, Attorneys-at-Law in September 2017. A link to the full Legal Insight Quarterly may be found here
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