The new Zoning Regulation for Planned Areas ("Regulation") was published in the Official Gazette of July 3, 2017, and it abolished the Type Zoning Regulation for Planned Areas ("Abolished Regulation"), which had been in force for over thirty years. The enforcement date of the Regulation was established (and announced) as October 1, 2017. However, not long after the Regulation's publication, the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization published the Regulation Amending the Regulation ("Amendment Regulation") on September 30, 2017.

The Amendment Regulation has amended a total of 14 articles in the Regulation right before its enforcement date. Below is the outline of the remarkable last-minute changes made to the Regulation:

  1. Definition of "atrium" under Article 4 has been changed. The distance between the edges of an atrium has been decreased to 3 meters (from 5 meters).
  2. Under Article 5 of the Regulation, the areas that will be excluded from the calculation of the floor-area ratio ("emsal" in Turkish) have been amended. For instance, 100 square meters of common-area playgrounds for children and child-care units with non-commercial purposes will not be included in the calculation of the floor area.
  3. Under Article 20 of the Regulation, the areas that will be excluded from the calculation of the footprint ratio ("taban alanı" in Turkish) have been amended. Water cisterns, gray water collection pools, parking lots, bunker and installation areas, and fuel and water reservoirs that are completely under the soil have been removed from the exclusion list.
  4. Under Article 22 of the Regulation, the list of areas that will be excluded from the calculation of the flat-area ratio ("kat alanı" in Turkish) has been amended. For non-residential uses, a total area of 200 square meters consisting of prayer rooms and outbuildings considered as common areas, have been removed from the exclusion list.
  5. Article 54(10) of the Regulation has been removed from the scope of the Article. The removed section read as follows: "The construction of buildings that are under construction in line with their construction permits shall be ceased if the plan is not complied with. The construction of buildings that can be preserved in their current or modified states as per the new zoning plan (to be prepared provided that the cancellation grounds included in the court decision are taken into account) will be allowed. As to buildings that cannot be protected, their licenses shall be annulled and the parts constructed in accordance with the licenses and annex projects prior to the stoppage of the construction shall be considered under the scope of the acquired rights."
  6. Provisional Article 3 has also been amended. As per the amendment, the licensing process of non-licensed buildings that are subject to a risk assessment or are classified as being in a risk area and whose construction agreements are signed before a Notary Public by at least two-thirds of the owners before enforcement of the Regulation, will be finalized according to the Abolished Regulation, if requested. Furthermore, pursuant to the amendment made to Provisional Article 3, construction license applications for buildings that are under construction and that were licensed before the enforcement of the Regulation, will be processed and finalized according to the Abolished Regulation, if requested.

As per Article 15 of the Amendment Regulation, the foregoing changes made in Provisional Article 3 will be deemed effective as of July 3, 2017, whereas all other amendments will be deemed effective as of October 1, 2017.

This article was first published in Legal Insights Quarterly by ELIG, Attorneys-at-Law in December 2017. A link to the full Legal Insight Quarterly may be found here.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.