Turkish ministry reduces number of floors allowed in buildings based on width of road

ANKARA - Hürriyet

The Environment and Urbanization Ministry has reduced the number of floors that buildings are allowed to possess depending on the width of the street on which they are constructed. Hürriyet photo

The Environment and Urbanization Ministry has reduced the number of floors that buildings are allowed to possess depending on the width of the street on which they are constructed.

According to amendments the Environment and Urbanization Ministry has made on the Regulation on Zoning for Planned Spaces, buildings constructed on roads 50 meters or wider can have up to 18 floors, except the basement floor, as opposed to 25 floors in the former regulation, while the number of floors buildings constructed on roads 40 meters or wider have been reduced from 20 to 16 floors.

A reduction was also made for buildings built on roads 35 meters or wider, 30 meters or wider and 25 meters or wider, reducing them to 14, 12 and 10 floors, respectively. The limit of two floors for buildings on roads up to seven meters in width and the limit of three-floored houses built on roads wider than seven meters remained unchanged.

Bülent Ercan, general director of the Occupational Services General Directorate, said the amended limits would be used in spaces where there is a zoning plan but no mentioned number of floors. He also said that in such spaces, the limit would be defined according to the width of the road on which the building is located.

“This will affect the spaces where the number of floors has not been defined yet in big cities, but the study we have conducted shows that it will be limited,” Ercan said.

Tahir Tellioğlu, head of the Confederation of the Construction Contractors (İMKON), said dense zoning would be decreased with the new limits.

“It is positive that a limitation has been implemented. This will help prevent high-intensity areas from forming in big cities like Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir. This will also help the urban transformation process, too,” Ercan said, adding that lowering the overall height of the buildings would also help solve infrastructure problems in big cities.