12/28/2024

Lecture 7: Land development

control and management
PLAN 215: Urban Planning Techniques

Prepared by:
Meher Afjun Faria
Lecturer, DURP,BUET.

Niaz Mahmud Zafri

Assistant Professor, DURP, BUET.

Zoning

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3 Definitions of Zoning
 In the town and country planning sense, the word zoning has several applications.
 Zoning may be defined as the regulation of the use of land, the use, area and
height of buildings, and the density of population.
 In the past, uncontrolled development has been responsible for much waste of
health, time, money and space.
 Zoning, if correctly applied, can play a major role in improving and maintaining
the health of community.
 It can lead to substantial economies in the provision of public utility services,
including transportation.
 Zoning cannot speedily cure the sickness of a district that has been allowed to
develop in accordance with the whims of each individual owner, but it can arrest
the complaint and prevent further complications.

4 Type of Zoning

Three types of zoning

▪ Land use zoning
▪ Density zoning
▪ Height zoning

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5 Land Use Zoning

 Land use zoning is the means adopted by the planner to control the
arrangement of the parts of a town.
 Thus it is fundamental in determining the town's future form or pattern.
 There are other equally fundamental aspects of the town plan, especially
transport and drainage, and zoning for land use, therefore, must be
associated with the design of the other basic features of the plan in order
to ensure proper co-ordination of all its aspects.
 In practice, zoning for land use consists of the defining of areas for
residence, for industry, for business and for recreation.

6 Land Use Zoning

 Often these four main classes of use are subdivided: for example, there may be one
class of residential zone for dwelling houses only, another class where flats are
permitted; there may be one class of industrial zone where noxious trades are
excluded, and another class of industrial zone which permits noxious trades and so on.
 Use zoning prevents destruction of amenity in residential areas by the indiscriminate
intrusion of shops and factories, with the resulting traffic, noise and smell.
 If areas are use zoned, the required size of public utilities and the transport needs can
be accurately determined in advance.
 For example, if there is no use zoning a residential area can be, and often is, invaded
by factories or by large flat buildings, as a result much of the earlier expenditure on
(public utilities) is lost, as all mains need to be increased in size to meet the lager
demands.

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7 Land Use Zoning

 If an area is zoned for residence, not only can all public services be correctly designed in
the first place, but the whole layout of the street system of the area may be designed
to restrict the use of the streets to light traffic serving the homes.
 Use zoning enables the proper selection of sites of parks and other community needs,
and facilitates the development of neighborhood structure.
 It ensures that the most suitable areas for factory use are set aside for the purpose,
assisting to reduce production costs.
 Use zoning may be applied to withhold areas from development for example, areas on
the outer fringe of the suburbs, while inner areas are still not fully occupied, by these
means is avoided the need to provide public services to serve only a scattered
population spread out over an area which is better left in rural occupation until
required for urban expansion.

8 Land Use Zoning

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9 Application of Land Use Zoning

 In the application of use zoning to the design of a new town of a known

population, the first step is to ascertain the extent and nature of the areas
required for various purposes.
 In zoning an existing town, the nature of existing land use will to large degree
determine the form of zonıng, and the objective will usually be to accept the
predominant use in an area unless there is some good reason to the contrary,
and to zone accordıngly.
 It has been found in practice that a degree of flexibility is necessary in
specifying use-zoning requirements, in order to avoid hardship when dealing
with unforeseen circumstances.
 In the application of use zoning, it is clearly undesirable to have all residences
in one area, all industries in another area, and all business in a third.

10 Density Zoning

Density zoning is used to control building bulk and thus

density of population in residential areas.
The object of density zoning is the health of occupants
especially in respect of light, fresh air, and absence of
overcrowding.
By limiting population, it facilitates the proper designing of
public utility services and of community services generally.

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11 Application of Density Zoning

 Density zoning is the means used to control density of population in
residential areas in order to prevent overcrowding.
 It is clearly impracticable to limit the number of persons who may occupy
any dwelling unit, and density control can only be achieved indirectly.
 In the case of houses, control may be exercised either by limiting the
number of houses per acre, or by specifying the minimum size of
allotment for each house.
 In addition, in order to ensure that there will be adequate light, air and
space around dwellings it is usual to limit the coverage, i.e., the
proportion of the allotment which may be covered by buildings, and to
require further that the house shall not be built closer than certain
defined distances from the boundaries of the allotment.

12 Application of Density Zoning

 In the case of flats, control of population density may be secured by
limiting the percentage of the allotment that may be built on, specifying
a maximum height, and prescribing certain minimum distances between
boundaries and buildings.
 Another method used relates the total floor area of the building to the
total site area.
 In both cases a maximum permissible coverage must also be specified in
such a way that the permissible percentage of coverage will reduce as
the gross floor area or number of dwelling units increases.
 Great Britain: average no of dwelling units / acre (12 houses/acre)
 Europe and Britain: 8 to 10 houses / acre (common standard)

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13 Height Zoning
 Height zoning is particularly applicable in the central business areas of
cities where by the limitation of height and bulk of buildings it aims at
preventing an undue monopoly of light and air by some buildings at the
expense of others.
 Height zoning can also be used to prevent an undue concentration of
business leading to high land values and excessive traffic congestion in a
small area and in turn causing retarded development and loss of value
in adjacent areas.
 The problems that are created by undue concentration of business
activity can become a serious burden on the whole community.
 Height zoning is also applied to dwellings, particularly residential flats.

14 Height Zoning

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15 Application of Height Zoning

Control of building height is often associated with control of bulk,

volume of the building and with control over its 'coverage’,
proportion of the allotment, ‘set back’ which may be built on.
Control of height of buildings desirable to prevent loss of light
and air by others
Reasonable to fix building heights in relation to street widths as
street width is related to traffic.

16 Application of Height Zoning

Melbourne Metropolitan Town planning Commission, 1929

(Australia and overseas cities):
Melbourne 132 ft
Sydney 150
Brisbane 132
Adelaide 132
Perth No restrictions
London 80
Berlin 72
Paris 65.5

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17 Application of Height Zoning

New York (borough of Manhattan)

% of area Times width of street

7 1.25
63 1.5
27 2
3 2.50

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TAXATION

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19 Taxation

High land value and rapidly rising land value

Taxation policy (Wendt’s model):
Land Value = (Aggregate Gross Revenue - Total Expected
Cost)/Capitalization rate = Net Expected income/
Capitalization rate
If Net income=0, then Land value = 0
By applying appropriate land value tax, the net expected
income may be reduced to any level, and hence the land value
will be reduced accordingly.

20 Taxation

Land speculation and unutilization of land

▪ Land-man ratio
▪ Inflation rate lead to invest on land
▪ Brokers and middlemen
▪ No regular tax on urban land (Khajna 20/- per decimal)
Land value tax reduce profit
Control of land use
▪ Differential tax structure
▪ Tax reduction on desirable land uses
▪ Burdensome tax on undesirable land use

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21 Taxation

Financial return on investment in housing

▪ Investment in housing very low
▪ Burdensome tax on vacant land
▪ Tax reduction on building structure
▪ Intensity of development
Monopoly ownership of urban property
▪ Differential tax structure on the amount of land or house
property
▪ Eliminate unfairness in the distribution of land

22 Taxation

Betterment tax (fee)

▪ Difficult to assess
• Assessment in the increment of land value if no transactions
• Unique character of each plot
• High inflation rate
• Poor land owner
▪ One way to determine land value
• Land owner will declare his/her land value
• Basis for taxation or compensation

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23

Transfer of Development
Right (TDR)

24 Concept of TDR

 Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) is a technique used to permanently

protect land with conservation value by redirecting development that
would otherwise occur on this land to an area planned to accommodate
growth and development.
 TDR is a voluntary, incentive based program that allows landowners to sell
development rights from their land to a developer or other interested party
who then can use these rights to increase the density of development at
another designated location.
 A TDR program protects land resources at the same time providing
additional income/profit to both the landowner and the holder of the
development rights.

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25 Concept of TDR

TDRs mostly aim to achieve at least one of the following -

▪ preservation of historical buildings, landmarks, and
streetscapes in urban areas
▪ protection of farmland and rural areas from development
▪ protection of environmentally sensitive areas from
development
▪ achievement of improvements in urban design and the
quality of urban areas

26 Concept of TDR

 TDRs involve two areas – a sending

area and a receiving area.
▪ Sending zone: The protection zone
where development rights are
separated. It is called a sending zone
because the development rights are
"sent" out of it.
▪ Receiving zone: A zone where a developer buys a right to build more units than
currently permitted in the local zoning ordinance. These zones "receive"
development rights.
 Receiving areas must have the capacity to accept a greater density of
development, and their populations.

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27 Advantages of TDR

In the receiving zone –

▪ zoning is changed to permit more units to be built
▪ opportunity to earn more money from development than
landowners would have received in the absence of the TDR
program
In the sending zone –
▪ financially compensate landowners for choosing not to develop
some or all of their land

28 Advantages of TDR

Funding mechanism – private capital flow (while public

resource/funding is scarce)
Market-based tool : market-determined financial
compensation
Cost effective urban growth
Protect community character, limit sprawl
more diverse and affordable housing options by high
density development

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29 Procedure of TDR

 DR procedures include establishing

what will be used to determine the
number of development credits
received and determining how many
additional units a developer will
receive per credit.
 Certain formula is used to convert
development rights into specific
development credits and also identify
how much to receive for each credit in
the receiving area.

30 Procedure of TDR

Dhaka Metropolitan Area Detailed Area Plan (DAP) 2022-

2035 -
▪ sets guideline regarding who can be the sender and who can
be the receiver
▪ Sets formula for the calculation of the area to sell and taka
required to buy TDR

See DAP 2022-2035 Report, Volume 01, Page 370-374

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31 Successful TDR’s Requirements

Demand for development rights

Governments manipulating demand for TDR
Enforcement of zoning regulation and building code
Increasing growth pressure
Establishing a TDR bank : local government acting as a
middleman (TDR Regulatory Cell in DAP 2022-35)

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Thank You, and

The End

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