TÜRKİYE Law and Practice Contributed by: Serkan Gül, Nazım O Kurt and Türkay Avanaş, Hergüner Bilgen Üçer Attorney Partnership
4.2 Legislative and Governmental Controls Applicable to Design, Appearance and Method of Construction Construction permits from the municipality are required for any new construction, refurbishment or major modifications. The construction permit and design documents should be in accord - ance with the legislation and zoning plans. The legislation defines the detailed technical requirements for design documents. Addition - ally, various requirements and restrictions (eg, setback distances, ratio of footprint to parcel area, construction coefficient) are also regulated under zoning plans. Oversight is conducted by the authority issuing the construction permit (eg, the municipality). 4.3 Regulatory Authorities Zoning plans regulate the permitted use and development of individual parcels of real estate. The Ministry of Environment, Urbanism and Cli - mate Change, which also enacts zoning plans in environmental protection sites, enacts environ - mental zoning plans with a scale of 1/100,000. General functions (business, residential, etc) of regions are regulated under environmental zon - ing plans. Municipalities enact zoning plans with a scale of 1/5,000 and 1/1,000 and detailed zoning condi - tions including function restrictions (residential, industrial, etc), setback distances, construction coefficient and maximum height are specified thereunder. Moreover, there are restrictions con - nected to the special status of respective lands (forest, cultural heritage, natural heritage, etc). The Housing Development Administration also exercises planning authority in certain specific government-subsidised housing development zones that are placed under its jurisdiction.
Finally, the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Heritage also exercises its approval authority in tourism and cultural heritage zones. 4.4 Obtaining Entitlements to Develop a New Project The procedure for obtaining entitlements to develop a new project or complete a major refur - bishment is as follows: • an initial application is made to the municipal - ity to obtain a zoning status certificate; • official designs (projects) are prepared by architects and engineers according to the conditions stated in the zoning status certifi - cate; • these official designs (projects) are submitted to the municipality along with other docu - ments required for a construction permit application; and • the municipality approves the official designs (projects) and issues the construction permit. The application procedure generally takes one to three months, depending on the time spent drafting the official designs (projects). Municipal - ities generally issue construction permits within one to three months. Third parties do not directly participate in the construction permit procedure. However, affect - ed third parties may submit an official letter to the municipality for revocation of a construction permit within the scope of the general right of petition. This application does not affect the
validity of the construction permit. 4.5 Right of Appeal Against an Authority’s Decision
Under Turkish law, as a constitutional principle, all administrative decisions are subject to judi - cial review. Thus, an affected party may file an
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