Urban Land Use Classification - A comparative review of UDPFI guidelines 1996 and URDPFI Guidelines 2015

Urban Land Use Classification A comparative review of UDPFI guidelines 1996 and URDPFI Guidelines 2015 Poonam Prakash* 1. Introduction Land use plan is an essential part of town planning practice in India. Every city in their comprehensive/development plans provides a land use plan classifying the parcels of land based on the categorisation of function as defined in the master plan document. In India mostly this classification is based on the predominant function for which the land is used like manufacturing. Usually, this classification is in two level or three levels defined as use category, use zone and use premise. Following permissive zoning, this classification system usually allowed for permissibility of certain premises of related activities within the zone, for example convenience shopping area or school in a residential zone, but usually these activities so far were not mixed at the premise level. The predominant use of land continued to be residential. Over the last few years, there has been a demand for increased permissibility at the premise level. This can be seen in the demand for retail shops, nursing homes, daycare centers etc. in the residential plots. It can also be seen in the way the discussion on ‘transit oriented development’ is being conceptualized. It advocates premises without setbacks and high floor area ration which will contain mix of office, commercial and residential buildings with the same premise in such a manner that it might be difficult to define the predominant function of such lands. This poses a major challenge to function based land use classification system. In this context it is useful to revisit the land use classification system that is being followed. This paper reviews the land use classification guidelines of the Urban and Regional Plans Formulation and Implementation Guidelines (URDPFI). Next section briefly looks at the purpose of land use classification historically. Through comparison of the 1996 and 2015 guidelines, section three, four and five highlights the major changes proposed and main issues in classification system, use category and use zones. In 1996, based on the recommendations of the national seminar on ‘Master Plan Approach: its efficacy and alternatives’, a research study was awarded by the Ministry of Urban Affairs and employment to the Centre for Research Documentation and Training (CRDT) of the Institute of Town Planners India for the preparation of Urban Development Plan Formulation and Implementation guidelines. One of the aspects amongst the four terms of reference for this study was “efficient implementation mechanism and innovative techniques for promotion of planned spatio-economic development of urban areas.” (UDPFI, 1996). As part of this the report included ‘Development Promotion Regulations’ as part of the annexures. This included land use classification system Almost two decades later the Ministry of Urban Development decided to revise these guidelines through a private consultant. Recently these guidelines have been placed on the website of the Ministry of Urban Development as Urban and Regional Plans Formulation and Implementation Guidelines (URDPFI). Amongst the sixteen points in the terms of reference given in the Request for Proposal document of the revision one was “to suggest the new set of Norms and Standards, Zoning Regulations including integrated development of peri-urban areas which are easily comprehensible and user-friendly” (URDPFI, 2015). Previously part of annexures, the section on Development Promotion Regulations is now part of the main report as chapter 9. 2. Purpose of land use classification Land use classifications have been more the product of expediency than of rigorous thought (Guttenberg, 2002). This is perhaps also true of the way classification system has evolved in the Indian context. There is no systematic study in the Indian context of the manner in which different city plans have classified land uses. The fundamental purpose and principles of

                                                                                                                *  Associate  Professor,  Department  of  Physical  Planning,  School  of  Planning  and  Architecture,  New  Delhi  

classification have not really been explicitly articulated in any of the debates and discussions on classification. UDPFI guidelines act as a reference for many of the small and medium towns and is completely silent on the issues of principles guiding such classification thereby making it less likely for it to be followed. Historically in the United States, the purpose of land use classification was based on criteria of land suitability or conservation of resources, particularly water or to resolve clash between industrial and residential interests (Guttenberg, 2002). In Europe interest in land use classification has its basis in classifying agricultural land with a purpose to recover prices after the World War and also for soil conservation. So far, activities were considered to be the major organizing principles of classification e.g. shopping, parking etc. However, fundamental questions on land use and land use classification began to be asked more seriously in 1950s because of wave of suburbanization in the US. The complexity of land use classification was highlighted in the article by Guttenberg (1959) where he introduced the concept of multiple land use classification system. According to him land use can refer to buildings or other improvements on the land e.g. developed or undeveloped, to the occupants or users of the land for e.g. public facilities or community centre, to the major function of the occupancy of the land manufacturing or recreational, or to the kind of activities on the land office activity or shopping activity. To develop the system he introduced five aspects; development type, building type, activity, function and effect. Effect was in terms of scale of activity, visual effect, nuisance effect in terms of noise, traffic or other pollution (Guttenberg, 2002) 3. Broad system of Land Use Classification In the Indian context, preparation of Delhi Master Plan with involvement of Ford Foundation apparently brought similar classification system to India in 1957. Significant detailing was added to this system in the revision of the plan in 2001. This system was based on three level classification of Use Category, Use Zone and Use Premise. Permissible activity within the premise was provided and permissibility of each premise with the use zone was given. The UDPFI guidelines 1996 drew heavily from the Delhi Master Plan; however, it restricted it to two level classification of Use Category and Use Zones. It further detailed out activities permitted, restricted and prohibited. This detailing out of activity was done surprisingly for each use category and not use zone. For example if the commercial use category had three use zones; retail, general business district center and wholesale then the list of permitted activities did not distinguish between these zones. It also did not explain the basis of difference between these zones. The principles governing the relationship between the use zones and activities also remained open and unarticulated. Figure 1. Land Use Classification System in Delhi Master Plan 2001 and UDPFI 1996 and URDPFI 2015 Use Category

Use Category

Activities*

Use Zone

Use Zone

Use Premise

*Except for mix use zone for no other use zone activities are separately distinguished

Activities Delhi Master Plan 2001

UDPFI 1996 and URDPFI 2015

4. Classification of Use Categories In the two guidelines, the use categories have changed from eight to ten (Table 1). An examination of the initial eight categories given in 1996 begins to reveal the complexity of the classification particularly in the Indian context. Considering that the classification is primarily based on function, one can see that categories number 4 - public and semi public, number 7- Agricultural and water bodies and number 8 - special area are the odd ones as these are not functions. Public and Semi Public as a category primarily states the nature of activity and ownership as in semi-public under which many functions like health, education, security etc. are grouped. In agricultural and water bodies, water bodies are not a function but a physical feature on which agriculture as an activity would usually be dependent. Special area simply is an area requiring development regulations different from rest of the city and is not a functional category. The recent guidelines further complicate this categorisation by introducing two new categories and change the nomenclature of two categories. The two new categories are Mixed Use and Protective and Undevelopable Use Zone. Mix use is not a functional category. Introduction of this category is possibly in response to the issue discussed earlier of demand for increased permissibility at premise level. Protective and Undevelopable as a category is based on the criteria of land suitability and resource conservation and not on function. This seems to be primarily in response to the increasing environmental concerns. The point however, is that the criteria of this classification is not uniform and exclusive and to address these concerns other aspects of land use as mentioned in section 2 need to be brought in. The other change is the change in nomenclature from Agricultural and water bodies to primary activity and from Manufacturing to Industry. Both the changes broaden the definition. Primary Activity might have been taken from the census classification of primary, secondary and tertiary activity since it also includes mining and extractive industries. Change from manufacturing to industry might cause some confusion and would perhaps need explanation and whether this will be as per the industrial classification of census or some other classification. It could have also been done simply because M as a code now was introduced for Mixed Use Zone. Table 1 Use Categories as given in UDPFI 1996 and URDPFI 2015 1996

5.

2015

N

A-N

Use Zone

1

R

Residential

2

C

Commercial

3

M

4 5

N

A-N

Use Zone

1

R

Residential

2

C

Commercial

Manufacturing

3

I

Industry

PS P

Public and Semi Public Recreational

4 5

PS M

Public and Semi Public Mixed Use

6

T

Transportation and Communication

6

P

Recreational

7

A

Agricultural and Water Bodies

7

T

Transportation and Communication

8

S

Special Area

8

A

Primary Activity

9

E

Protective and Undevelopable Use Zone

10

S

Special Area

Classification of Use Zones Use categories are subdivided in use zones primarily based on the characteristics of the activity and the impact that it will have for example retail commercial and wholesale. However, this hierarchy is usually difficult to follow and most of the land use plans end up showing the broad use categories and only for some uses the plan goes up to the level of use zones as identified. Many a time a use zone and a premise overlap. Following is discussion on selected use zones as identified in the guidelines to highlight some of the issues.

5.1 Residential Use Zones There is not a major change in this classification except that mixed residential zone is removed and placed as a use zone in mixed use category (Table 2). Unplanned/Informal Residential Zone as a use zone is undefined in the guidelines and is also problematic since this is a criterion based on type of development and not the use. If development type is to be the criteria for use zones then all the housing types need to be identified and group housing and plotted then can also not be clubbed together. Usually in a plan which is legally binding, and which plans for all kinds of people and activities it would be rather difficult to show “unplanned/informal housing”. Such a use zone then leads to a substantial question i.e. for whom is the plan catering to?

Table 2 : Use Zones in Residential Category Use Zone (UDPFI 1996) Primary Residential Zone

Use Zone (URDPFI 2015) Primary Residential Zone

Mixed Residential Zone

Unplanned/Informal Residential Zone

Unplanned/Informal Residential Zone This paper is not discussing the activities separately, but it needs to be highlighted that the removal of use premise as a level makes it open for all kinds of activities permissible to be mixed in all kinds of ways thereby making the category of mixed use zone redundant. 5.2 Commercial Use Zones The guidelines continue to follow the previous three use zones, retail, business and wholesale (Table 3). In most of the land use plans in India, one hardly ever sees a sharp distinction between retail shopping zone and general business and Commercial district Centre as separate use zones. The reason being that it is difficult to classify such separate distinction particularly when there is no difference in terms of activities permitted or facilities provided. For example would Connaught Place in Delhi be considered a retail shopping zone or commercial district center? While the characteristics of retail shopping zone and business district are very different but in the land use plans these are usually shown as commercial. Many a times as in case of Delhi with its hierarchy of District Centre and Community Centre these are often mixed. Again drawing from an example of Delhi, Nehru Place planned as office cum retail space has emerged as a major wholesale hub for textile and computers. Since the nature of space required for this kind of wholesale was very different from other wholesale markets proposed in the city. The guidelines have also introduced two new use zones namely ‘service sector’ and Regulated/Informal/Weekly Market. These two as use zones are simply incomprehensible. The later will usually be too small to be demarcated at city level. One assumes that service sector here implies activities like barber, photocopier, parlour etc. Whether such activities should be classified as separate use zone is questionable.

Table 3 : Use Zones in Commercial Category Use Zone (UDPFI 1996)

Use Zone (URDPFI 2015)

Retail Shopping Zone

Retail Shopping Zone

General Business and Commercial District Centre

General Business and Commercial District Centre

Wholesale, Godowns, Warehousing/Regulated Markets

Wholesale, Godowns, Warehousing/Regulated Markets Service Sector Regulated/Informal/Weekly Markets

5.3 Mixed Use In each period of technological change, the nature and purpose for which land is required also requires a revisit. During the period of industrialization there was a need for certain kind of spaces as well as protection from the impact of industrial activity. Similarly, the information and communication technology is also bringing in changes, which require certain kind of spaces and protection from its impact. Issues of sustainability as well as requirement of particularly the white collared worker in the IT sector, entry of foreign retail brands is creating a demand for spaces which is different from that of an industrial society. Traditionally Indian cities organized in such manner where residential and commercial activities on the same premise existed and maintained a work-home relationship. In planning, this relationship was acknowledged through permissibility of shop cum flat or residential-cum-work plot. As far as land use classification is concerned, Delhi continues to consider commercial activity within the residential area as a permissibility condition in a predominant residential use and not as a land use category as is being proposed in these guidelines. The mixed-use areas envisaged now in response to the technological change mentioned above are basically those, which allow for multiple uses at premise level and at high floor area ratio. It need not necessarily have a work-home relationship. It need not also be those activities, which are related to the predominant use of the area. Classification of such zones in the city is now one of the major challenges to the function as an organizing principle for classification In these zones particularly the planned ones, the development regulations will operate very differently from other areas For example in Delhi, an influence zone of 500m on either side of metro corridor is being envisaged as something very similar to this mix use. This is likely to cover almost one fourth of Delhi, if not more. The proposed guidelines provide three use zones for this category and this is the only category in which activities are defined for each use zone. However, the threshold to maintain the predominance of use shown is very similar to what would be achieved in residential, industrial and commercial use zone since it is defining it in terms of land area. The guidelines provide no clarity on the development regulations for mixed use unlike for other use categories. Table 4 : Use Zones in Mixed Use Mixed Use Mixed Industrial Use Zone Mixed Residential Zone Mixed Commercial Zone

5.4 Use Zones other than residential, commercial and mixed use There are very minor changes proposed in the use zones for industry, public and semi public and transport and communication (Table 5). A similar issue of overlapping can be seen in the initial industrial classification of 1996, which is continued in 2015. The first two categories are based on the scale and type of industry whereas the third one is based on the impact of the industry. In the public and semi public, police station has been introduced as a separate use zone whereas cremation and burial grounds though requiring very different locational attributes has been clubbed with socio-cultural and religious. In agriculture, which is now named as primary activity, horticulture has been added as a use zone clubbed with forest. In special area are use zones, are classified, and based on very different criteria like visual appeal or historicity. Village settlements have been removed from this in 2015 for some reason. Protective and undevelopable area is a category defining the development status. 6

Conclusions This paper highlights the complexity of developing a classification system in planning and challenges that are posed by the larger changes in society on the organizing principle of the current classification system. It therefore merits more serious debate and discussion, since it forms the ontological basis of the planning profession. This debate needs to define function with greater clarity and principles on the basis of which activities are being grouped together under a certain function. The classification system also needs to provide more relational understanding of use of land with aspects like natural resources, land suitability, development type and impact in a more comprehensive manner. The distinction between zones classified based on the suitability of development and between zones based on the classification of function should be clarified. The guidelines of 2015 continue to largely repeat the 1996 system and adds very little in terms of simplicity and clarity. It actually adds more categories and use zones. Implications of removing use premise as a level of detail can only be judged through studying the practices of different cities. Introduction of mix use as a category is a very weak attempt to deal with the issues posed by the larger changes in the society. The guidelines on land use classification need to address the fundamental questions of the nature and extent of change in activities due to globalization and technological changes otherwise it will have a very limited application in practice.

References Delhi Development Authority (1990) Master Plan for Delhi 2001, Ministry of Urban Development, Delhi. Dickinson.G.C.and M.G.Shaw (1977) “What is ‘land use’?” in Area, Vol.9, No.1 pp.38-42 Guttenberg A.Z. (1959) “Multidimensional Land Use Classification System,” Journal of American Planners Association, Vol 25, p.143-150. Guttenberg, A.Z (2002) “Multidimensional Land Use Classification and How it Evolved: Reflections on Methodological Innovations in Planning,” Journal of Planning History, Volume 1, No.4, p.311-324. Town and Country Planning Organisation (1996) Urban Development Plan Formulation and Implementation (UDPFI) Guidelines 1996, TCPO, Delhi. Town and Country Planning Organisation (2015) Urban and Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation (URDPFI) Guidelines 2015, TCPO, Delhi.

Table 5 : Use Zones other than residential, commercial and mixed use as given in UDPFI 1996 and URDPFI 2015 Use Zone Use Zone (UDPFI 1996) Use Zone (URDPFI 2015) Manufacturing/Industry

Public and Semi Public

Recreational

Transportation and Communication

Agricultural and Water Bodies/ Primary Activity

Service and Light Industry

Service and Light Industry

Extensive and Heavy Industry

Extensive and Heavy Industry

Special Industrial Zone Hazaroudous, Noxious and Chemical Govt/Semi Govt./Public Offices

Special Industrial Zone Hazaroudous, Noxious and Chemical Govt/Semi Govt./Public Offices

Govt. Land Use(Use undetermined)

Govt. Land Use(Use undetermined)

Education and Research

Police Headquarter/Station, Police Line

Medical and Health

Education and Research

Socio Cultural and Religious

Medical and Health

Utilities and Services Cremation and Burial Ground

Socio Cultural and Religious (including cremation and burial grounds) Utilities and Services

Playground/Stadium/Sports Complex

Playground/Stadium/Sports Complex

Parks and Gardens-Public Open Space

Parks and Gardens-Public Open Space

Special Recreational Zone- Restricted Open Spaces Multi-open Space (Maidan)

Multi-open Space (Maidan)

Roads

Roads/BRTS

Railways

Railways/MRTS

Airport

Airport

Seaports and Dockyards

Seaports and Dockyards

Bus Depot/Truck Terminals and Freight Complexes Transmission and Communication

Bus Depot/Truck Terminals and Freight Complexes Transmission and Communication

Agriculture

Agriculture

Forest

Forest and Horticulture

Poutry and Dairy Farming

Poutry and Dairy Farming

Rural Settlements

Rural Settlements

Brick Kiln and Extractive Areas

Brick Kiln and Extractive Areas

Water Bodies Special Area

Old Built up (Core Area)

Old Built up (Core Area)

Heritage and Conservation Area

Heritage and Conservation Area

Scenic Value Area

Scenic Value Area

Village Settlement

Government Restricted Area (such as defence) Other Uses/spot zone

Other Uses Protective and Undevelopable Use Zone

Water Bodies

Special Recreation Zone/Protective Areas such as sanctuaries/reserve forests and Ecosensivitve Zone Undevelopable Use Zone