NEW REGULATION TO REGISTER THE ANOMALOUS CONSTRUCTIONS AND FINANCE URBAN REGENERATION PROJECTS IN TURKEY: DEVELOPMENT PEACE

In the past year a brand new term, Development Peace, has been introduced by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization of Turkey (MEUT) to register the constructions contrary to development and finance urban regeneration activities. Development Peace has been announced as a regulation in order to establish agreement between the owners of the irregular constructions and the government by providing Construction Registration Deed (CRD) on condition that a certain payment must be made based on the property value. The irregular properties except those constructed on private land and on public land reserved for social facilities will benefit from the regulation. Development Peace covers all kinds of constructions that are not in accordance with the Development Law. In May 18th, 2018 a temporary article explaining this new regulation has been added to the Development Law No. 3194 in Turkey. The anomalous constructions are not a newly discovered problem in Turkey and come from the past. The MEUT has taken the initiative and offered a solution for the majority of the buildings in Turkey. The Development Peace, in addition to its many benefits for the people owning irregular properties, will support urban regeneration projects with the income collected through its implementation. While the government forgives the citizens involved in illegitimacy, the law abiding citizens might be demoralized as the formers are getting rewarded. Development Peace-like regulations might have a pitfall such as encouraging the people that have tendency to violate laws. Therefore, the government should take precautions instead of authorizing irregular constructions. On the other hand, this new regulation covers all kinds of constructions no matter how resilient they are against natural hazards (esp. earthquakes), which is the other flawed side of the regulation.