The road ahead for Common Zoning Regulations (CZR) will be a bumpy one as over 4,000 petitions have been submitted by citizen groups across the city objecting to the draft regulations that will pave the way for commercial establishments to be set up on roads as narrow as 30 feet.
Monday was the last date for submission of objections to the draft regulations that will apply across the State. The regulations have drawn much ire from RWAs and citizens’ groups who are already fighting reckless commercialisation of residential areas in Bengaluru.
L. Shashikumar, Director, Town Planning, said that the 4,000-odd objections were signed by several thousand people, as each petition had signatures of a group of citizens. “The objections will be compiled and placed before a committee that will evaluate the objections and recommend measures, based on which the cabinet will take the final call,” he said.
A delegation of citizens’ groups and several RWAs met Bengaluru Development and Town Planning Minister K.J. George to present their objections to the CZR and shared their concerns about the havoc it will wreak on residential colonies.
Vijayan Menon, Citizen Action Forum (CAF), said that the meeting was cordial and the minister gave them a patient hearing for over two hours while they argued that the zoning regulations of the city should be decided by the Revised Master Plan – 2031, which is in the pipeline. “The master plan is a ground up process and that should dictate the zoning regulations for a city, not the other way round,” he said.
C.N. Kumar, who fought a protracted legal battle against zoning regulations of RMP 2015, hoped that the meeting would have a positive outcome.
Mr. George was non-committal told The Hindu that the draft was put in the public domain to ensure a debate around CZR, which he said would streamline licencing in the State. “We have received over 4,000 objections, but the business community had expressed concerns about the current zoning regulations and they welcome the CZR. We will hold further discussions with all stake-holders before taking a decision,” he said.
Sources in the citizen groups said they had responded to the call for objections to the draft regulations and were building a paper trail. “If the State government implements the CZR in the existing form, we will be left with no option but to challenge it in court,” a senior activist said.
