What is functional zoning?

Under the Code, functional zoning is the division of territory into functional zones by urban-planning documentation, determining construction and non-construction territories and their use conditions. A functional zone is divided into subzones.

What are the red line and the blue line?

The red line is the development regulation line — an imaginary boundary beyond which a building must be placed; the blue line is the mandatory line on which a building must be placed. A plot may have one or more of each.

Can the development coefficient be exceeded?

The maximum coefficient set by the Basic Provisions may be exceeded on the basis of a detailed plan if it is compensated by other measures, required by special reasons of urban development such as the protection of urban values, does not contradict public interests and does not worsen sanitary-hygienic conditions.

How is a plot's functional zone changed?

If the plot lies within an effective plan, the zone changes only through an amendment to that same plan. Outside the area of any effective urban-planning plan, the construction function is determined under the Code's rules on construction land-use conditions.

Zoning Variances in Tbilisi, Georgia

Zoning Variants: What Functional Zoning Means in Georgia

If you are searching for „zoning variants“, it is important to start with the correct concept: the Spatial Planning, Architecture and Construction Code of Georgia regulates territory through functional zoning — the division of territory into functional zones by urban-planning documentation. The zoning nomenclature of other countries — for instance the so-called Euclidean zoning widespread in the United States — is comparative context only and finds no application in Georgian law. This page explains how the functional-zoning system is built under the Code, through which plans it is fixed, and what that means for your plot.

The definitions article of the Code supplies the key concepts. A functional zone is a regulated area possessing general characteristics, purpose, use, and serving as the subject of specific restrictions; it is divided into subzones of different purposes. Urban-planning zoning is the planning of settled territory for the purpose of defining functional zones and establishing development-regulation parameters. In the definition of use type the Code gives two numerical thresholds: the use type is homogeneous (dominant) if no less than 75 % of the territory is used with identical function, and mixed if more than 25 % of the territory is used with a different function.

Which Lines and Zones Constrain Construction on a Plot

Zoning is not an abstract map — it touches your plot through concrete lines and zones. The development regulation line (red line) is an imaginary boundary set by urban-planning documentation beyond which a building must be placed; a plot may have one or more red lines. The mandatory development line (blue line), conversely, is the boundary on which a building must be placed.

Two additional zones are defined as well: the neighbour-boundary zone is the part of a plot located less than 3 metres from the plot's neighbour boundaries; and the public-boundary zone is a zone of no more than 15 metres in length from the plot's public boundary to the middle line of the adjacent public space, unless the detailed plan establishes a greater distance. These measurements determine where you may build and how densely.

Specially Regulated Territories

The zoning system also has a special regime. Under the Code, by reason of a public, economic, ecological, humanitarian, defense, resort, sport-recreational, cultural or other factor of great importance, a settlement, a municipality or a part of its territory may be granted the status of a specially regulated territory by a legal act of the Government of Georgia.

For such a territory the general plan is approved by the Government of Georgia, while the development plan or detailed development plan is approved by the agency. The Government is empowered to establish special regulatory norms for that territory — different rules for land-use and development regulation or for the drafting of urban-planning documentation — and construction permits on territory holding this status are also issued under special rules. If your plot lies in such a territory, this special regime, not the general rules, governs its zoning questions.

Zoning Variances