High Court Orders BDA to Ensure Realtors Relinquish Dedicated Areas as Per Approved Plans
When realtors create residential developments, they are to abide by a set of rules that determine how much of land is to be set aside for parks, roads and civic amenities and what is to be done with such dedicated area once the development is completed. There is often a conflict of interest between the developer and the owners in the development about the handing over and usage of this.
All these elements are defined in the Bangalore Revised Master Plan 2015 (RMP-2015), under Residential Development Plans (RDP). A RDP is a plan containing a proposal for construction of one (or more) buildings on a plot measuring 20,000 square meters (approximately 5 acres) or higher.
The regulations for RDPs (RMP-2015, Volume III, chapter 6/7) are:
- 10 per cent of the land shall be reserved for Park and Open space. The open space (park) shall be relinquished to the authority free of cost and the same may be allowed to be maintained by the local residents association (registered), if the Authority so desires.
- A minimum 5 per cent of total plot area shall be provided for civic amenities and the owner or developer shall develop such civic amenities which finally shall be handed over to the local residents’ association for maintenance. The mode of such handing over shall be decided by the authority.
- Apart from the provision for amenities and open spaces, the area for residential development shall be up to a maximum of 55 per cent of the total land area.
Case in point
Many a time, the developer does not hand over the park, open space or civic amenities area to the local residents’ association and owners get a rude shock when they see that this area is being used for some other purpose. One example that was handled by the High Court was the Classic Orchards case.
Classic Orchards is a residential layout in Bangalore, located just off the bustling Bannerghatta Road. It is about 70 acres in size and was developed between 1995 and 2006 by M/s Amalgamated Property Developers (APD) of the Valmark Group in two phases – Phase 1 and Phase 2. The residents subsequently formed the Classic Orchards Property Owners Association (COPOA).
The developer, however, did not hand over ownership of the common areas of Phase 1 to the COPOA. Phase 2 of Classic Orchards also was developed in an irregular fashion. After obtaining approval for expansion, APD did not include amenities such as club house in Phase 2. Even areas that were originally demarcated for a park were carved up and sold as plots. Subsequent studies showed that the resultant percentage of land for roads, parks and civic amenities stood at 35 per cent rather than the decreed 45 per cent.
To add to the residents’ woes, APD, through an associate company, in 2010, began construction of a multistoried residential building on the land that had been marked as civic amenities for Classic Orchards. The residents complained to the developer, local police station, BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) and BDA (Bengaluru Development Authority), but no action was taken against the construction. The newly constructed building was called Aastha Valmark. An additional problem was that this new building was built by encroaching on a drain, and this blockage resulted in flooding of Classic Orchards during the rains.
The COPOA filed a civil suit against APD because of these encroachments and irregularities in common areas. Since there was no result, the association filed a Writ Petition in the Karnataka High Court in March, 2014, asking for the developer to give the common areas to BDA and hand over to the association for maintenance. The ruling came in November 2014, stating that BDA or the corporation has to take over responsibility of civic amenities and do what is required.
It is still not clear if the Village Panchayat or BDA or BBMP has final authority over this particular layout. However, the court ruling has made it clear that the BDA needs to follow its own rules in getting developers to relinquish the area set aside for roads, parks and civic amenities to it, for subsequent handing over to the residents’ association. Although the BDA has not yet acted on this, other property owners who are in the same situation can take heart in the court’s ruling in this matter.
Amalgamated Property Developers, BBMP, BDA, Bengaluru Development Authority, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, High Court, Property Owners Associatio
