Height restriction laws are laws that restrict the maximum height of structures. There are a variety of reasons for these measures. Some restrictions serve aesthetic values, such as blending in with other housing and not obscuring important landmarks. Other restrictions may serve a practical purpose, such as height restrictions around airports for flight safety. [1] Height restriction laws for housing have become a source of contention by restricting housing supply, increasing housing costs, and depressing land values. [1]
New building regulations that came in force in 2020 limited the height of buildings on cities depending on population in China. Cities with less than 3 million population cannot have structures rising above 250 m (820 ft); cities with populations greater than 3 million can have buildings up to a height of 500 m (1,600 ft).
Buildings are capped at 400 m (1,300 ft) on the Shenzhen Bay area due to its proximity to Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport. A similar height restriction also applies in Wuhan, with buildings limited to 476 m (1,562 ft) on its central areas due to runway approaches paths to Wuhan Tianhe International Airport crossing it.
Buildings in the Petaling Jaya suburb of Kelana Jaya were previously capped at 15 floors (around 50–60 m (160–200 ft) in height) because of the close proximity to Subang International Airport, less than 5 km (3.1 mi) away. The height restriction was lifted in 1998 when commercial jet operations were relocated to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, and this saw higher buildings being erected, notably the 33-floor Ascent and New World Hotel towers at Paradigm Mall (the tallest in the area today, with heights of around 150 m (490 ft)).
Israel and Jordan inherited laws from the days of the British Mandate that prevent buildings from rising more than four stories above the ground except by special government permission. In Amman, these regulations have been credited with maintaining the city's architectural and urban heritage, but have also been accused of inflating housing prices and causing unsustainable urban sprawl. [2]
Most of the tallest buildings are located in Yangon where zoning regulations restrict the maximum height of buildings to 127 meters (417 feet) above sea level, [3] in order to prevent buildings from overtaking the Shwedagon Pagoda. The first ever attempt to build a skyscraper in the country—a 195-meter (640-foot) tower in downtown Yangon faced intense opposition by local conservationists and was cancelled in 2014.
A structural height restriction applies to buildings within Intramuros, Manila, where most structures cannot be higher than 30 m (98 ft) from street level, and towers cannot exceed 35 m (115 ft).
Davao City's zoning ordinance as of 2019 imposes a height restriction on buildings in its central area due to its proximity to Francisco Bangoy International Airport, with buildings not allowed to exceed 100 m (330 ft) above mean sea level. [4]
To protect the ridge line along Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon, height restrictions are imposed according to the location of the buildings or structures. [5]
Prior to the 1998 closure of the Kai Tak Airport, many places in Kowloon had a stricter building height restriction due to its proximity to the airport.
In Bali, Indonesia, a building cannot be taller than a coconut tree, which is about 15 meters. [6] [7] [8] The only building that is higher than a coconut tree is the Bali Beach Hotel because the hotel was built before the height restriction was announced. [9] The restriction was enforced by a regional regulation, however, how much this is enforced is in question. [10]
Buildings in Raffles Place, Marina Centre, Marina Bay Sands, Bugis and Kallang have height restrictions of up to 280 m (920 ft) because of the proximity of Paya Lebar Air Base until 2030 as planned. [11]
In Europe, there is no official general law restricting the height of structures. There are however height restriction laws in many cities, often aimed to protect historic skylines.
In Athens, buildings are not allowed to surpass twelve floors so as not to block views of the Parthenon. There are several exceptions though, such as the Athens Tower, the Atrina center and the OTE central building which all exceed that level. This is due to them either being built far away from the centre, or to the fact that they were constructed during periods of political instability. The city's tallest structure is the Athens Tower, reaching 103 m (338 ft) and comprising 25 floors.
In the central area of Rome, delimited by the Aurelian Walls, no building can exceed the height of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica (136 m (446 ft)). A skyscraper called Torre Eurosky (Eurosky Tower), built in 2012 in EUR neighbourhood (outside the ban area) exceeds this limit being 155 m (509 ft) high.
There is however a height restriction for new onshore wind turbines in the European Union, which set their total height to 200 metres (660 ft). [12] [ citation needed ]
Canada has no national height restrictions, but many individual cities do have height restriction bylaws and building is restricted by the national aviation authority (Transport Canada) near airports. Some examples:
Both the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have a rebuttable presumption not to build any antennae over 2,000 feet (610 m) above ground level. This is to prevent those structures from being a hazard to air navigation. [20] [21] In recent years, the FAA has requested that height limits within 10,000 feet (3,000 m) of an airport runway be lowered from 250 feet (76 m) to 160 feet (49 m), as development near airports has increased. [22]
For airports, sometimes there are exceptions for height restrictions made for important infrastructure equipment, as radio towers or for structures older than the airport. These structures have to be marked with red and white paint, have flight safety lamps on top, or both. Often red and white paint and flight safety lamps have to be installed on high structures (taller than 100 metres (330 ft)) far away from airports. Height restriction laws are not always kept strictly.[ citation needed ]
Several cities in the United States have local height limits, for example:
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least 100 meters (330 ft) or 150 meters (490 ft) in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise buildings. Historically, the term first referred to buildings with between 10 and 20 stories when these types of buildings began to be constructed in the 1880s. Skyscrapers may host offices, hotels, residential spaces, and retail spaces.
The Columbia Center, formerly named the Bank of America Tower and Columbia Seafirst Center, is a skyscraper in downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. The 76-story structure is the tallest building in the state of Washington, reaching a height of 933 ft (284 m). At the time of its completion, the Columbia Center was the tallest structure on the West Coast; as of 2017, it is the fourth-tallest, behind buildings in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
One America Plaza is the tallest building in San Diego, California and a prominent fixture in the waterfront district of the downtown San Diego skyline. The 34-story, 500 ft (150 m), 623,000 sq ft (57,900 m2), obelisk-shaped tower was designed by Helmut Jahn of Murphy/Jahn Architects and KMA Architecture. The top of the building bears a striking resemblance to the end of a Phillips head screwdriver and has a similar appearance to Two Liberty Place in Philadelphia also designed by Jahn, which is a year older. The building is the maximum height permitted by the US Federal Aviation Administration for a structure in downtown San Diego due to its close proximity to San Diego International Airport.
Panorama Tower is a mixed-use 85-story skyscraper in Miami, Florida, United States. Located in the Brickell district of Downtown Miami, it is the tallest building in Miami, and the tallest building in Florida.
One Bayfront Plaza is a proposed supertall skyscraper in Miami, Florida, U.S. The building, construction of which has been approved, would stand at 1,049 feet (320 m), with 93 floors,[A] becoming the tallest building in Miami and Florida. One Bayfront Plaza would primarily consist of offices and hotel space, but also would include a retail mall, condominiums, and parking garage on the lower levels, as well as possibly an observation deck at the top. The entire project consists of over 1,400,000 square feet (100,000 m2) of Class A office and hotel space, as well as a total building area of over 4,000,000 square feet (371,612 m2) including the large podium. One Bayfront Plaza is the first skyscraper over 1,000 feet (305 m) to be approved for construction in Miami. The building's primary advocate is real estate developer Tibor Hollo, who has won several awards for his 55 years as a developer in Miami, and is currently the president of Florida East Coast Realty.
Salesforce East is a 30-story skyscraper in the South of Market district of San Francisco, California.
The Height of Buildings Act of 1910 was an Act of Congress passed by the 61st United States Congress on June 1, 1910 to limit the height of buildings in the District of Columbia, amending the Height of Buildings Act of 1899. The new height restriction law was more comprehensive than the previous law, and generally restricts building heights along residential streets to 90 feet (27 m), and along commercial corridors to the width of the right-of-way of the street or avenue on which a building fronts, or a maximum of 130 feet (40 m), whichever is shorter.
The Height of Buildings Act of 1899 was a U.S. height restriction law passed by the 55th Congress in response to advancements in construction technology, specifically the use of iron and steel frames, along with thin veneer facades, which made it possible to build lighter, and consequently much taller buildings. Residents of densely populated cities, including Washington D.C., felt that the new technology was untested and steel-framed structures may suffer "serious and fatal defects" due to corrosion from steam pipes and electrical wiring – another relatively recent advancement. They believed that these new tall buildings would ultimately collapse. In an 1899 Senatorial Report, Senator Warren Curtis speculated that, "the life of these structures might not be more than seventy-five years."
The Capitol View Corridors are a series of legal restrictions on construction in Austin, Texas, aimed at preserving protected views of the Texas State Capitol from various points around the city. First established by the Texas Legislature in 1983 and recodified in 2001, the corridors are meant to protect the capitol dome from obstruction by high-rise buildings. While supported by cultural and historical preservation organizations, the corridors have also been criticized for limiting the potential for the development of new tall structures in downtown Austin.