CORE GROUP ON HOUSING RECOMMENDATIONS

ISSUES IN GREEN FIELD PROJECTS- Inclusionary Zoning  25% of FSI in every new housing project-layout of size over 2000 sq. m., will be reserved for EWS/LIG housing through appropriate legal stipulations and spatial incentives. If project-layout is on land less than 4000sq. m, constructing separate buildings for public and private components shall not be insisted.  Comments:This proposal was accepted by the Hon’ble Chief Minister. The actual implementation and relevant details were to be worked up by the Secretary Housing in consultation with the UD Department. This would be treated as public housing and its construction free of FSI. The units are handed over to MHADA at construction cost which sells them transparently  Comments: The disposal of these houses was recommended to be done through MHADA and it was left to the Secretary Housing to discuss if some of them could be used for rental purposes also.  To avoid subdivision of land, developers are levied a fee if they do projects smaller than 2000 sq mt. The fee goes into an Infrastructure Fund that goes to MHADA or MMRDA to build Affordable Housing stock. The fee levied should be such that it makes subdivision of land the unattractive alternative.

ISSUES IN GREEN FIELD PROJECTS- Addressing the Land Crunch  In Greater Mumbai sq. kms. of land are under NDZ( BMC information). Need to identify developable NDZ lands, prepare master plan and put it to use for creating affordable and rental housing  If legally permissible, allow lands exempted U/s 20 of ULC Act to be used for affordable/rental housing schemes. Restrictions on areas designated as Special Residential Zones (SRZ) in VVMC, U2 Zone in Panvel/other parts of MMR to be relaxed for Affordable Housing Schemes.  Appoint Group to study large tracts of sub-optimally used land that can be used for Affordable Housing like BEST, Salt Pan, Port Trust.  Necessary efforts to use Salt Pan lands for Rental and 2.5 MHADA schemes. To examine the possibility of invoking something similar to Private Forest Acquisition Act by which all salt Pan Lands, at one stroke, can vest with Govt.  An independent High level Arbitration Body (Settlement Commission) to be set up for out of court settlement of Lands under litigation with the condition that such lands would be exclusively used for affordable and/or rental housing schemes  Comments: Affordable housing was recommended to be constructed on land by freeing spaces in bus depots, land held by railways and non-operational port trust lands.  A group was agreed to be set up to identify land that is currently NDZ, U2, SRZ, Salt pans, etc.  A court or a commission is to be set up to look at cases stuck in the Urban Ceiling Act, a group was also to be set up to give recommendation to the land related policies.

ISSUES RELATED TO PROCEDURAL SIMPLIFICATION & REGULATION  TRANSPARENCY OF DCRs/GRs/GOs Put ALL DCR rules on the web along with clear mention of laws governing regular FSI and free FSI. Also publish all the GOs/GRs related to land zoning and construction. This will reduce the cost of doing business, benefits of which get passed on to customers.  AUTOMATIC NA: Lands earmarked for residential/commercial use in Development Plans/Regional Plans should be deemed to be Non-Agricultural and capitalized NA charges can be collected by ULBs at the time of giving Building Proposal approval.  SINGLE WINDOW APPROVAL: Housing projects totally devoted to creating private affordable housing should be given time bound approval, under a single window, by the Planning authority.  REGULATORY AUTHORITY: A real estate regulatory body needs to be set up under MOFA at the earliest. Comment: Simplification of procedures for approval were to be further analyzed by the UDD and the Housing Dept. and made public as early as possible.

ISSUES IN BROWN-FIELD PROJECTS- Slum Redevelopment  Need to prepare cluster wise master plan covering all the slums in the city by a public authority, preferably the Planning Authority, like SRA for Mumbai and ULBs for other cities. Time frame 6 months to 1 year.  To finalize policy to tackle post cut-off-date slum dwellers. Free housing scheme for post cut-off- date dwellers to be discontinued.  To fix a time frame for slum dwellers’ consent and right to choose developer.  The scheme in the present form generates 269 sq. ft. free rehab tenements and the free sale component which cannot be termed affordable housing. The scheme should have flexibility to generate public affordable housing as well as private/public rental housing.  To set up a small group headed by an individual acquainted with the problems of urbanization and urban housing as well as extant law, which could suggest amendments to existing legislation/regulation, to make existing policy more transparent, sustainable & regulated.  Comments: Portion of land field was also to be used for rehabilitation of pre 1995 slum dwellers. The SRA schemes were also recommended to be of or max structures. The cluster developments were also to be co-ordinated and a separate authority was decided to be created for overlooking this project ward-wise and in the ward specific area-wise

ISSUES IN BROWN-FIELD PROJECTS- Urban Renewal  Need to prepare cluster wise master plan covering all the cessed buildings in the city by a public authority within 6 months to 1 year.  To fix a time frame by which tenant/occupants will have the right of giving consent or choosing their developer.  The scheme in the present form generates 300 sq. ft. free rehab tenements and the free sale component which cannot be termed affordable housing. The scheme should have flexibility to generate public affordable housing as well as private/public rental housing.  To set up a small group headed by an individual acquainted with the problems of urbanization and urban housing as well as extant law, which could suggest amendments to existing DCR Sub- Sections under Section 33 to make existing policy more transparent, sustainable & regulated.  Comments: As of now approval for redevelopment of cessed building with an FSI of 3 was approved but it was recommended that a cluster-wsie master plan for cessed building and a fixed time frame for the landlord and the tenents to chooses a developer must be adhered to make this proposal viable. A separate authority was also recommended to be created for this.

WAY FORWARD-Recap  Inclusionary zoning for Green Field developments ACTION: UDD  MHADA 2.5 FSI scheme and MMRDA Rental scheme to be activated ACTION: UDD  Set up Group to identify land that is currently NDZ, U2, SRZ that can be converted to R- Zone land with FSI 1.5 that can be used for Affordable Housing in MMR  Set up Group that can identify land for Affordable Housing that is available with different agencies in MMR like BEST  O & M agency for managing Rental housing ACTION: MMRDA  Procedural simplification – Automatic NA, Single Window approval, all rules on web ACTION: R&FD, UDD  Utilizing NDZ, BEST, Salt Pan, SRZ, Exempted ULC, Port Trust lands ACTION: UDD

WAY FORWARD-Recap  Arbitration mechanism (Settlement Commission) for freeing lands under litigation ACTION: UDD, R&FD  Set up Expert group to suggest amendments to existing legislation/regulation, to make existing policy more transparent, sustainable & regulated. ACTION: HOUSING  Urban renewal & Slum-free cluster planning ACTION: MHADA, SRA  Set up Real Estate Regulatory authority under MOFA ACTION: HOUSING