Assessing variable f.a.r as a tool for developing inclusionary housing model: a case study of Chennai

Abstract

Spatial expansion and land use transformation to urbanized and/or urban sprawl is one of the major effects of urbanization which emerge as the challenges for providing urban infrastructure and services. Thus many cities in the world uses F.A.R (Floor Area Ratio) as a tool to manage the urban growth. High F.A.R incentives are provided to the desired areas to achieve compact development also it varies from core to periphery. Compact development, mixed-use and highdensity development also results in less carbon foot print and improves the liveability. This thesis explores the ideas behind rationalizing the F.A.R in Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) by considering the infrastructure capacity and housing demand as a prominent factor. Density variation is observed in the wards of GCC, but the city region has uniform F.A.R. Insufficient F.A.R in high dense areas pushes the development to the outskirts. Also, the low land price in the outskirts became another factor for this horizontal settlement growth which makes difficulty in providing infrastructure and urban services for the corporation. The direction of growth pattern of the city region is understood through spatial analysis. The development is observed in the areas surrounded by site and services scheme projects which were implemented by Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB). These housing development is basically through government sector, private sector or in Public Private Partnership. In October 2018, the Tamil Nadu government has passed the GO for increasing residential F.A.R uniformly throughout the state from 1.5 to 2 (varies depends on the road width). Most of the city region does not have infrastructure capacity to cater the population of F.A.R 2 and above. The sale price of housing units are highly affected by this infrastructure availability, demand and development. This shows that if the density and infrastructure varies in a city, the F.A.R should also vary according to cater its demand. There is a need to assess the dependency of land market and infrastructure carefully based on the housing demand for different socio- economic categories in of specific neighbourhood for rationalizing the F.A.R. in the selected areas. This thesis helps to identify the appropriate F.A.R in the selected neighbourhoods for the disaggregated housing model based on the consideration of existing demand from various socio-economic categories in the neighbourhood. It also considers the capacity of infrastructure to cater the population while utilizing the maximum permissible F.A.R. Finally the results will be based on various scenarios in which F.A.R can cater the demand and affordability of socioeconomic categories in that particular neighbourhood.