On 6 July 2011, the Ministerial Regulation Regarding City Planning of Phuket Province (2011) (the “MR”) was issued and took effect under the Town and City Planning Act (1975) (the “Act”). The MR divides land in Phuket Province into sixteen distinct land use zones, each with a designated principal purpose. Each zone further regulates that intended use — for example, by specifying what percentage of a plot may be used for the principal purpose versus how much must be preserved as open space. Note that where a zone is cut off or separated from another part of the same zone by a different zone type, the divided portions are designated as sub-zones.
The MR replaced the previous Ministerial Regulation Regarding City Planning of Phuket Province (2005) (the “Previous MR”). The most significant changes introduced by the MR are summarized below:
1. Full provincial coverage, including coastal waters. For the first time, all of Phuket Province — including its coastal waters and offshore islands — falls under the Act and is regulated by the MR; the Previous MR did not extend this far. Phuket Province’s boundaries reach just a few meters offshore to the north, approximately ten kilometers offshore to the east, approximately twenty kilometers offshore to the west, and as far as approximately fifty-five kilometers to the south.
2. Modest zoning shifts. The amount of land zoned principally for residential purposes has increased slightly, as has land designated for rural and agricultural use, forestry reservation, and environmental preservation.
3. Three new zones. The MR adds three zones not present among the Previous MR’s thirteen zones, with the following principal purposes:
- (a) Open spaces for environmental protection, tourism, and fisheries;
- (b) Open spaces for recreation and coastline environmental protection; and
- (c) Natural resources and coastline environmental conservation.
4. A new approach to “other use” allowances. Under the Previous MR, land use for any purpose other than a zone’s principal intended purpose was capped as a percentage of each individual plot within that zone. Under the MR, this cap is now calculated as a percentage of the total land within each sub-zone, with no limitation applied to any single plot. Note that in the three newly added zones described above, no allowance exists at all for any use other than the zone’s primary designated purpose.
For example, under the Previous MR, land in the “Forestry Reservation” zone — which covers a significant percentage of Phuket — was meant primarily for agriculture or agriculture-related activities, residence, tourism, government offices, and public utilities. With some qualification, up to 50% of any individual land plot in that zone could be used for other permissible purposes.
Under the MR, Forestry Reservation land remains designated primarily for those same purposes, but now only up to 5% of the total land within any sub-zone of that zone may be used for any other lawful purpose.
This means a landowner or lessee could, in principle, use up to 100% of their own plot(s) within the Forestry Reservation zone for other purposes — but once 5% of the land within that sub-zone has collectively been used for “other permissible purposes” by anyone, no further landowner or lessee within that sub-zone may use their land for anything other than agriculture, residence, tourism, government offices, or public utilities.
This new sub-zone-wide cap effectively makes “other use” allowances a first-come-first-served matter. Since it opens the possibility of using most or even all of one’s land for such other purposes, it may well create a rush among landowners in some areas to secure building permits before the 5% threshold is reached.