According to city planning, areas in the city are defined by color to notice proper utilization of the area which affects plans to invest because we can check that the watched area is proper to develop something or not. So, color zoning is separated into 10 colors to control the way of usage of the land as follows:

  • Yellow : Low-density residence area
  • Orange : Mid-density residence area
  • Brown : High-density residence area
  • Red : Commercial area
  • Purple : Industrial area
  • Light purple : Warehouse area
  • White with the frame and green oblique line : Rural and agricultural area conservation
  • Green : Rural and agricultural area
  • Light Brown : Conservation area for conserving Thai culture
  • Blue : Official place and public utility area

That means you are not allowed to develop the land in a way that conflicts with zoning, such as establishing an industrial factory that pollutes the air in the yellow zone area, which is a residential area. You will have the approval to build the factory in a purple zone area only.

In addition, city planning also tries to control density, building mass and the empty space of cities to prevent buildings that are dangerous and not suited for the local topography, which affects investment in terms of architecture, height, number of stories and other such factors, divided as follows:

Floor Area Ratio (FAR) means the ratio of total building area, including all stories of a building per land area that the building is located on. It is meant to control the building area to conform to the purpose of land usage and to make density consistent with public utility services and public assistance.

Open Space Ratio (OSR) means ratio of empty space where there’s no buildings located. Defined to have the open space that suits the building area. Also, open space must be an area that water soaks into not over 50% of total space in order to solve the flood and be a green area.

Minimum Lot Size means the smallest size of land allocation to prevent crowding in a community and to preserve the surrounding land.

Height means the distance from street level to the ceiling of the top floor. Defined to preserve the surrounding and city view.

Set Back means distance from the land edge to buildings where there is open space. This has the purpose of preserving surroundings, city views and privacy.

When you know the meaning of color zoning, you can plan to build the building successfully. You can check the color zoning from the Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning.

Credit : Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning.