The Development of Town Planning in Cyprus

The Town Planning and Housing Department provides the Ministry of Internal Affairs with technical consulting on urban construction and development of Cypriot regions. After the reorganization, the department will be involved in planning and strategic redesigning, along with the control over future developments. The department will focus on the development, implementation and evaluation of the government’s land usage policy, complex development planning, town construction works and developments’ license issuing. At present, the Parliament has two bills to descry relating to urban planning and transfer of development rights. They aim to activate unused land, as well as to introduce mechanisms for effective town planning. In order to raise public awareness about governmental activities, the local authorities will announce the proposed bill amendments, as well as organize public discussions before processing any proposals to amendments. The modification of the town planning legislation also includes the update of ‘Plan of the Island’ , adopted in 1974, two months before the Turkish invasion, which was originally proposed back in the time of British colonial rule to address the problems associated with population growth, urbanization, and service sector.