Section 227
In this Part—
“develop” or “development” means to carry out any building, engineering, or other operations in, on, over or under any land, or the making of any material change in the use of any building or land:
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Provided that the following operations or uses of land shall not be deemed for the purposes of this Part to involve development of land:
(a)
the carrying out of works for the maintenance, improvement or other alteration of a building which do not materially affect the external appearance or the floor area of the building;
(b)
the carrying out by any statutory authority of any works required for the maintenance or improvement of a street being works carried out on land within the boundaries of the street;
(c)
the carrying out by any statutory authority of any works for the purpose of laying, inspecting, repairing or renewing any sewers, mains, pipes, cables or other apparatus including the breaking open of any street or other land for that purpose;
(d)
the use of any existing building or land within the curtilage of a dwelling-house for any purpose incidental to the enjoyment of the dwelling-house as such;
(e)
the use of any land for the purposes of agriculture or forestry (including afforestation), and the use for any of those purposes of any building occupied together with the land so used; and for the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared that for the purposes of this Part, the following circumstances shall also constitute material change of use or development:
(i)
the use as two or more separate houses of any building or any part thereof, previously used as a single house;
(ii)
the use as a dwelling-house of any building not originally constructed for human habitation;
(iii)
the use for other purposes of a building or part of a building originally constructed as a dwelling-house;
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(iv)
the demolition of, reconstruction of or addition to a building;
(v)
the alteration in a material degree, to the features or colour scheme or external appearance of a commercial building or a row of shophouses, including but not limited to, the installation of air conditioning plant or equipment, water storage tank or telecommunication equipment and communication towers;
(vi)
the use for the display of advertisements of any external part of a building which is not normally used for that purpose;
(vii)
the erection of any communication towers, religious or cultural purposes on land or building which is not intended for that purpose;
(viii)
the use of any land, including decommissioned oil and gas facilities thereon, for carbon storage or the building, installing and maintaining any carbon storage, or for the deposit, treatment or storage of wastes notwithstanding that the land is comprised of a site already or previously used for that purpose, if the superficial area or the height of the wastes deposit is thereby extended; and
[Sub. Cap. A200/2022]
(ix)
the removal of rock materials to an extent that results in significant alteration to the topography of the land;
“engineering plan” means the plan for works required by the
State Planning Authority under section 232(2), to be undertaken for the provision of roads, drains, footpaths, bridges, car parking spaces, public utilities and other facilities, and reserves, and the term “engineering works” refers to such works;
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“local plan” shall consist of—
(a)
a written statement formulating in such detail as the State Planning Authority thinks appropriate for the proposed development and other use of land in a particular area, or for any description of development or other use of such land, in that area, including such measures as the
Authority thinks fit for the improvement of the physical environment and the management of traffic;
(b)
a map or plan showing the proposals for development or land use for the area; and
(c)
such diagrams, illustrations or other descriptive matter as the Authority thinks appropriate to explain or illustrate the proposals in the plan;
“qualified person” means any person whom the State
Planning Authority shall certify in writing as a person having the requisite professional qualifications or experience to prepare and submit plans for the sub-division or development of land;
“structure plan” shall consist of—
(a)
a written statement formulating the policy and general proposals of the State Planning Authority in respect of the development and other use of land of a town, city or region including measures for the improvement of physical environment and management of traffic;
(b)
a map or plan showing the general proposals for development or land use for the area intended to be covered by the plan; and
(c)
such illustrations or other descriptive matter as the Authority thinks appropriate to explain or illustrate the general proposal in the plan;
“sub-division” means—
(a)
the application to a Superintendent for the issue of a document of title to any part of any land comprised in
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one document of title, or for the partition of any land into two or more parcels;
(b)
the consolidation or amalgamation in one document of title of the areas comprised in two or more subsisting documents of title;
(c)
the delineation on a plan, or the demarcation on the site, of any part or parts of any land with a view to the sale of such part or parts;
(d)
the disposal by the owner by way of sale of any specified part less than the whole of any land comprised in one document of title; or
(e)
the laying out or making of any road, footpath, drain or access-way, or the grant or reservation of any right of way over any land.