Height restriction laws


Height restriction laws are laws that restrict the maximum height of structures. There are a variety of reasons for these measures. Some restrictions serve aesthetic values, such as blending in with other housing and not obscuring important landmarks. Other restrictions may serve a practical purpose, such as height restrictions around airports for flight safety. Height restriction laws for housing have become a source of contention by restricting housing supply, increasing housing costs, and depressing land values.

Asia

China

New building regulations that came in force in 2020, limited the height of buildings on cities depending on population in China. Cities with less than 3million population cannot have structures rising above ; cities with populations greater than 3million can have buildings up to a height of.
Buildings are capped at on the Shenzhen Bay area due to its proximity to Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport. A similar height restriction also applies in Wuhan, with buildings limited to on its central areas due to runway approaches paths to Wuhan Tianhe International Airport crossing it.

Malaysia

Buildings in the Petaling Jaya suburb of Kelana Jaya were previously capped at 15 floors because of the close proximity to Subang International Airport, less than away. The height restriction was lifted in 1998 when commercial jet operations were relocated to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, and this saw higher buildings being erected, notably the 33-floor Ascent and New World Hotel towers at Paradigm Mall.

Middle East

and Jordan inherited laws from the days of the British Mandate that prevent buildings from rising more than four stories above the ground except by special government permission. In Amman, these regulations have been credited with maintaining the city's architectural and urban heritage, but have also been accused of inflating housing prices and causing unsustainable urban sprawl.

Myanmar

Most of the tallest buildings are located in Yangon where zoning regulations restrict the maximum height of buildings to above sea level, in order to prevent buildings from overtaking the Shwedagon Pagoda. The first ever attempt to build a skyscraper in the country—a tower in downtown Yangon faced intense opposition by local conservationists and was cancelled in 2014.

Philippines

A structural height restriction applies to buildings within Intramuros, Manila, where most structures cannot be higher than from street level, and towers cannot exceed.
Davao City's zoning ordinance as of 2019 imposes a height restriction on buildings in its central area due to its proximity to Francisco Bangoy International Airport, with buildings not allowed to exceed above mean sea level.

Hong Kong

To protect the ridge line along Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon, height restrictions are imposed according to the location of the buildings or structures.
Prior to the 1998 closure of the Kai Tak Airport, many places in Kowloon had a stricter building height restriction due to its proximity to the airport.

Indonesia

In Bali, Indonesia, a building cannot be taller than a coconut tree, which is about. The only building that is higher than a coconut tree is the Bali Beach Hotel because the hotel was built before the height restriction was announced. The restriction was enforced by a regional regulation, however, how much this is enforced is in question.

Singapore

Buildings in Raffles Place, Marina Centre, Marina Bay Sands, Bugis and Kallang have height restrictions of up to because of the proximity of Paya Lebar Air Base until 2030 as planned.

Europe

In Europe, there is no official general law restricting the height of structures. There are however height restriction laws in many cities, often aimed to protect historic skylines.
In Athens, buildings are not allowed to surpass twelve floors so as not to block views of the Parthenon. There are several exceptions though, such as the Athens Tower, the Atrina center and the OTE central building which all exceed that level. This is due to them either being built far away from the centre, or to the fact that they were constructed during periods of political instability. The city's tallest structure is the Athens Tower, reaching and comprising 25 floors.
In the central area of Rome, delimited by the Aurelian Walls, no building can exceed the height of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. A skyscraper called Torre Eurosky, built in 2012 in EUR neighbourhood exceeds this limit being high.
There is however a height restriction for new onshore wind turbines in the European Union, which set their total height to.

North America

Canada

Canada has no national height restrictions, but many individual cities do have height restriction bylaws and building is restricted by the national aviation authority near airports. Some examples:

United States

Both the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Communications Commission have a rebuttable presumption not to build any antennae over above ground level. This is to prevent those structures from being a hazard to air navigation. In recent years, the FAA has requested that height limits within of an airport runway be lowered from to, as development near airports has increased.
For airports, sometimes there are exceptions for height restrictions made for important infrastructure equipment, as radio towers or for structures older than the airport. These structures have to be marked with red and white paint, have flight safety lamps on top, or both. Often red and white paint and flight safety lamps have to be installed on high structures far away from airports. Height restriction laws are not always kept strictly.
Several cities in the United States have local height limits, for example: