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Height restriction laws are laws that restrict the maximum height of structures.

There are a variety of reasons for these measures. Some restrictions limit the height of new buildings so as not to block views of an older work decreed to be important landmark by a government. For example, In the Tsarist Russian capital of Saint Petersburg, buildings cannot be taller than the Winter Palace.

Other restrictions are because of practical concern, such as around airports to prevent any danger to flight safety.

Asia

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.

Indonesia

In Bali, Indonesia, a building cannot be higher than a palm tree, which is about 20 meters. The only building that is higher than a palm tree is the Bali Beach Hotel because the hotel was built before the height restriction was announced. How much this is enforced is in question.

Singapore

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore permits buildings to be constructed only up to a maximum height of 280 metres due to the proximity of Changi Airport.

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 such as not to block the view towards the Parthenon. There are several exceptions though such as the Athens Tower, the Atrina center and the OTE central building which exceed that level. This is due to them being either built far away from the centre or the fact that they were constructed in periods of political instability. The city's tallest structure is the Athens Tower reaching 103m and counting 25 floors.

There is however a height restriction for new onshore wind turbines in the European Union, which set their total height to 200 metres ( http://www.energiekeuze.nl/nieuws.aspx?id=954 ).

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 (Transport Canada) near airports. Some examples:

• Edmonton: due to the proximity of the city centre airport, the federal aviation authority, Transport Canada, mandates that all buildings be lower than 815.34 metres (2,675.0 ft) above mean sea level. This effectively limits the maximum height to around 150 metres (490 ft) in the downtown.
• Montreal: until the late 1920s, all buildings were limited to 10 stories. Currently buildings are limited to a height of 120 meters and are subject to allowing the view of Mount Royal, the city's central green space, with the only exception being antennas and communication towers, that are allowed to reach 223 metres (732 ft) above mean sea level. The downtown hence possesses only two buildings exceeding 120 m (the CIBC tower and the Bursary tower), all of them below 200 m.
• Ottawa-Gatineau: Until 1973, buildings in downtown Ottawa were limited to 45.5 metres (149 ft) so that the Peace Tower, part of the parliament buildings, could dominate the skyline.
• Saskatoon: continues to limit building heights to a maximum of 76 meters due to a flight path that bisects the downtown core, however, the recent proposal of a 90 - 100 meter tower could potentially lead to the lifting of this height limit.
• Vancouver: maintains "view corridors" that protect views of the North Shore Mountains. It also has a density bank that allows developers to exceed maximum building height restrictions in exchange for preserving heritage buildings.
• Whitehorse: No buildings should be taller than four stories due to the nearby fault line. The Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce said that maintaining the height restriction of four stories would discourage businesses from coming to the city. On 2007, the city rejected the proposal to increase the height limit to eight stories. In order to exceed height limit, the developer would have to apply for an amendment to the city's official community plan.

Most of Canada's tallest buildings are located in three cities: Toronto, Calgary and Montreal.

United States

Both the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have a rebuttable presumption not to build any antennae over 2,000 ft above ground level. This is to prevent those structures from being a hazard to air navigation.

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 (taller than 100 metres) far away from airports. Height restriction laws are not always kept strictly.

Local level

There are also some locales where no building may be higher than a designated building. An example is in Madison, Wisconsin, where no building located within one mile of the Wisconsin State Capitol may be higher than it.

References

1. Terterov, Marat. Investing in St Petersburg. GMB Publishing Ltd, 2005, pg. 132.
2. HKIP's Position on Building Height Restrictions for Kwun Tong and Kowloon Bay Business Areas
3. Sanur - Indonesia images
4. Bali Apartments And The Evolving Bali Real Estate Market
5. Discover Singapore: The City's History & Culture Redefined By Susan Tsang, Edward Hendricks; ISBN 981-261-365-X, 9789812613653
6. "Edmonton City Centre Airport" (PDF). City of Edmonton. 2008-06-18. Retrieved 2011-01-21.
7. http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=city&lng=3&id=montreal-canada
8. Ottawa - Student World Book
9. http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=9f6fe694-d619-44e3-a7d3-c3b78be6b95e&sponsor=
10. http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=63198
11. http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/COMMSVCS/Guidelines/H005.pdf
12. "Whitehorse puts brakes on highrise rule change". CBC News. 2007-04-24.
13. Antenna Tower Lighting and Marking Requirements
14. 1989 WISCONSIN ACT 222

External links

• FCC policy statement concerning tower heights near airports

• Statutory law
• Urban studies and planning