Assessing the benefit of form based cade to stakeholders

Abstract

In India, urbanization rate is high and as a result, it is estimated from the growth rate that by 2050, there will be 814 million people living in urban regions. Urban local bodies face challenges in meeting the demands of this expanding population while offering the necessary infrastructure, mobility, transit, affordable housing, and other services. While focusing on supplying essential requirements, there is a lack of attention paid to its built form and surrounding environment. For the controlled development cities in India follows Euclidian Zoning and development control parameter which controls the urban form and development pattern in quantitative aspects. Following this quantitatively controlled development the urban forms developed are more function driven and less in qualitative aspects. To overcome this issues Form-Based Codes are derived from the concept of New Urbanism and turned out to be an effective tool in opposition to the conventional tool for improving the quality of life in urban areas by introducing more predictable built form and public realm. Adhering to this India has also developed Form-Based Code policy Framework in recent years. The adoption of Form-Based Codes is new and challenging for urban bodies. Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation Limited (IRSDC) a SPV of Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) which controls the development on Railway Land has developed the Form-Based Code for the Commercial Development of railway land considering the existing control regulations and Transit orient development (TOD) Policy. Indian Railways, considered to be lifeline of nation and played a major role in the economic development of nation. Cities such as Delhi and Mumbai have public transit commuter populations, as large as 5 million (or more) every day. Railway stations and their surroundings are generally identified as having high potential for development possibilities. Indian Railways has taken an initiative to modernize railway stations for which different revenue generation model is explored. The revenue model of leasing out land for commercial development to private developers will generate revenue for the station’s development. This infill commercial development is controlled by developed FBCs at Sub-Plot level. This Assessing the Benefit of Form-Based Code to stakeholders: A Case of Bijwasan Railway Station, New Delhi 6 development affects different stakeholders i.e., Regulating body, developer, and users. The thesis has made an attempt to adopt the concept of FBC for development of railway station premises after considering best practice across the world. The concept of Local area planning around transit also explored for better understanding of planning aspect to be considered around the transit. Elements of FBC are taken from Manual of Form Based Controls for Station (Re) development and an attempt has been made to validate their significance on the existing built environment of a brownfield study area of New Delhi Railway Station. A detailed documentation of selected area in terms of their existing built form, street patterns and activities, and public spaces has been done through primary surveys and analyzed their influence on urban form at two different level: Zone level and Plot level. The study further explores the case study of MiamiCentral transit area where form-based code was implemented. A comparative analysis was done for the case studies and their outcomes were used to build scenarios. The study concludes with incorporation of FBCs developed scenarios on Bijwasan Railway Station site. These scenarios provide suggestions for the form-based code to achieve the desirable urban built form.