Administrative Actions in Zoning and Expropriation | İzmir

What we do in this area

Zoning plans, land readjustment (parselasyon) acts, building permits and demolition orders, as well as public interest and expropriation decisions, are administrative acts; actions against them are heard by the administrative courts. In these files the office conducts the administrative court process: preparing the objection during public display, calculating the filing period according to the type of act, filing the action for annulment, requesting a stay of execution, the site inspection and court-appointed expert stage, and following the implementation of the annulment judgment.

Matters heard by the civil courts, such as the value of the property and the determination of compensation, are covered on the expropriation page; actions for de facto expropriation without process arising from physical interference are heard by the civil courts, and compensation claims for legal interference (hukuki el atma) within Additional Article 1 of Law No. 2942 are also heard by the civil courts; annulment of the underlying administrative act remains within administrative jurisdiction, and both are dealt with on the same page. The substantive law side of plan, permit and building acts is covered on the zoning law page. This page is a subtopic of the administrative law section and deals only with administrative court procedure.

Common types of file

Act	Nature	Start of the filing period
Zoning plan and plan amendment	Regulatory act	End of the display period or refusal of the display objection (Art. 8 of Law No. 3194, Art. 7 and Art. 11 İYUK)
Land readjustment (land and plot regulation)	Individual act	Notification (Art. 18 of Law No. 3194)
Building permit, construction stop order, demolition order	Individual act	Notification or learning of the act
Public interest decision and expropriation decision	Individual act	Notice under Art. 10 served by the civil court of first instance; thirty days (Art. 14 of Law No. 2942)
Urgent expropriation decision	Presidential decision	Notification or publication; expedited procedure, thirty days (Art. 20/A İYUK); heard at first instance by the Council of State (Art. 24 of Law No. 2575)
Implementing act based on a plan	Individual act	Notification of the implementing act; the plan may be challenged together with it (Art. 7/4 İYUK)

How the process works

After approval, zoning plans are put on public display for one month; objections made during the display period are examined and decided by the relevant administration within fifteen days (Art. 8/b of Law No. 3194). The display objection is an application within the meaning of Article 11 İYUK and suspends the filing period; when the objection is refused or left unanswered within the waiting period, the action is filed within the remaining period. Failure to object during the display period does not extinguish the right of action; the plan may be challenged within sixty days of the end of the display period, or together with an implementing act based on the plan when such an act is made (Art. 7/4 İYUK).

The court reviews the plan against urban planning principles, planning rules and the public interest criterion. This review is usually carried out through a site inspection and a court-appointed expert examination; a panel of a city planner, a survey engineer and an architect reports on the reasons for the plan amendment, its consistency with the higher scale plan, and the balance between population density and social and technical infrastructure areas.

In an action against a land readjustment act, the calculation of the readjustment share (düzenleme ortaklık payı), whether allocation was made from the location of the former parcel as far as possible, and the lawfulness of the share distribution are reviewed; since the act is individual, the period starts with notification. For acts that produce results upon enforcement, such as demolition orders and construction stop orders, the request for a stay of execution is submitted together with the petition (Art. 27 İYUK).

In expropriation, the owner may file an action for annulment before the administrative courts against the public interest decision and the expropriation act within thirty days of the notice served by the civil court of first instance under Article 10 of Law No. 2942 in the action for determination of compensation and registration (or, where notice cannot be served, from the newspaper announcement made by the court) (Art. 14); the administration's invitation to negotiate (Art. 8) does not start this period. If an action is filed before the administrative courts and a stay of execution is granted, the action for determination of compensation and registration before the civil court of first instance treats the administrative case as a preliminary issue (bekletici mesele) and proceeds according to its outcome (Art. 10 of Law No. 2942). Actions against urgent expropriation decisions taken by Presidential decision (Art. 27) are filed at first instance before the Council of State (Danıştay) (Art. 24 of the Council of State Law No. 2575) and are subject to the expedited procedure (Art. 20/A İYUK): the filing period is thirty days, an application to the higher authority does not suspend the period, and the decision on a stay of execution cannot be objected to.

Time limits and points to watch

In plan cases, interest is interpreted broadly in the practice of the Council of State: owners of property within the plan area, owners of neighbouring parcels and the relevant professional chambers may bring an action. When a plan is annulled, implementing acts based on it lose their legal basis; the administration reassesses these acts as required by the judgment (Art. 28 İYUK). In actions against zoning plans and land readjustment acts, cassation appeal (temyiz) lies against the regional administrative court's decision (Art. 46 İYUK).

How we work

The office determines on the first day of the file whether the act is regulatory or individual and when the time limit starts; the display announcement, the plan sheet and plan notes are gathered together with the notification documents. Technical objections are prepared before the site inspection and the report is checked for consistency with the plan hierarchy. In expropriation files the administrative case and the compensation action are scheduled together, and the stay of execution decision is submitted to the compensation action. Our working method is described on the how we work page.

FREQUENTLY ASKED

What people ask about this area

I did not object during the display period, can I still challenge the plan?

Yes. The display objection is not a condition of the action; the plan may be challenged directly within sixty days of the end of the display period. If this period has also passed, the plan may be challenged together with an implementing act based on it (such as refusal of a permit, land readjustment or a demolition order) when that act is notified (Article 7/4 of the Administrative Procedure Code, İYUK). If a display objection has been made, the filing period is suspended and resumes where it left off when the objection is refused or left unanswered.

If I file an action for annulment against the expropriation act, does the compensation action stop?

Not automatically. If a stay of execution is granted in the action for annulment filed before the administrative courts within thirty days and this is notified to the civil court of first instance, the action for determination of compensation and registration treats the administrative case as a preliminary issue (Article 10 of Law No. 2942). If the request for a stay of execution is refused, the compensation action continues; for this reason the two files are scheduled together. The case before the administrative courts is heard with priority (Art. 14).

A demolition order has been notified, does the demolition stop if I file an action?

Filing an action does not by itself stop the enforcement of the act; a stay of execution is requested together with the petition (Article 27 of the Administrative Procedure Code, İYUK). The court requires both clear unlawfulness and damage that is difficult to remedy; since an annulment judgment given after the demolition has been carried out does not bring the building back, the condition of damage difficult to remedy is assessed specifically in these acts, while clear unlawfulness must be shown concretely in the petition. The decision is as a rule given after the administration's defence has been received; a refusal may be objected to within seven days.

My share was moved to another parcel as a result of land readjustment, which court hears the action?

Land readjustment (Article 18 of Law No. 3194) is an administrative act; an action for annulment against it is filed before the administrative court within sixty days of notification. The action reviews the calculation of the readjustment share, whether allocation was made from the location of the former parcel, and the share distribution. Disputes concerning the land registry record after readjustment, however, are heard by the civil courts; the two routes are distinguished at the start of the file.

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