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4. Existing non-conformity |
The word "existing non-conformity" means that a current building, which was previously legal, does not accord with the current standard because the regulations, such as the Building Standards Law have been revised since it was built.
A building should be constructed in accordance with rules provided in the Building Standards Law. For example, a building site is required to have a contact with a length of 2 or more meters with a road having a width of 4 or more meters, and the building area on the first story should be generally less than 60% of the total area of the building site (which ratio is designated as building coverage) in a residential zoning.
The Building Standards Law has been revised several times as concepts of safety and the residential environment varied depending upon the era. The current Building Standards Law is based on the revision enforced in 1970. Through this revision, the dimension of a building, which had been restricted by a height limit, was changed to be restricted by a floor-area ratio. Before the revision, a building having a height of 20 meters (corresponding to approximately seven stories) could be constructed in a residential zoning. Therefore, when the building coverage is assumed to be 60%, in a building site with an area of 500 m2, a building having a building area of 500 x 0.6 x 7 = 2,100 m2 could be constructed. Such a building has a floor-area ratio of 420%, which largely exceeds the current restriction in the floor-area ratio, which is limited to 100 through 200% in a residential zoning.
Such non-conformity is not caused in the floor-area ratio alone. For example, the sunshine regulations were newly added and the setback regulations were altered in 1976, and height zoning altered the height limit. As a result, the height of an existing building can exceed the current height limit.
Also, the regulations with regard to road access were different in constructing old buildings such as prewar row houses. Accordingly, in the inner area that was seriously damaged by the earthquake, a large number of buildings existing before the earthquake had become inconsistent with the current requirements in road contact.
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