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Introduction
Zoning has been a customary method of land use control in Saudi Arabia since the late 1930s. It was put into effect by reason of the Law of Roads and Buildings (1937). The Law embodied broad provision for the formulation and enforcement of zoning regulations at the local level, and authorized municipalities to undertake this function (AL HATHLOUL and ANISUR-RAHMAN, 1985). It must be emphasized, however, that zoning in Saudi Arabia is at variance with international practices, particularly American practice which views zoning more of a product of democratic decisions at the local level, than a land use control per se. Hence no attempt is made to draw parallels with respect to the history, socio-political motivation and institutional setting of zoning in Saudi Arabia and other countries as this may depart from the paper's initial objective. The original form of zoning in Saudi Arabia was traditional in that it controlled lot size, permitted use, setbacks, height and bulk of buildings. Subsequent formulations of zoning regulations in various cities, Jeddah being no exception, have not departed significantly from their original form, nor did they incorporate measures to overcome the intrinsic rigidity or inflexibility of zoning that is well documented in the literature (see, for example, COURTNEY,1983; BARNETT,1982; WEAVER and BABCOCK, 1979; and PATTERSON,1979). In Jeddah the classification of zones has been established according to the land use proposals of the current Master Directive Plan which was approved by the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs (MOMRA) in 1981. Its primary intent is to define a proper amount and appropriate location for various uses and restrict the use of land and building by areas designated for residential, commercial, industrial uses, etc. Each use is in turn further broken down into sub-classes. Zoning regulations specify
minimum plot size;
maximum permissible ground coverage;
maximum floor area ratio;
maximum permissible number of floors; and, setback requirements and parking.
No building, structure or land is permitted to be used or occupied except for the purposes which are set out in the zoning regulations. However, a range of uses relative to permitted uses, such as small shops within residential land subdivisions, are discretionary (fig. 1). Zoning is employed in conjunction with:
urban growth boundary (UGB);
land subdivision regulations; and,
building permits.