Lake Drive, Colombo 8 is a neighbourhood bordering the Royal Colombo Golf Club. The surrounding area is home to a number of high-rise apartments, including Royal Park — one of Colombo’s oldest large-scale condominiums.
Residents of this highly-desirable neighbourhood are raising concerns over a proposed apartment building planned disturbing the functionality and environment of the area.
The newly-proposed apartment development project by a well-known land development company is to be erected at Lake Drive. Current residents of the neighbourhood have written to the Urban Development Authority (UDA) formally objecting to the 12-storey apartment block.
Residents up in arms
A letter signed by 47 residents has pointed out that the proposed site is located on a historically reclaimed marshland with unstable soil, high water tables, and low bearing capacity. They claim that a high-rise would require complex ground improvements.
Building on such land poses structural concerns as it would affect the foundation stability of neighbouring houses, causing structural damage due to ground vibration and shifting. “Construction with deep piling in this terrain can seriously affect nearby properties,” the letter notes.
Furthermore, they claim that the area functions as an ‘important’ drainage basin during heavy rainfall and that the construction could risk flooding and cause damage to the surrounding area.
The neighbours have also raised concerns over the proposed settlement increasing the traffic in the area, affecting the one-lane bridge which is the only connector to Lake Gardens, which is “structurally weak and not designed to handle heavy or increased traffic volumes”.
They also note that the area has high potential for flooding and that this new project will create drainage complications and challenges with sewage disposal.
UDA PPC received
According to a UDA Acting Deputy Director General, who was aware of the project and wanted to remain anonymous, only a Preliminary Planning Clearance (PPC) has been obtained by the developer. According to him, this clearance is not to be considered an approval.
“We have given the PPC to the level we can for the relevant zone. What we have given is not an approval but a signal that we can give our approval if they obtain relevant approvals from other entities.”
Lake Drive, Colombo 8 falls under a special primary residential zone in the City of Colombo Development Plan. While the area remains largely residential, the UDA official said that there are no height restrictions placed on buildings. Instead, he said that the maximum number of floors such a building could have was determined upon the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of the property to be built on.
FAR is a measurement that calculates the density of a building in relation to the land it occupies. The number is obtained by dividing the total floor area of all storeys of a building by the total area of the plot of land.
The UDA official said that the developer in question had been given the floor area ratio they had to maintain in the development and that the UDA would be accountable for the PPC it had issued.
However, information on the exact number of floors cleared by the UDA for this development could not be obtained at the time of going to print.
More approvals needed
Approvals from entities such as the National Building Research Organization (NBRO), Central Environmental Authority (CEA) Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), and Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) for drainage, waste disposal, and fire, as well as relevant electricity and water supply approvals are to be obtained. Following these approvals, the UDA considers the project for its final approval.
The developer’s website has advertised apartments from this 64-unit project to be reserved. When asked, the UDA official said that while the sale of apartments was not possible without further approvals, companies tend to sign sales and purchase agreements with clients.
“They cannot sell these apartments even if they get UDA approval without a provisional approval of the Condominium Management Authority (CMA). Many companies enter into a sales and purchase agreement with clients. We cannot take any responsibility for that.”
When contacted by The Sunday Morning, CMA General Manager M.T.K. Priyantha said that buyers should ensure that the condominium seller was in possession of a preliminary CMA approval at the time of reservation.
He did not have information at the time of contact to confirm whether this approval had been obtained by the developer in question.
NBRO stance
Meanwhile, it is learnt that the proposed apartment development project is yet to seek clearance from the NBRO. NBRO Human Settlements Planning and Training Division Scientist Dr. Dhanushka Jayathilaka said that they had not received the project for clearance yet.
When a developer approaches the NBRO, they are asked to provide a geo-technical investigation report. This report details factors such as the location of the bedrock, the level of the water table, and the condition of the soil.
According to Dr. Jayathilaka, the nature of the required construction depends upon the ground conditions of the plot, which tend to vary from one plot to another regardless of how closely they are situated. Because of this, he said that no general assumptions could be made on ground conditions in a certain area.
“If you take the ground conditions in your premises, for instance, it is difficult to assume that the ground conditions of your neighbour are going to be the same,” he noted.
It is only upon studying the geo-technical investigation report that the specifications for the foundation and substructure design are decided. Dr. Jayathilaka said that if bedrock was found and if piling could be done, anything could be built. However, he said that he could not comment on the specific case yet because the investigations had not taken place.
Despite multiple attempts to get in touch with the management of the developer concerned for their plans and responses to neighbourhood concerns – over the phone and in person – no comment was received in time for print.
The Central Environmental Authority Environmental Impact Assessment Unit Director was not available for comment.
Design considerations
According to Chartered Architect Azam Huq who has been involved in multiple apartment projects with other developers, when architects design apartments, considerations such as the distance to be kept from the road and neighbouring lands, fire safety, and ventilation are taken into account while engineers pay careful attention to aspects like flooding and drainage.
Although structures can ‘technically’ be built on any location, he said that there were practical limitations due to cost and contractor capabilities. “From a structural point of view, you can build on nearly any condition. But to do it properly, the cost will be high.”
However, he expressed his reservations about building on marshland: “Purely from an environmental perspective, I do not agree on filling marshland and building on it, but this is something that has been happening for years. There are three really tall towers in Rajagiriya built on marshland.”
Different standards
Experts note that the application of different standards has been observed when it comes to high-end housing projects.
Colombo Urban Lab Founder and Director Iromi Perera observed that people who had been living in the marshlands along Buthgamuwa road, Rajagiriya had been dispossessed of their lands due to the area becoming a reservation. However, she said that private developers had been allowed to build apartments on these same lands.
“There are different standards upheld for apartments versus housing,” she asserted.
Environmental concerns
From the work her organisation has been doing with the fishing community in that area whose livelihoods depend on the lake, she has observed that ever since these apartments came up, flooding had increased. “Piling deep into the ground has altered the ecosystem that is there to bring balance to nature.”
Perera stressed the need for proper guardrails to make sure that the ecosystem and wetland are protected: “These wetlands are like a sponge, it’s what prevents it from flooding.”
According to her, many such projects have not shown a balance between nature and development. She also raised concerns about Environmental Impact Assessments in Sri Lanka needing to improve, as she considered them “hollow”.
With emerging climate change concerns, she pointed towards the need for constructions to be climate resilient: “Cities are becoming hotter and air quality is an issue. They are just building and adding more concrete to the environment, with no thoughts on carbon footprint, and placing a lot of people in a small space.”
Perera highlighted the importance of carrying out consultations with the people of the area when launching big development projects in existing neighborhoods.
Amid issues such as the drop in water pressure due to pumps pulling water upwards to the high-rise apartments and the increase in vehicles to be parked along the neighbourhood roads with the increase in residents, she noted that speaking to neighbours would allow a better understanding of concerns that impact assessments may fail to capture.