Zoning amnesty: You're damned if you write about it, and damned if you don't

Another building has collapsed in Istanbul.

And not in some remote area, either.

It happened in a neighborhood very close to the center.

In Maltepe.

It wasn't even the result of an earthquake.

It just collapsed on its own, with a thud.

The building was constructed around 1987.

Looking at old photos, it doesn't even look particularly ramshackle.

There shouldn't have been any reason for it to suddenly collapse.

And unfortunately, it turned out that 4 additional floors had been added to the building illegally.

While one might think the municipality was asleep or kept in the dark during this attempted murder, it is quite obvious that wasn't the case.

We have heard of illegal penthouses, illegal attics, or an extra illegal floor—often handled under the guise of "we'll fix it with a zoning amnesty" that usually comes up during election times, with the municipalities turning a blind eye—but we have never heard of 4 extra floors.

It is a miracle that this semi-crippled building, which had already received problematic engineering services, didn't collapse until now after having four floors added on top of it.

If there are similar buildings in our country—and it seems there are—they must be evacuated as soon as possible and renewed through an urban transformation model, even if they have obtained licenses and occupancy permits through a zoning amnesty.

Of course, most importantly, an application like the zoning amnesty, which is a zoning monster, should never be brought to the agenda again, though that is not very likely.

As long as migration to Istanbul does not stop—and it doesn't look like it will—the practice called zoning amnesty, which is actually a zoning monster, will not disappear from our agenda.