The Zoning Law No. 3194 dated 03.05.1985, is the main source of the Turkish Zoning Law. The law regulates which administrations are authorised in terms of zoning and the extent and content of the authorities of such administrations. The main feature of administrative law is the lack of authority; however, the state of being authorised is the exception. Therefore, if it is claimed that an administration is authorised on a certain issue, the relevant legislative provision should be proposed. In this respect, the law gives various administrations the authority to perform regulatory transactions on matters concerning zoning law and the authority to perform individual transactions. At the beginning of these administrations are the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, provincial special administrations, and municipalities. When Law No. 3194 is examined, it can be stated that local administrations are the general authorities, and the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change is the exceptional authority. From this standpoint, it may be brought forward that the authority to make master and implementation development plans that concretely determine the structure of the city rests with local administrations.

However, article 9 of the Law mentions that, the powers of the Ministry are regulated so broadly that it can be asserted that the powers of local administrations are secondary to the authorities of the Ministry. According to this regulation, the Ministry is authorised to change the zoning plans made by local administrations when deemed necessary, as well as to make, have these plans made and approve them ex officio. In addition to this, the Ministry can give instructions to the municipality through the governorship in case of a need to include official buildings and facilities in the zoning plan for the purpose of performing public services, or in case of changes, or making and approving the plan on this issue, and resolving disputes related to zoning plans that concern more than one municipality. While some of the authorities of the Ministry in this regulation are the primary powers given to it, some of them are tutelage powers. In general, the tutelage authority is the control and intervention authority carried out by another administration over the transactions and personnel of an administration with a public legal personality. 

However, the powers in Article 9 are so wide that it may be stated that the Ministry has the opportunity to override the authorities of local administrations on zoning planning. However, giving so much power to the Ministry indicates a departure from the rule of autonomy of local administrations and the principle of subsidiarity. However, it would not be right to think that the authority of the Ministry on Zoning Planning is unlimited. The arrangement itself has some limitations. The Ministry may use its powers in paragraph 1 “when necessary”, “by cooperating when necessary” and “informing the relevant administrations in this way”. Therefore, when applying for this authority, the applicant must meet the conditions set out in the article. There are also other limitations in the article. In addition, in accordance with the rule of the gradual unity of the plans, the Ministry must act in conformity with the upper tier plans when making changes to the plan. Despite this, it is doubtful that these restrictions are insufficient and that the Ministry may see an obstacle in exercising the powers contained in this regulation. On the other hand, in conformity with the principle of parallelism of power and procedure, it may not be possible for the local administration to alter a plan previously made by the Ministry. This means that local administrations cannot use this power. taking away the possibility of the local administration to use this power. In this respect, revealing the content and legal characteristics of the Ministry’s powers in the aforementioned article deems useful.