BODRUM Municipality has announced that in compliance with a regulation effective as of the March 30 elections, all construction and zoning projects have been temporarily suspended, with the exception of ongoing construction projects that are in compliance with the regulation.

Ten town municipalities on the Bodrum peninsula have been stripped of their designation as municipalities in accordance with a 2012 law that stipulates the incorporation of towns and villages into metropolitan municipalities.

As of the March 30 elections, the Bodrum peninsula has started to function as a single municipal unit.

In a press conference on ongoing construction projects in the region, Bodrum Mayor Mehmet Kocadon said the responsibility of overseeing all ongoing plans and projects in the 10 municipalities have been passed to the municipality.

Furthermore, they have initiated new plans for construction projects in the touristic town and suspended other ventures in an effort to put the municipality’s plans in order.

“We will help investors and residents by establishing a local planning authority before the construction ban [goes into effect] on May 15,” Kocadon said.

In order to prevent unplanned urbanization in the district, Kocadon plans to cooperate with the Muğla Municipality and the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning.

Earlier in February, the Muğla Council of Monuments changed a second-degree environmentally protected zone on Bodrum’s Cape Değirmenler to a third-degree protected zone, thereby providing less protection for the environment and permitting construction in the area.