Chapter 3 – Part four: A central metropolitan block

Land use and density

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Table 8 shows the broad breakdown of the area as between open space, land occupied by buildings and land occupied by roads, the last amounting to 35% of the whole area. A technicality which the reader is invited to understand because it is important to the study is the term plot ratio which is the total floor space divided by the net area of the building plots (i.e. excluding roads). This ratio provides a valuable method of indicating the density of development and is much used in town planning. The existing overall plot ratio for the study area is 4-4, which is a fairly high figure for this kind of development.

Table 8: Areas occupied by the main land uses

Land use	Area (Acres)
Open Space	1
Roads	52
Building Plots	95
Total area	148 acres