Perda Gianyar 2/2023 in English: the spatial plan for Ubud and Gianyar

Most of Gianyar is farmland. The 2023 plan says how much of it is protected, where tourism may go, and what an expiring villa permit runs into.

Perda Gianyar 2/2023, the articles a buyer meets

Ubud, Tegallalang, Payangan and Sukawati are in Gianyar. More of the regency is farmland than anything else, and much of what a foreign buyer is shown around Ubud is rice field. The 2023 plan decides which of it is protected, and where tourism may go.

Where things are allowed

Gianyar covers about 36,411 hectares (Gianyar Perda 2/2023 art. 5(3)) in seven districts: Blahbatuh, Gianyar, Payangan, Sukawati, Tampaksiring, Tegallalang and Ubud (Gianyar Perda 2/2023 art. 5(5)).

Sources in the last column. On these figures, farmland is more than half the regency and the tourism zone about a sixteenth — our arithmetic on the plan’s areas. Tampaksiring is the one district with no tourism zone. Food crops, horticulture and plantations are separate zones with separate rules; the “rice field” a listing describes may legally be any of them, or a plantation or settlement plot that happens to be green. The zone name on the KKPR is what counts.

Rice fields around Ubud: what the food-crop rules allow

Protected food farmland is 7,135.27 hectares (Gianyar Perda 2/2023 art. 35(6)) of the food-crop land. A plot shown as a rice-field villa site may be in the food-crop zone, in the protected part of it, or in a settlement or tourism zone next to it; only the map and the detailed plan say which. In neighboring Badung the plan shuts accommodation out of protected farmland entirely (Badung Perda 4/2025 art. 101(4)); Gianyar’s rules for its own zones are in the zoning chapter we have not reproduced here, so check the plot’s KKPR rather than assuming. Checking a plot’s zoning.

The food-crop zone’s own article is direct about building. Housing is allowed there conditionally, and only as only existing residents' housing, not new development or construction (Gianyar Perda 2/2023 art. 67(2)(d)(1)). Conversion of the land to non-farm use is allowed only for the public interest and disaster handling (Gianyar Perda 2/2023 art. 67(2)(b)(2)). Agrotourism, ecotourism and village tourism are directed to be limited and controlled, ecotourism-based, and must keep the existing rice fields and irrigation in and around the plot (Gianyar Perda 2/2023 art. 67(2)(d)(2)). On our reading, a new villa on a rice field in Gianyar’s food-crop zone is not a use the plan contemplates; a small eco-stay that keeps the field working may be, on conditions.

The tourism zone

In the tourism zone, allowed outright are tourism operations and their support, MICE facilities, nature and agro tourism, village tourism, and farming (Gianyar Perda 2/2023 art. 68(a)), and conditionally housing that does not disturb the tourism function, conditionally (Gianyar Perda 2/2023 art. 68(b)(6)). Every accommodation building must carry Balinese architectural character on every accommodation building and tourism facility (Gianyar Perda 2/2023 art. 68(d)(5)) and provide parking of at least 30% of the building's floor area (Gianyar Perda 2/2023 art. 68(d)(6)(b)); in disaster-prone areas, a disaster evacuation point (Gianyar Perda 2/2023 art. 68(d)(6)(a)). Near a temple, buildings are not more than one story, unless using a downward slope from ground level (Gianyar Perda 2/2023 art. 68(d)(7)(d)), with the same buffer distances as the province plan (Bali Perda 2/2023 art. 85(b)(8)(h)).

Height and the coast

Gianyar repeats the island limit: buildings at most 15 meters above the ground (Gianyar Perda 2/2023 art. 56), as the province plan requires (Bali Perda 2/2023 art. 100(2)). Its beach setback is at least 100 meters from the highest tide line (Gianyar Perda 2/2023, elucidation to art. 71(9)).

Villas and permits from before 2023

For a buyer of an existing Ubud villa, the last row is the one to price: renewal is a new KKPR against the 2023 plan, not a formality. Our reading.

How long the plan lasts

The by-law is accompanied by a plan and a map album that form an inseparable part of it (Gianyar Perda 2/2023 art. 85(4)) — the zone of a given plot is on those maps, which are not part of the text we read. The plan runs 20 years, reviewable once in each 5-year period (Gianyar Perda 2/2023 art. 85(1)). It replaced Gianyar Perda 16/2012 (RTRW 2012-2032) (Gianyar Perda 2/2023 art. 87) and was promulgated on 27 February 2023 (Gianyar Perda 2/2023, promulgation block). The province plan. Ubud.

This is commentary on the official text, not legal advice. The plan maps and Gianyar's detailed plans (RDTR) are separate documents not reproduced here.

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