Religious activities should be conducted at sites that are specially designated for worship. These sites are zoned “Place of Worship” in the Master Plan.
Commercial developments zoned "Commercial" in the Master Plan are intended to provide spaces to support secular, economic activities that serve people from all segments of our society. Exclusive use of commercial developments for religious purposes would constitute a material change of use and is not in line with the planning intention for commercial developments.
However, religious use on a non-exclusive and limited basis may be considered on a case-by-case basis if such use is not likely to cause disturbances such as noise, parking or traffic problems.
To ensure that commercial uses remain the predominant use within sites zoned Commercial, the following set of guidelines are put in place to guide the non-exclusive and limited use of commercial spaces for religious purposes:
If a religious organisation intends to use commercial premises for religious activities on a regular and non adhoc basis, it will need to provide information regarding the nature and frequency of use, size of the premises etc, using the attached template (Appendix 1) to URA for consideration. If the use is allowed, the property owner and the religious organisation will then need to submit a joint Letter of Undertaking (Appendix 2) to abide by the conditions.