A quiet conflict has been unfolding just off Sukhumvit on a leafy road bookended by two schools and lined with mid-rise residential buildings, family compounds, and a few businesses.
It’s the kind of slow-burning dispute argued across megacities in the dispassionate language of building codes and due process that belies a deep unease with expansion and development. The locations vary, but the circumstances are similar: Developers see windfall profit in knocking down low-density housing to build something larger only to run into a community’s steadfast distaste for change.
In the case of Soi Sukhumvit 53, it’s two somethings larger. One, a 70-room hotel rising seven floors. Behind it, a 37-story residential tower with 212 units. Although the project is currently on bureaucratic hold, the ultimate outcome may depend on a court’s interpretation of what constitutes…
