National Assembly Chairman raises issue of building height in inner city

On the morning of April 22, at the 32nd Session, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on the draft Law on Urban and Rural Planning.

Commenting, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue highly appreciated the preparation and meticulousness of the draft law; the preliminary review report mentioned many issues creating a basis for further perfecting the draft.

National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue commented on the draft Law on Urban and Rural Planning.

Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue expressed his agreement with the approach of this draft law when inheriting the 2009 Urban Planning Law and the rural planning part in the 2014 Construction Law; specifying some contents of the Planning Law.

Along with that, some new issues are added to meet the requirements of urban and rural development in the coming time; difficulties and obstacles are removed in the process of implementing laws; and laws on planning are ensured to be consistent and unified.

The National Assembly Chairman proposed to continue reviewing and specifying more clearly a number of viewpoints and principles stated in the Party's documents.

The first is the relationship between urbanization and new rural construction. “I once said that in reality, some district-level units that have not completed the new rural area are easier to plan to become districts than those that have completed the advanced, model new rural area, because of the criteria involved. Therefore, if a commune becomes a ward, or a district is likely to become a district, the principles and criteria for planning orientation need to be reviewed, and the law should have a few points as principles for future implementation,” Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue noted.

The second is the relationship between urbanization and urban economic development. According to him, if we only talk about urban areas without talking about urban economy, it will be very difficult to manage and develop sustainable urban areas. Therefore, it is necessary to clearly distinguish which parts are included in this law, and which parts in the Urban Development Management Law Project (which is being researched and developed) need to be reviewed and clarified.

Another very important issue, according to the National Assembly Chairman, is that planning must adapt to climate change, so it needs to be reviewed and researched.

The National Assembly Chairman also noted the criteria and standards for urban planning associated with population density and infrastructure, to calculate the balance between urban development in width and compact urban areas according to the TOD model (where there is a high settlement density, small area so mainly development in height and space above - PV).

Regarding the height of the building, he said he had argued many times without knowing. “When working with the Ministry of Construction, I learned that it was due to the issue of flight safety, and no one banned the construction of high-rise buildings in the inner city. The problem is how to handle the relationship between infrastructure and building height. In reality, the Ministry of Construction does not regulate this height, so it is difficult for urban areas to renovate old apartments,” said Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue.

Or about the planning scope, for example, Hoan Kiem district has a planning scope of only 5km2, so according to the population criteria, it must "extract" a lot of people, but then the thinking changed, taking all 4 old inner-city districts (Hoan Kiem, Ba Dinh, Dong Da, Hai Ba Trung) into the overall planning to balance, then the problem of population and infrastructure can be solved.

“So, should the standards and criteria for population density and building height be proposed by planning consultants based on the master plan and not be rigidly regulated? Hong Kong (China) and Singapore are full of skyscrapers,” said Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue.

Another practical problem that, according to the National Assembly Chairman, would solve many problems if included in this law is the actual survey to implement planning.

“The principle of planning is to conduct a field survey, but sometimes there are not enough conditions to do it properly. There are areas where people have lived for a long time but the survey was not done carefully, and when planning, they “painted” it as a “green area”, but now no one stands up to fix it. That planning is not suitable for reality. Should we consider adjusting the planning in such cases, then we must allow it to be consistent with the actual situation” – Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue said.

In addition, the National Assembly Chairman suggested that the drafting committee continue to review to ensure consistency and uniformity in the legal system because this law is related to many laws; unify some terms as well as conduct more thorough research on transitional regulations.

Secretary General of the National Assembly Bui Van Cuong

Secretary General of the National Assembly Bui Van Cuong agreed with the mobilization of support resources to improve the quality of planning. However, the mobilization and use must be strict, avoiding policy impacts through support, inserting "group interests" and local interests.

“More specific regulations on public announcement and transparency of information on supporting organizations and individuals, agencies and units receiving support resources and the use of resources so that if there are any “plants” involved in the future, people will immediately discover them,” said Mr. Bui Van Cuong.

Source: https://vov.vn/chinh-tri/chu-tich-quoc-hoi-dat-van-de-ve-chieu-cao-cong-trinh-trong-noi-do-post1090582.vov