Avoid abusing detailed land use planning adjustments

The land plot in Dinh Long Luxury Villa Area (Hai Duong City) was initially planned as educational land but was later converted to commercial - service and residential land. Photo: TC

Currently, the Government is soliciting public opinions on the draft Land Law (amended). One of the nine key issues being solicited is the adjustment of land use planning and plans stipulated in Article 71 of the draft law. This issue has long been of great concern to Hai Duong public opinion.

According to the draft law, land use planning and plans can be adjusted due to unusual changes in the socio-economic situation that limit resources for implementation or due to developments in science and technology that fundamentally change the implementation of land use planning...

This regulation is too broad, lacks specificity and is easily "applied". In recent times, most residential and urban area projects in Hai Duong have adjusted their detailed planning at least once compared to the initially approved 1/500 detailed planning, with many projects adjusting their detailed planning 6-7 times.

The situation of adjusting planning from educational land, land for building hotels, land for markets... to residential land; dividing land planned for building villas into residential land for building townhouses is no longer rare but common, leading to the initial detailed planning of 1/500 being very methodical with full facilities such as schools, markets... but after a few years, people no longer recognize the original planning. The reasons for investors to request competent authorities to adjust the planning are very convincing, such as the urban area is not large enough in terms of population, so building schools and markets is not suitable, causing waste; people's needs are less interested in large plots of land to build villas but are interested in small plots of land to build townhouses, more suitable for their budget...

The adjustment of planning from commercial service land, public land to residential land in the province basically ensures compliance with land laws. However, there are also some projects after the adjustment that have made people angry, public opinion raised many questions about the transparency of the investment process. 3 plots of land of more than 3.3 hectares in the Dinh Long luxury villa area (Hai Duong city) were initially planned as educational land from kindergarten to junior high school. However, after many planning adjustments, up to now, only 1 plot has been used to build a kindergarten, 1 plot is still covered with grass, the plot with a prime location along Truong Chinh street has been converted to residential land with commercial houses, villas, and townhouses springing up. The land of more than 6,000 m2 in the Au Viet Overseas Vietnamese Village urban area (Hai Duong city) was initially planned to build a hotel but has now been adjusted to residential land. The Ai Quoc residential, service and industrial area project (Hai Duong City) according to the detailed planning 1/500 initially had many plots of land planned to build villas, but after many planning adjustments, these plots of land were divided into adjacent plots of land, which have higher value and are easier to liquidate...

Although when adjusting land from hotel construction land, villa construction land... to land for townhouse construction, the investor must pay the difference for the new purpose of use, this difference is priced by the State. If these lands are planned with the original purpose, the investor will have to auction the land use rights or bid for projects using land according to regulations. This is more transparent, bringing more land use fees to the budget. Speaking at a recent meeting of the Provincial People's Council, a delegate exclaimed that if the planning of residential areas and urban areas is adjusted in detail many times, people will raise questions or there will be group interests in the planning adjustment.

Urban planning and project planning are not constant in the context of rapid urbanization as it is today. However, to avoid overusing detailed land use planning adjustments, the draft Land Law 2023 (amended) needs to clearly stipulate that land use planning must ensure a long-term vision, minimizing detailed planning adjustments that benefit investors. Planning can only be adjusted when absolutely necessary, on the basis of meeting practical social requirements.

PHUONG LINH