Illegal Urbanism

“Almost a quarter of new land acquisitions in Chinese cities are illegal, according the Ministry of Land and Resources”

Hold on a minute, what??

“…About 51 percent of new land-use projects in 90 cities were illegal and the figure was as high as 80 percent in 17 cities,”

Now, if you don’t think illegal land use/acquisition is a problem in China, think again. BYD, a prominent Chinese automobile manufacturer, was caught for illegal land usage and zoning. The company built 7 new factories on 49 hectares of land bought from an undisclosed development agency in Shaanxi. However, 45 hectares of that land was zoned for strictly agricultural.  This case is unprecedented not in the fact that this sort of illegal activity is happening for the first time, but the fact that this company is being brought to court and convicted of violating the law. It is not all too uncommon for local city government officials and bureaucrats to ignore these zoning violations, and the consequences have hit mainly the agricultural industry the hardest. The Ministry of Land and Resources states that the nation’s arable land has decreased by 6% over the past 10 years. Illegal acquisitions for new construction developments have left many farmers jobless and homeless. The farmers lose complete rights to reclaim the land, nor do they often receive an adequate amount for their property. Only recently has the problem been acknowledged by the central government and actions have been taken to check land law and enforcement; already, many officials have already been caught for land-related corruption that include illegal land appropriation and land sale proceeds.

So what does that mean for China’s urban policy and planning? It’s evident that China is continuing to grow stronger, and the fact that the nation is increasing in productivity, resources, employment, etc. all point to signs of a need for urban expansion and development. For politicians, GDP means promotion and land is an attractive resource for foreign and domestic investors alike. The drive for economic growth brings new companies into higher competition and productivity, which necessitates new facilities. Instead of dealing with all the bureaucratic red tape, these companies are given the go-ahead from local government officials, who both politically and economically benefit from supporting land sale revenue. So now, the Chinese government has a dilemma in place: will it sacrifice the integrity of the law and enforcement of land usage for the sake of becoming a productive, post-industrial, first world country? The bigger dilemma may perhaps be that China is growing too fast, too much, and does not have enough resources to handle the growth; 1.4 billion people living, operating, working in an industrial China equals potential problems, one of which is sprawl. It is often important to remember that the city and the urban is often the consequence and result of policy, both economic and political. Certain rules and parameters form the city fabric and ultimately the experiential nature of the urban. For years, China has been turning the blind eye towards illegal land use, allowing corporations and industries to wipe out farmland and urban villages to be replaced with skyscraping office towers and residential units. This trend of illegal land acquisition and zoning violations have ultimately played a large role in perpetuating the sprawling urban condition that plagues modern China.

 

_Jonathan

“Illegal Land Use Poses Major Threat”, http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90884/6264973.html

“Over 20 Percent of Land Acquisitions in China’s Cities Illegal”,

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90778/6272123.html

“Cracking Down on Illegal Land Use: The BYD Case”

http://www.chinalawblog.com/2010/08/cracking_down_on_illegal_land_use_in_china_do_you_really_still_feel_lucky_foreign_punk.html

Filed under: BYD, China, illegal, planning, public policy, sprawl, Urbanism

Urban Sprawl and the Peri-Urbanization of China

The transformation of a once rural China into the urban, mega-giant it is today has forced the process of urbanization to become to catalyst of a physiological/urban phenomenon known as the “peri-urban”. What is the peri-urban? Quite simply, it is the point at which the city fabric meets the rural; a rural-urban fringe, if you will. If we take the analogy of a city being a layered cake, the core would constitute the urban fabric, next would come the per-urban, then the suburban, and then finally the countryside/rural. What then is the different between the suburban and the peri-urban? Unlike the suburbs, the peri-urban still has relative importance to the overall economic/industrial component of big cities, just pushed off to the edge. In most cases, village entrepreneurs who desire this peri-urban land for programs like golf courses, entertainment centers, amusement parks, etc transform urban villages. Over time, these peri-urban villages become outgrowths of the expanding city and, if successful, become enveloped into the fabric. In all likelihood, the use of peri-urbanization is most likely a strong support for urban sprawl within a growing city. A main proponent of why Chinese cities are beginning to sprawl more and more is rooted in employment. Unlike urban developmental phases in the West, which was led by residential development, China took on the approach of using jobs as a key factor in increasing urban growth. In the 1980’s, China’s policy encouraged the industrialization of the rural, resulting in a large growth of peri-urban area spread over wide regions.  Peri-urban areas became strong attractors for local, and inter-provincial migrants to fill up jobs in these developing areas.

The present policy has now adopted a more market-based strategy by strategizing to concentrate on the most dynamic peri-urban zones, closer to the city center. Two major factors of current land-use policies and urban development drivers point to more aggressive establishments of peri-urban, which leads to suggest that China is still in pursuit of urban sprawl. First, the creation and removal of industrial factories and public institutions from the city into the peripheries. China is still in an industrial state, but the question of transitioning into a post-industrial nation still looms. It seems likely that as cities begin to grow, the need to relocate some essential industrial manufacturing companies to the outskirts will be a major move towards cleaning up the urban core. By conglomerating industries into one region, these specialized peri-urban zones are easily accessible, yet far enough to relieve the urban fabric from industrial congestion. The second major move is the steady rise of residential development in the peri-urban. Essentially, the migrant workers have begun to spring up permanent residences within these regions under the protection of the village commune. In some cases, these urban villages develop on their own, evolving into almost corporations. As fixed real estate, the government is all to readily eager to integrate and purchase the property to redevelop and lease out. As the current trend of these “random” housing developments sweeps across the peri-urban regions of China, perhaps a new wave of sprawling developments are in place to further expand the growth of Chinese mega-cities.

_Jonathan

 

“Peri-Urbanization: Zones of Rural-Urban Transition”, http://www.eolss.net/EolssSampleChapters/C14/E1-18-02/E1-18-02-TXT-02.aspx

Filed under: Architecture, China, peri-urban, public policy, rural, sprawl, suburban, Urbanism