China City Planning Review (No.2, 2015)

♦Speed and Trend of China’s Urbanization: A Comparative Study Based on Cross-Country Panel Data Model

Author：Chen Ming, Wang Kai

Abstract: This article investigates the speed and trend of urbanization in China and other countries by applying a non-linear model with panel data from 41 big countries with a population of over ten millions. It finds that the relationship between China’s urbanization and economic development presents a less fluctuating S-shaped curve which reflects the variation in urbanization between China and other large countries. Calculated in line with the PPP (purchasing power parity) of 2009, China’s rapid urbanization started when the GDP per capita reached 1,339 US dollars and the urbanization level was 22.92%, though lower than the world average by 5.16 percentage points. China’s rapid urbanization ends when the GDP per capita reaches 12,088 US dollars and the urbanization level amounts to 50.69%, with the percentage lower than the world average by 16.32 percentage points. And China’s urbanization will be completed when the GDP per capita climbs to 28,306 US dollars and the urbanization level reaches 61.55%, 12.32 percentage points lower than the world average then. Nevertheless, the unique background of China, including its socio-economic development, land institutional arrangements, and authoritarian political system, will have a great impact on the urbanization trend. Particularly, as China’s socio-economic reform deepens, China’s urbanization level will reach a new height.

Keywords: urbanization; urbanization speed; urbanization trend; turning point of urbanization

♦Concept and Method of Asset-Based Community Development Planning: A Case Study on Minlecun Community in Chongqing’s Yuzhong District

Author: Huang Ling, Liu Yang, Xu Jianfeng

Abstract: With the transformation of the Chinese economy from an extensive growth to intensive development, city development is also gradually turning from incremental construction to stock management. Community, as a basic unit of human settlements, is an important platform to build and improve the social governance capability. In 2013, Shiyoulu Jiedao Office of Yuzhong District led the 1st urban community development planning, which was a milestone of Chongqing’s city regeneration and governance innovation. This paper focuses on two key issues: how to understand the community values and make the community development planning based on the above, and how to integrate with the local forces so that the community development planning can be integrated into the action plan. Combined with the practice of Minlecun Community Development Planning, using the concept of asset-based community development, a comprehensive survey is conducted on community assets (including three aspects of physical, human, and social capital), and a community comprehensive planning strategy is formulated which covers two parts: the optimization of community spaces and the upgrading of community governance. The paper explores the local-based community planning theories and methods from such aspects as value attitude, public participation, role transformation of urban planners, and others.

Keywords: community development planning; asset-based; community governance; local action; role transformation of planners

♦Suggestions on China’s Legislation System of Urban-Rural Planning

Author: Ren Zhiyuan

Abstract: This paper overviews the governmental decrees, departmental rules, as well as local regulations of China formulated since 1989 when the City Planning Law of the People’s Republic of China was issued. Then it points out the problems existing in the current laws, decrees, and regulations, based on which it puts forward some suggestions to improve the legislation system of urban-rural planning of China.

Keywords: urban-rural planning; legislation system; suggestions

♦Evaluation on the Implementation of Urban and Rural Planning Law and Some Policy Suggestions: A Case Study in Western China

Author: Wang Kai, Li Hao

Abstract: The study evaluates the implementation of the Urban and Rural Planning Law in western China through questionnaires, interviews, onsite visits, and literature analysis. Results show that, though the western region has made great progress in the study and publicity of the Law, as well as in their local legislation and administrative system adjustments, there are problems impeding the implementation of the Law, such as overlapping government administration, inadequate implementation measures, controversial provisions that cause operational difficulties, local legislative confusion, and poor legal awareness. As such, this article proposes suggestions as follows: to legalize the detailed implementation rules and regulations, as well as other related regulations and technical standards, in order to improve the system of urban and rural planning laws and regulations; to strengthen legal supervision to maintain the authority of the law; to formulate proper planning policy guidelines based on the specific conditions of western region; and to strengthen the publicity, education, and training of the Law so as to promote the publics’ legal awareness.

Keywords: Urban and Rural Planning Law; legislation goal; implementation; evaluation; western China

♦Measures for Improving Laws and Regulations of Local Urban-Rural Plan Formulation

Author: Geng Huizhi, Zhao Pengcheng, Shen Danfeng

Abstract: Recently there have emerged some problems in the process of plan formulation, an important part in urban-rural planning, such as public participation deficiency, insufficient control of plan adjustment and revision, unscientific plan formulation, problems in the review and approval procedure, lagging plan adjustment and amendment, etc. To deal with these issues, this paper puts forward a proposal to regulate the procedure of urban-rural plan formulation from the perspective of the legal and regulatory spirit, entity, procedure, and legislation and to improve the laws and regulations of urban-rural planning, so as to provide a technical and legal support for urban-rural integration and the harmonious development of urban and rural areas.

Keywords: urban-rural planning; plan formulation; plan review and approval; local urban-rural planning regulations

♦Legislation of Urban Planning Public Policy from the Perspective of Legal Boundary: Enlightenment from the Evolution of Planning Laws

Author: Lei Cheng

Abstract: The transition of urban-rural planning to public policy has become a common recognition in the planning field. The new challenge is how to combine such a transition with legislation development. This paper reviews the disciplinary development and legislation of urban-rural planning, and analyzes the effects of the public policy transition on law implementation and administrative power from the perspective of the legal boundary. It points out that the definition of the legal boundary of urban-rural planning laws is significant for identifying the impact of public policy, ensuring the implementation of regulations on administrative power, and scoping effective urban-rural spaces. It argues that the core of public policy legalization is to establish value judgments for public policy making, to specify authorization and restraint to administrative power, and to reduce conflicts between public policies and governments’ administrative actions in urban-rural spaces. Furthermore, this paper discusses some other relevant issues on how to complete the public policy legalization.

Keywords: legal boundary; public policy; legislation; urban-rural planning

♦Out of the Not-in-My-Backyard Dilemma Between Community Development and Ecological Protection: A Case Study on the Implementation of Basic Ecological Control Line Planning in Shenzhen

Author: Ma Hang, Sun Yao

Abstract: This paper reviews the implementation of basic ecological control line planning in Shenzhen since 2005 and finds that the communities located in the ecological areas delimited by the basic ecological control lines demonstrate strong opposition to the relevant regulations, reflecting a typical Not-in-My-Backyard effect. It then analyzes the inherent reasons for the Not-in-My-Backyard dilemma. Based on the advanced experience of other countries and regions, it proposes the strategies of mutual benefits for the communities to go out of the Not-in-My-Backyard dilemma, so as to effectively alleviate the social contradiction and economic cost resulting from ecological protection, which can serve as a reference for other Chinese cities to conduct the basic ecological control line planning.

Keywords: community development; basic ecological control line; Not-in-My-Backyard effect; mutually beneficial strategy

♦Formation of City-Lake Integrated Urban Morphology in Hangzhou: A Study on the Related History Starting from the New Market Plan of the Lakefront District in Early Modern Times

Author: Fu Shulan, Yukio Nishimura

Abstract: In the early modern times in China, local planners have made several construction plans for Hangzhou’s old city center and the West Lake, resulting in the gradual formation of a city-lake integrated urban form, which is valued nowadays for its uniqueness and characteristically Chinese cityscape aesthetics. The key plan that spurred this process of linking the old city with the West Lake was a plan titled “Building a New Market” (1914). By elucidating the time, process, and contents of the plan, this paper analyzes the spatial transformation of the lakefront districts based on old maps, and then interprets how it led the forming process of the “city-lake integrated” urban form in Hangzhou.

Keywords: New Market Plan; Hangzhou; modern times; lakefront district; urban planning