Thanh tra finds multiple violations in the urban planning of Northwest Ho Chi Minh City
The Ho Chi Minh City Inspectorate has recently announced the findings of an inspection regarding the compliance with legal regulations in urban planning management and investment attraction at the Northwest Urban Area Management Board.
Over nearly 20 years, the Northwest Urban Area Management Board has submitted the 1/5000 general urban planning for approval by the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee. Based on this master planning, the Board has developed 7 planning projects with 11 sub-zones at a 1/2000 scale, which were completed and approved by the People’s Committee in 2013.
However, during the implementation of their tasks, the Northwest Urban Area Management Board has encountered some existing issues and shortcomings in the process of preparing, appraising, and approving the 1/5000 and 1/2000 urban planning projects, as well as in publicizing the planning, which were not in line with the directives of the City Party Committee and the People’s Committee.
The inspection report highlights that the Northwest Urban Area Management Board has failed to develop urban design files for the planning projects, and has not carried out field boundary demarcation or supervised and inspected the boundary demarcation files submitted by project investors.
From 2015 to 2022, the Northwest Urban Area Management Board has conducted adjustment planning for the 1/5000 sub-zones within the Northwest Urban Area, which has affected investment attraction and the implementation of construction projects. As a result, the land plots within the area have temporarily paused investment attraction activities, waiting for the completion of the planning adjustment to ensure legal conditions for project implementation.
The inspection report also concludes that the Northwest Urban Area Management Board’s process of adjusting the urban planning from June 2016 to February 2020, taking more than 3 years and 8 months to approve the 1/5000 sub-zones planning, was excessively delayed and did not comply with the directives of the City Party Committee and the People’s Committee (which required completion by the end of 2016).
Moreover, the appraisal process for the 1/5000 sub-zones planning of the Northwest Urban Area has been carried out multiple times (4 times), taking 11 months and failing to ensure consistency, quality, and technical requirements. The Department of Planning and Architecture had to provide feedback and make multiple revisions. This slow and inadequate process does not meet the requirements of Government Decree 37 on urban planning preparation, appraisal, approval, and management.
The inspection report also points out that it took 10 months from the approval of the planning tasks to the submission of the 1/5000 sub-zones planning of the Northwest Urban Area to the Department of Planning and Architecture for appraisal and submission to the City People’s Committee for reporting to the Prime Minister. As of the time of inspection, the process of preparing the urban planning has taken more than 3.5 years.
In addition, the submission of the task outline and overall estimate for the 1/5000 sub-zones planning of the Northwest Urban Area has been inaccurate, leading to increased expenses for the planning. The Northwest Urban Area Management Board has also failed to prepare boundary demarcation files and carry out field boundary demarcation for 9 functional zones and one project (Tân An Hội Residential Area), and has not supervised, urged, and inspected the boundary demarcation files. The Board has also been delayed in preparing and submitting the 1/2000 sub-zones planning, lacking mechanisms for policy support and investment attraction, as well as plans to attract domestic and foreign capital.
Based on the inspection findings, the Ho Chi Minh City Inspectorate has recommended and received the agreement and direction from Deputy Chairman of the People’s Committee, Mr. Ngô Minh Châu, to hold accountable organizations and individuals responsible for their shortcomings and violations. The Northwest Urban Area Management Board has been urgently requested to require consulting units to address the limitations and deficiencies in the 1/5000 and 1/2000 sub-zones planning. Furthermore, the Board needs to review and adjust the project valuation in accordance with regulations, as the inaccurate submission of the task outline and overall estimate for the 1/5000 sub-zones planning has resulted in increased expenses for the planning adjustment.
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