Effective solution to eliminate super thin, super distorted houses

However, with the new regulations on land area and conditions for land division stipulated by the City People's Committee in Decision 61/2024/QD-UBND recently, it is expected to remove the "bottleneck" in solving this problem.

The problem of super thin construction

Recently, in Hanoi, the urbanization rate has been strong; parallel to this process is the work of compensation and site clearance (GPMB) to create land funds for investment expansion, construction of new traffic works, technical infrastructure, social infrastructure... to serve the socio-economic development and the living needs of the people in the face of the rapid increase in the capital's mechanical population every year.

According to the new regulations, the minimum land area that can be divided into plots is 50 square meters, which will completely overcome the widespread situation of small plots, affecting urban planning. Photo: Hai Linh

It is worth mentioning that after the land acquisition process, many of the cut-down plots of land no longer meet the requirements in terms of size and construction area, but somehow the constructions still grow and exist from year to year without the local authorities having effective measures to completely eliminate them. Not only that, many constructions "grow" relatively massive, becoming a "specialty" of construction in the capital with strange shapes, lacking aesthetics, losing the beauty of urban architecture, causing public outrage and people also do not forget to give it a beautiful name: "super thin, super distorted house".

According to the report from the Hanoi Department of Construction, in the period 2005 - 2012 alone, 137 new super-thin and super-distorted housing projects were created in the city, of which more than 100 projects are still pending and cannot be processed. In addition, there are 174 old super-thin and super-distorted houses and land (formed before Decision No. 39/2005/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister took effect) that still exist.

However, if fully counted, the number of these types of projects would be many times higher, because from 2012 to now, the city has implemented site clearance to expand and build new many important traffic routes in the inner city districts, such as: Ring Road 2; Ring Road 2.5; Ring Road 3; Nguyen Van Huyen; Pham Van Dong; Dai La; Truong Chinh...

Document No. 1406/2020/SXD-TTr of the Hanoi Department of Construction requested Cau Giay and Bac Tu Liem districts to strengthen the handling of super-thin and super-distorted constructions on Ring Road 3, Mai Dich - Thang Long Bridge section (Pham Van Dong Street), pointing out that after completing the Ring Road 3 expansion project, in Bac Tu Liem and Cau Giay districts, 72 cases of remaining land area did not meet construction site conditions.

“Expanding and constructing new inner-city traffic routes is one of the top priorities of urban planning and reconstruction. But every time a route is expanded or constructed, super-thin and super-distorted housing projects appear. In terms of urban design, these projects create an unaesthetic image; in terms of technical standards and regulations, they do not ensure safety when they have a thin structure and many projects are built up to 4-5 floors high,” said architect Tran Tuan Anh, an expert in urban management.

Raising public awareness

According to Chief Inspector of Hanoi Department of Construction Nguyen Viet Dung, recently, the Department has advised the City People's Committee to issue many solutions (mobilizing land consolidation or reclaiming for public works...) to handle land areas that do not meet construction conditions and super-thin, super-distorted housing projects, thereby resolving a large number of unqualified projects.

“However, in reality, there are still many cases that have been pending for a long time and cannot be resolved, because the land consolidation process is an agreement on the purchase and sale price between owners, while many cases have been stably built or do not have enough financial conditions so there is no need for land consolidation. As for the recovery for public works, it is also not easy because people find it difficult to accept the compensation price according to the prescribed framework...” - Mr. Nguyen Viet Dung said.

Faced with the shortcomings in handling the area that does not meet the construction conditions, after the amended Law on the Capital officially took effect; the City People's Committee continued to issue Decision No. 61/2024/QD-UBND, implemented from October 7, 2024, detailing a number of contents in the land sector in the city, including the contents on conditions and minimum land area allowed to separate plots.

Specifically, Article 15 stipulates "Handling cases that do not meet the conditions for existence when the State reclaims land to implement socio-economic development projects for national and public interests and defense and security purposes". Cases that do not meet the conditions for existence, for residential land: the land plot after reclamation has at least one side adjacent to a traffic route and the land area outside the red line is less than 15m², the frontage or depth compared to the construction boundary is less than 3m; the land plot after reclamation has no access and the land area is smaller than the minimum area allowed to be divided as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 14 of this Regulation. For other land: the land plot has an area outside the red line of less than 50m². In addition, it also clearly stipulates the consolidation of plots for cases that do not meet the conditions for existence.

“In the past, super-thin and super-distorted housing projects have been mentioned a lot, but when the old backlog has not been handled, new ones will arise. Therefore, I very much welcome the issuance of regulations by Hanoi City on eliminating the formation of new plots of land that do not meet the conditions and construction area, which also makes it impossible for super-thin and super-distorted housing projects to arise. With this regulation, the work of renovating and adjusting urban design will have a new step forward” - Vice President of Hanoi Real Estate Club Nguyen The Diep acknowledged.

Sharing the same view, Dr. Architect Dao Ngoc Nghiem - Vice President of the Vietnam Urban Planning and Development Association said that the story of houses with strange and distorted shapes has existed in the capital for more than 30 years and during this time, State management agencies have built a relatively complete legal framework for this type of construction. But the most difficult problem now is the cooperation of the people and the determination of the government.

“People are not fully aware of the negative impacts on aesthetics and urban design of land areas with distorted and strange shapes, affecting the common interests of the entire city. Therefore, it is necessary to have the determination of the State and the People. In addition to propaganda and mobilization to raise people's awareness, the State management agency must synchronously implement legal regulations and tighten sanctions on the basis of harmonizing people's interests to create consensus and unity. But most importantly, Hanoi must solve this problem from the planning work" - Dr. Architect Dao Ngoc Nghiem expressed.

 

I think that the regulation of Hanoi City not allowing unqualified land plots and construction areas to exist under private ownership is very reasonable, because when these land plots are built on, they will cause loss of aesthetics, creating a messy urban appearance.

Based on this new regulation, in the coming time, Hanoi City needs to do better in urban planning and design, especially detailed planning of land adjacent to roads or public works that are being renovated, expanded or newly built.

Urban planning expert Dr. Architect Hoang Huu Phe

Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/giai-phap-huu-hieu-de-triet-tieu-nha-sieu-mong-sieu-meo.html