rural-urban dynamics_report.pdf - Khazar University

140 URBANIZATION AND THE MDGS GLOBAL MONITORING REPORT 2013
BOX 3.3
Do cities need master plans?
Instead of drawing up a master plan and making a
large effort to update it every 10 years, as is frequently
the pattern, it may be better to produce a much simpler
spatial strategy document that could be updated
every year by staff of a city’s urban planning department.
The emphasis of such a document would be on
the current spatial situation and spatial trends. Its
main objectives would be to ensure housing and land
affordability and adequate mobility. Such a process
would focus on analyzing real estate prices and supply
and demand constraints for all income groups, firms,
and households. The plan would cover three topics:
land use and spatially distributed demographics; road
and transport networks; and land use and development
regulations. Rather than attempting to cover all
sectors, when the spatial strategy is approved by government,
it could be distributed to line agencies that
have the technical expertise to develop sectoral plans
that are consistent with spatial distribution of people
and jobs, as well as consistent with their budget
constraints. It is important to provide the line agencies
with a constantly updated spatial distribution of
populations so that they can adjust their investment
programs to meet current and future demand.
This proposal is not revolutionary. Most master
plans around the world are largely ignored (even in
China). In Vietnam, master plans are often referred
to as “hanging plans,” suggesting that they often
decorate the walls of planning departments but are
rarely implemented. As in most countries, Vietnam
line agencies typically make investment decisions
based on their own population projections, which are
rarely consistent with master plans and often differ
between agencies. Changing the planning process to
be more in line with market dynamics would lead to
better and more consistent development outcomes.
Singapore and Hong Kong are good examples of land
use planning and internal consistency between spatial
objectives and the provision of physical and social
infrastructure.
Source: World Bank 2011.
by pushing development out to new towns
and suburban industrial estates, disconnecting
people from job opportunities (World
Bank 2013b). But this strategy ignores an
opportunity: India’s cities could instead use
rising land values to finance better, highercapacity
infrastructure, to increase office
space, and to add affordable housing for lowand
moderate-income groups.
Keeping densities low and failing to coordinate
density with infrastructure suppresses
economic growth, most importantly exacerbating
housing shortages and affordability.
Cities’ plans and zoning designations need to
reflect market realities. The consequence of
master plans that artificially limit land supply
can be soaring land prices. When plans
underestimate required land uses, such as
residential, industrial, commercial, and services,
land prices for parcels zoned as such
tend to sell at higher prices than would be
set in the marketplace. In many cities in the
developing world, urban planning consists of
designing the expansion of cities using norms
and spatial choices that reflect the preferences
of urban planners rather than to supply constraints
and consumer demands. The result is
often a master plan that is ineffective for both
forecasting and guiding urban development
(box 3.3).
Integrate land use and mobility planning
When urban land and building regulations
limit densities in urban areas, they push people
and firms to the outskirts. When cities are
forced to grow out instead of up, the urban
transport network becomes increasingly
important as the only way to connect people
to jobs. A good transport system allows
people to make efficient trade-offs between
the housing type and amenities they consume
and the distance they travel to work. When
the network is deficient, the problems stemming
from stringent regulations in land markets
are exacerbated. For example, people
may be forced to live in slums close to job