Mai Pha New Urban Area Project: Listening to create a consensus

The project to build Mai Pha new urban area, Lang Son city is a policy that has been agreed by the Standing Board of the Provincial Party Committee, for the 2015-2020 term, assigned the Provincial People’s Committee to direct agencies, organizations to implement in accordance with the provisions of law. However, the site clearance for the implementation of the project created many problems; Along with that, the process of implementing the project revealed some errors that made people angry. Timely capturing citizens’ complains and recommendations; At the Party Committee level, the Lang Son provincial government has directed the relevant authorities to focus on solving in order to create consensus in the project implementation.

Part 1. Highlights of Xu Lang urban area

Located in the general construction planning of Dong Dang – Lang Son border gate economic zone, Mai Pha new urban area project has a scale of more than 90 hectares. The goal of Lang Son province when implementing this project is to accelerate urbanization to the south of the city. Since then, the province formed a new model urban area – the highlight of the city, upgrading Mai Pha commune into Mai Pha ward and in the roadmap to build Lang Son city into a grade 1 urban area by 2030.

The process of forming and implementing the project

On June 7, 2007, at the Government Office, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung worked with the leaders of Lang Son province on the contents related to the province’s socio-economic development plan. Here, the leaders of Lang Son province raised 15 recommendations and proposals to the Government and the Prime Minister to help Lang Son have more conditions to exploit the potential and advantages of economic development and improve the people’s lives.

On the basis of the results of the working session, the Government Office issued Notice No. 127/TB-VPCP dated June 15, 2007 on the conclusion of the Prime Minister at the meeting with the leaders of Lang Son province.

Accordingly, at the 10th content in the concluding notice, the Prime Minister agreed to convert the area of Mai Pha airport, Lang Son city to the purpose of socio-economic development; assigned the Ministry of Defense to coordinate with the province to select a new airport location.

Implementing the conclusion of the Prime Minister, Lang Son province has directed functional departments and agencies and coordinated with central ministries and sectors to carry out the order and procedures for formulating projects on construction and development of Dong Dang – Lang Son border gate economic zone; making general planning project for construction of Dong Dang-Lang Son border-gate economic zone.

According to the planning of Dong Dang – Lang Son border gate economic zone, Lang Son city; Dong Dang town and Coc Nam border gate area, Tan Thanh is identified as an important place for development. On July 8, 2010, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 1055/QD-TTg approving the adjustment of the general planning on construction of Dong Dang-Lang Son border-gate economic zone, Lang Son province to 2030, in which, the land area of Mai Pha airport is defined as urban residential land.

Perspective of Mai Pha new urban area

From here, the Party Committee of the Provincial People’s Committee continues to study, prepare reports for the direction of the Standing Board of the Provincial Party Committee on the policy of implementing Mai Pha new urban area project, Lang Son city. On July 5, 2012, the Standing Board of the Provincial Party Committee issued Conclusion No. 41-KL/TU at the 21st meeting on June 25-26, 2012, according to which, it agreed to the policy of building Mai Pha new urban area project.

After that, investors interested in the project were granted a planning license by the Provincial People’s Committee to study and make detailed planning to build Mai Pha new urban area, scale 1/500 and approved by the Provincial People’s Committee for the first time at Decision No. 1725/QD-UBND dated September 21, 2015.At the same time, the Provincial People’s Committee issued a document to the Ministry of Construction asking for opinions and agreement on the project implementation policy.

However, in the process of investors studying the project, the State’s policies and laws have changed, the 2014 Investment Law was issued, go into effect and practice in the 2012-2015 period. the province has not yet issued project investment certificates to investors. Therefore, in September 2016, the Party Committee of the Provincial People’s Committee issued Report No. 113-TTr/BCSD on applying for a policy to continue implementing the Mai Pha new urban area project, Lang Son city. On September 19, 2016, the Standing Board of the Provincial Party Committee had Conclusion No. 55-KL/TU at the special meeting on September 16, 2016 on agreeing on the policy of continuing the project implementation.

By January 2017, investors had written requests to implement the investment project to build Mai Pha new urban area. On the basis of the investor’s written request, the Department of Planning and Investment has appraised and reported to the Provincial People’s Committee. After reviewing, the Provincial People’s Committee commented that the detailed planning of urban construction must be adjusted before considering the investment policy.

To perform the assigned tasks, the Department of Construction has coordinated with relevant agencies to carry out the process of adjusting the detailed planning and the Provincial People’s Committee issued Decision No. 1660/QD-UBND dated September 7, 2017 on approving the detailed planning and adjust the local planning of Mai Pha new urban area, Lang Son city. Next, investors carry out the project implementation process according to the 2014 Investment Law and relevant legal regulations for Mai Pha new urban area project.

After many years of preparation from the completion of procedures for construction planning; planning the land use plan; publicizing the bidding documents for pre-qualification and public tender to select investors to implement the Mai Pha new urban area project…, until the beginning of 2020, the Provincial People’s Committee have selected the investor and signed a contract with the investor to execute the project. Accordingly, the project has a land use scale of 91.73 hectares, the construction site of the urban area is located on the south bank of Ky Cung river, adjacent to the resettlement area and the population of the southern city. The winning investor for the project is a joint venture between Hai Phat Investment Joint Stock Company and Ha Son Company Limited.

Shaping a modern and civilized urban area

During the implementation of the project, investors and related departments and agencies noticed in the Decision No. 1660/QD-UBND dated September 7, 2017 of the Provincial People’s Committee on approving the local adjustment project of Mai Pha new urban area, scale 1/500, the arrangement of functional areas, investment in technical infrastructure and ancillary works… there are still some shortcomings that need to be adjusted and supplemented to be worthy of an urban area with a location as a gateway of the city and located on the south bank of Ky Cung river.

Therefore, at the end of 2020, the investor reported to the Provincial People’s Committee for permission to adjust the detailed planning of Mai Pha new urban area, the scale of 1/500, on the basis of keeping the same area but adjusting the detailed planning of the function areas to optimize the planned land area.

On September 13, 2021, the Provincial People’s Committee issued Decision No. 1845/QD-UBND approving the adjustment of detailed planning of Mai Pha new urban area, Lang Son city, scale 1/500, economic indicators techniques applied according to grade 1 urban standard, with a population of more than 16,000 people. Accordingly, making additional adjustments to the total area of social housing land equal to 20% of the new residential land fund; restructure the green plots to form a central park large enough to serve events; supplementing the land fund for public physical training and sports for the people; restructuring the defense land fund, focusing on ensuring national defense and security, connecting…

Regarding the spatial organization of landscape architecture, the traffic space planning has 2 main roads, in which, the road from North to South has a road cross section of 60 m wide as a traffic square and serves for festivals, it is the pedestrian streets of urban areas; the west to east road with a road cross section of 55 m is the main traffic road of the urban area, synchronously connecting with the 55 m road of the existing resettlement area and population in the south of the city; internal traffic routes have road surfaces of 30 m, 19.5 m and 19 m, respectively. The project build a new bridge over Ky Cung river to connect with National Highway 1A, the bridge surface is 31 m wide.

Regarding urban design, the project has 4 highlight constructions including: 2 complexes of mixed constructions. In which, 1 building has a maximum height of 35 floors and 1 building has a height of 12 floors; social housing works of 15 floors and administrative center buildings with a maximum height of 15 floors located on 60 m and 55 m roads – are the backbone roads of the urban area.

Adjacent housing projects, including rough construction, are 330 units and 1,769 commercial plots; planning resettlement area with 140 plots of land. The system of other common works items such as cultural houses, schools, static parking lots, parks… and technical infrastructure works such as electricity supply, drainage, water supply, wastewater treatment, solid waste is built systematically.

Therefore, it can be seen that Mai Pha new urban area project is invested and built to create a stable environment and high quality living conditions for urban residents; forming a new modern urban area, unique in architectural design, creating a highlight on urban landscape space; Environmental friendly; having a synchronous technical and social infrastructure system, connecting the project’s technical infrastructure with related adjacent projects and the current residential area.

The project is expected to open a new space after completion, contributing to changing the face of Lang Son city. However, the project implementation process has arisen problems in land clearance work.

Mai Pha new urban area project has a total estimated investment of 3,380 billion VND The project implementation period is 72 months from the contract signing date (from March 2020 to March 2026).

(to be continued)

Part 2. Problems in land clearance