The construction of high-rise buildings in HCM City will be limited from next month if proposed sweeping changes to planning management and urban architecture regulations are approved.
 
Under the draft regulations, the whole city would be divided into three areas for better architecture management: the old urban area, the developing urban area and the suburbs.

The first of these spans 13 inner districts over an area of 14,200ha, while the developing urban area includes six newly-established districts covering 35,200ha. The suburban area includes five districts across 160,200ha.

Construction of high-rise buildings in the old urban area would be limited in streets less than 20m in width, revealed Director of the municipal Department of Planning and Architecture's Planning and Information Centre, Huynh Xuan Thu, at a workshop held on Tuesday to discuss the draft regulation.

Other proposed changes include a reduction on the development of multi-storey residential apartment buildings in areas smaller than 1,200sq.m, he said.

Under the regulations, competitions will be held to choose the final design forbuildings which will be higher than 25 storeys.

Other projects will face a similar process, including parks over 1,000sq.m in size, hospitals that contain over 100 beds and schools which cover a total area of more than 5,000sq.m.

Some participants at the meeting said that this process would be unnecessarily time-consuming and costly, and should only be followed for projects five times the size of those proposed.

Deputy Chairman of District 2's People's Committee Huynh Thanh Khiet said it was necessary to introduce a common regulation for the whole city which would be then applied by each district based on their own special conditions.

If the draft regulations are approved by the municipal People's Committee, they will be introduced from July 1 and serve as the basis for the city's construction department to grant construction licenses for individuals and businesses.-VNA