Planners in China’s capital try to make most of cleared-out spaces
New rules being drafted as forced relocations free up land in Beijing
Beijing is drafting guidelines on the management and reuse of land freed up by the relocation of wholesale markets out of the capital, The Beijing Times reported on Wednesday.
The guideline, to be jointly drafted by the city’s development and reform commission and the Beijing Planning and Land Resources Commission, would detail policies for such land and tackle problems such as how to develop marginal sites, it said.
“Some great breakthroughs have been made in this document to ease concerns of the [parties] that have to move out of the markets,” said Wang Haichen, deputy director of the Beijing Development and Reform Commission. “The freed space will be reused effectively.”
Beijing is working to downsize its downtown area and relocate wholesale markets, hospitals and universities that are defined as “non-capital functions” to neighbouring Tianjin and Hebei, and refocus the city as a centre of politics, culture, international exchanges and innovation.
The guideline is also part of measures to support integrated development of Tianjin and Hebei, and ease traffic jams and control pollution in Beijing.