After each road opening and canal renovation project, the city has more modern traffic routes, but also more super-thin, super-skewed houses appear.
The Xuyen Tam canal project is the latest example when dozens of houses only have an area of 2-9m2 after clearance.
It cannot be called complete urban embellishment, because there are "scars" left after each trillion-VND project.
Architect Ngo Viet Nam Son's proposal to expand the scope of land recovery to 30-50m deep instead of just stopping at the road boundary is a direction that is very worth studying and boldly applying.
Because the root cause of super-thin, super-skewed houses does not lie in the people, the root cause lies in the way planning is done.
For many years, we have mainly solved the traffic problem. The road has been expanded according to the design, but the space on both sides of the road is almost forgotten.
As a result, the remaining lands that are too small and too skewed are still kept intact. Owners have no choice but to take advantage of them for repair or further construction to maintain their lives.
Therefore, as soon as roads are opened, super-thin houses are added, as soon as renovation is carried out, bizarre structures appear.
That is the consequence of the mindset of "cutting the boundary correctly", not the mindset of creating a complete urban space.
If land is recovered more widely, then the entire land strip on both sides of the road is synchronously planned, the story will be different.
The city will have conditions to form beautifully architected works, modern streets, parks, schools, parking lots or public utilities instead of scrap land that does not meet construction standards.
Many people worry that this option will increase compensation costs. At first glance, it is true, but if viewed in the long term, it is not certain.
When the infrastructure is completed, the land fund value on both sides of the road will increase very much.
If well-planned and publicly auctioned, revenue can completely offset investment costs, and even create additional resources for the budget to continue developing infrastructure and community service projects.
That is not spending, but investing to create new value. More importantly, this is a fairer solution.
In fact, for a long time, many households have been completely cleared to open roads, while the houses behind suddenly become front houses, the value increases many times without having to share benefits or obligations with society.
Expanding the scope of recovery will create a fairer ground for all those affected by the project, and at the same time help the government proactively plan instead of having to "patch up" the remaining land.
