Principles of urban planning in Vietnam today

1. Urban planning time

According to the provisions of Article 2 of Decree 37/2010/ND-CP on the time for urban planning as follows:

- Time for urban master planning:

+ For centrally-run cities, the time for preparing a general planning task shall not exceed 03 months, and the time for preparing a project shall not exceed 15 months;

+ For provincial cities, towns, and new urban areas, the time for establishing tasks shall not exceed 02 months and the time for establishing projects shall not exceed 12 months;

+ For towns, the time for establishing tasks is no more than 01 month and the time for establishing projects is no more than 09 months.

- Time for zoning planning: no more than 01 month for task preparation and no more than 09 months for project preparation.

- Time for detailed planning: no more than 01 month for task preparation and no more than 06 months for project preparation.

- Time to prepare technical infrastructure planning project is not more than 9 months.

- The time for preparing a planning task is calculated from the date of signing the consulting contract between the planning organization or investor and the planning consulting organization. The time for preparing a planning project is calculated from the date the planning task is approved. In case the planning task and planning project are carried out by two different legal entities, the time for preparing the project is calculated from the date of signing the consulting contract.

2. Principles of urban planning

Pursuant to Point a, Clause 3, Article 1 of Decree 72/2019/ND-CP, Clause 2, Article 14 of Decree 37/2010/ND-CP and Article 1 of Decree 35/2023/ND-CP, the principles of urban planning are stipulated as follows:

- Centrally-run cities, provincial cities, towns, townships and new urban areas must have a general plan, ensuring consistency with national planning, regional planning and provincial planning.

- Areas in cities and towns must have zoning plans to specify the general plan, as a basis for determining construction investment projects and making detailed plans.

- Areas within the scope of urban development that are subject to detailed planning when implementing construction investment according to the provisions of the Law on Urban Planning must have detailed planning to specify the general planning, zoning planning (in cases where zoning planning is required), as a basis for establishing construction investment projects, granting construction permits and implementing other tasks according to the provisions of relevant laws. For small-scale land lots specified in Clause 4 of this Article, detailed planning shall be established according to the shortened process (called the process of establishing a master plan) according to the provisions from Clause 4a to Clause 4d, Article 1 of Decree 35/2023/ND-CP.

- Small plots of land must meet the following conditions:

+ Land plots are implemented by an investor or organized by a competent state agency;

+ Having a land use scale of less than 2 hectares for investment projects to build apartment buildings or apartment complexes or having a land use scale of less than 10 hectares for investment projects to build factories, enterprises, industrial production facilities or technical infrastructure works (except for technical infrastructure works along routes) determined according to the general urban planning or provincial planning or approved technical and specialized planning or having a land use scale of less than 5 hectares for the remaining cases;

+ In areas with approved zoning plans or approved general plans for areas that do not require zoning plans.

- The preparation, appraisal and approval of master plans, except for the cases specified in Clause 4b, Article 14 of Decree 37/2010/ND-CP supplemented by Article 1 of Decree 35/2023/ND-CP, are stipulated as follows:

+ Land use planning indicators and requirements on spatial organization, architecture, and landscape of the area are determined in the approved zoning plan or approved general plan for areas that do not require zoning plan, specialized requirements in provincial planning, technical and specialized planning for investment projects to build factories, enterprises, industrial production facilities, and technical infrastructure works (if any) are used to replace the task of master plan planning and are the basis for master plan planning;

+ The master plan includes the master plan drawing; the architectural plan of the project must show the location and scale of the project, project items in the land plot; specifically determine the construction elevation, construction boundaries (construction boundaries of the above-ground and underground parts of the project), construction colors and land use planning indicators in accordance with applicable standards and regulations; ensure the connection of technical infrastructure and the conformity of architectural space with the surrounding area;

+ The order and procedures for obtaining opinions, appraising and approving the master plan are implemented according to the order and procedures for obtaining opinions, appraising and approving the detailed planning project for construction investment projects;

+ The competent authority approving the detailed planning project is responsible for approving the master plan.

- For construction investment projects with works in the list of state secrets, the master plan must be prepared in the investment policy preparation step; the investor is responsible for obtaining written opinions from the competent authority approving the detailed plan, as a basis for implementing the next steps; the time for giving opinions must not exceed 15 days from the date of receiving a complete and valid dossier. The organization of implementation, management of dossiers, documents and related information must comply with the provisions of law on protection of state secrets.

- Adjusting the master plan must ensure the adjustment conditions of the detailed planning project. The process of adjusting the master plan is implemented according to the provisions of Clause 4a, Clause 4b, Article 14 of Decree 37/2010/ND-CP supplemented by Article 1 of Decree 35/2023/ND-CP.

.- The master plan after being approved (including adjustments) is announced according to the regulations on announcing detailed planning projects.