Requirements and Principles in Urban and Rural Planning Activities

Requirements and Principles in Urban and Rural Planning Activities

Requirements for Urban and Rural Planning

Urban and rural planning must:

• Be concretized and consistent with national, regional, and provincial planning; align with socio-economic development objectives, ensure national defense and security; maintain consistency with sectoral development plans within the planning scope; and guarantee publicity, transparency, and a balance of interests among the State, the people, and enterprises.

• Provide forecasts of socio-economic and technical indicators based on scientific grounds, meeting practical requirements and consistent with urban, rural, and functional development trends; comply with standards on urban and rural planning; ensure rational exploitation and use of natural resources and land; meet requirements for green, smart, modern, and sustainable development; adapt to climate change; and prevent disasters that may affect communities.

• Ensure urban development takes into account public transportation orientation, effectively utilizing land resources to construct public transport hubs in connection with new development, renovation, and urban upgrading.

• Ensure consistency in architectural landscapes, technical infrastructure, social infrastructure, and underground spaces; promote harmonious development between urban, rural, and functional areas; ensure close and consistent linkage between newly developed and existing areas; preserve and promote local identity; conserve, protect, and enhance traditional cultural values, historical-cultural relics, and characteristic architectural works of each locality.

• Meet housing needs, including social housing, and provide social infrastructure to ensure accessibility for the people.

• Meet technical infrastructure requirements; ensure coherent and consistent connectivity between technical infrastructure systems within and outside the planning area.

• Ensure continuity of approved plans; study and propose appropriate solutions for existing areas and legally established, stable residential communities.

• When preparing or adjusting plans for urban renovation and upgrading, fully assess legal aspects, current land use, technical and social infrastructure, underground spaces (if any), socio-cultural and environmental factors, and architectural landscape values of the planning area, in order to devise appropriate solutions to ensure economical and efficient use of urban land, meet technical and social infrastructure requirements, and preserve and promote urban identity, architecture, and landscape.

• The validity period of general urban and rural planning shall be divided into phases consistent with the planning period as prescribed by the Law on Planning.

Principles in Urban and Rural Planning Activities

1. Urban and rural planning must be prepared, appraised, and approved to ensure consistency and compatibility among types and levels of planning, in accordance with the following principles:

   a) General plans may be prepared simultaneously; where general plans fall under different approving authorities, the general plan subject to a higher approving authority must be approved first; where general plans fall under the same approving authority, the general plan prepared and appraised earlier shall be approved first.

   b) Subdivision planning shall concretize the general plan in terms of development objectives, socio-economic and technical indicators, development orientation, spatial organization and functional zoning, development orientation of technical and social infrastructure systems, and underground spaces (if any). The contents, requirements, and principles ensuring concretization must be clearly specified in the plan.

   c) Detailed planning shall concretize the subdivision plan or, in cases where subdivision planning is not required, the general plan in terms of development objectives and investment requirements, spatial and landscape architectural arrangements, socio-economic and technical indicators, land-use functions and criteria, and solutions for planning technical and social infrastructure systems. The contents, requirements, and principles ensuring concretization must be clearly specified in the plan.

   d) Underground space planning and specialized technical infrastructure planning for a centrally-run city must be consistent with each other, concretizing development objectives, underground space planning orientations, and framework technical infrastructure systems, while ensuring coherence and synchronization with spatial and architectural landscape orientations in the general plan of the centrally-run city. The contents, requirements, and principles ensuring concretization must be clearly specified in the plan.

2. Agencies, organizations, and individuals, when implementing investment and construction programs, managing investment projects in urban and rural areas, managing spatial and landscape architecture, or carrying out other activities related to urban and rural planning, must comply with the approved urban and rural planning and separate urban designs, as well as with management regulations issued under the planning.

📖 Legal Basis: Articles 6 and 7, Law on Urban and Rural Planning 2024.