China News Service, Haikou, November 4 (Reporter Fu Yuqun) The roof of the wind and rain corridor does not count the floor area ratio, the renovation of old buildings does not impose new regulations, and foreign entities can participate in project construction in accordance with the law... An urban renewal regulation with the imprint of a tropical island has been officially released, which will solve a series of blockages and difficulties in the revitalization of Hainan's old city.
Lin Gaofeng, deputy director of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the Hainan Provincial People's Congress, introduced at a press conference held by the Hainan Provincial Information Office on the 4th that the "Hainan Free Trade Port Urban Renewal Regulations" (referred to as the "Regulations") will be implemented on January 1, 2027.
As the renovation of old communities, area renewal, and revitalization of historical districts continue to advance, Haikou, Sanya and other places have gradually revealed institutional bottlenecks in planning and coordination, existing building renovation standards, relocation and resettlement, and issues left over from the history of existing real estate in their explorations. Legislation is urgently needed to break through the bottlenecks.
Lin Gao said that Hainan has listed the "Regulations" as a key regulatory project this year. The legislative process implements the concept of "people's cities are built by the people, people's cities are for the people", and the policies and practices that have been effective in practice are upgraded to local regulations. It also makes full use of the Hainan Free Trade Port's law-making power to carry out institutional innovation, and is committed to providing complete, systematic and effective legal compliance for Hainan's urban renewal.
According to reports, the "Regulations" cover the entire process of urban renewal from planning, project implementation, element guarantee to supervision and management.
The "Regulations" clarify that a diversified co-governance pattern of "government coordination, property rights holders' main responsibility, market participation, and expert support" will be established. While clarifying the responsibilities of governments at all levels, townships (streets), and villages (neighborhoods) committees, they will establish the dominant position of rights holders and encourage state agencies, state-owned enterprises, and public institutions to take the lead in revitalizing existing real estate. In line with the free trade port's positioning as open to the outside world, foreign natural persons, enterprises, etc. are allowed to participate in project planning, construction and operation through sole proprietorship, joint venture, cooperation, etc. in accordance with the law.
In order to prevent blind transformation, the "Regulations" regard "urban physical examination and evaluation" as a rigid prerequisite. Updates cannot be started blindly without completing the physical examination and evaluation. The evaluation results serve as the basic basis for the preparation and modification of special plans, area planning, annual plans and project implementation plans, creating a closed-loop management and control of "urban physical examination-special planning-area planning-project library-annual plan-project implementation plan", implementing regular project declarations and dynamic adjustments to prevent disorderly updates.
In response to pain points such as long project approval cycles and conflicting standards for the renovation of old buildings, the Regulations set flexible technical adaptation rules while strictly adhering to the bottom line of safety, and promote convenient mechanisms such as acceptance of shortfalls, parallel processing, notification of commitments, and exemption from approval. Large-scale projects allow package approval and implementation of individual projects.
Prioritizing people's livelihood runs through the entire legislative process. The "Regulations" regard the will of the masses as a prerequisite for project launch and details the voting rules for property rights holders. Relocation and resettlement adhere to the principle of resettlement first and then relocation, and provide various methods such as monetary compensation, property rights exchange, room ticket resettlement, etc., and allow the acquisition of existing commercial houses to be used as resettlement houses. After the demolition and reconstruction projects in old residential areas reach the prescribed contract ratio, a small number of unsigned houses may be expropriated in accordance with the law. After the installation of elevators in existing residences is approved by the owners, they can be exempted from applying for a construction project planning permit according to regulations. At the same time, we will explore a mechanism for self-renewal of old houses upon application to adapt to the actual renovation of self-built houses in Hainan.
Highlighting the "island characteristics" is the characteristic institutional innovation of the Regulations. The "Regulations" require that urban renewal must reflect tropical islands, regional culture and national characteristics, and avoid the same look for thousands of cities. Innovate and establish a "cool city construction system" to encourage the construction of ecological cold sources, ventilation corridors, wind and rain corridors and cool green spaces. The newly added roofs and supporting structures of wind and rain corridors will not be included in the floor area ratio. At the same time, we will strengthen the protection of historical and cultural heritage such as the Qilou District, Yazhou Ancient City, and Dongpo Academy, cultivate new scenarios for characteristic cultural tourism consumption, and promote the construction of sponge cities and energy-saving and carbon-reduction renovations of buildings.
The "Regulations" also have a dedicated chapter to strengthen the support of "factor guarantee", expand diversified financing channels, support the issuance of market-oriented financing products such as real estate investment trust funds in the infrastructure field, make full use of resources such as housing provident funds, building and ancillary facility maintenance funds, implement supporting tax and fee preferential policies, and guide the participation of social capital. In terms of land, we will optimize the cross-lot transfer mechanism for floor area ratio rewards and planning indicators, reasonably set the transition period for existing land, flexibly handle the land transfer period, and classify and resolve historical issues.
"The Regulations are based on the reality of Hainan, which not only solves the actual blockades, but also protects the bottom line of safety, people's livelihood, and ecology." Lin Gaozhi said that the promulgation and implementation of the Regulations will build an innovative, livable, beautiful, resilient, civilized, and intelligent modern people's city and provide a powerful legal engine to serve the high-quality development of the Hainan Free Trade Port. (over)
