Comprehensive versus incremental industrial redevelopment: The role of planning
Urban planning has been pivotal in shaping China’s urban landscape since the early 2000s, with statutory plans regulating every detail of urban land. However, this planning-led development approach has proven inadequate for the redevelopment of inner-city industrial land, necessitating alternative approaches. To explore this issue, a comprehensive study was conducted, analyzing 395 industrial land redevelopment projects in four districts of Shanghai (Hongkou District, Putuo District, Yangpu District, and Jing’an District). Surprisingly, nearly half of these projects deviated from the established land use plans, indicating the emergence of an alternative (semi-)informal practice-led approach, specifically tailored to incremental industrial redevelopment. This study aims to dissect and compare the redevelopment processes under both approaches, examine the shifting role of planning as the alternative (re)development approach emerges, and address its legitimate issues. Key arguments presented include (i) challenges faced by the conventional planning-led development approach due to shifting national urban redevelopment strategies, paving the way for the emergence of an alternative approach in inner-city redevelopment; (ii) the Shanghai local government’s choice not to restructure the existing conformist urban planning system to accommodate land redevelopment demands, maintaining an ambiguous stance on the legitimacy of the practice-led redevelopment to retain the flexibility and discretionary authority of local government officials in decision-making; and (iii) due to their legitimate issues, incremental redevelopment projects executed through the practice-led approach may eventually be replaced by comprehensive planning-led redevelopment projects. Consequently, the former assumes a subordinate role to the latter and is viewed as temporary land reuse practices. Despite the observed emergence of the practice-led approach in industrial redevelopment in Shanghai, it is deemed not yet robust enough to offer a viable alternative path for inner-city redevelopment.
Bakir, N. Y., Dogan, U., Gungor, M. K., & Bostanci, B. (2018). Planned development versus unplanned change: The effects on urban planning in Turkey. Land Use Policy, 77:310-321.
Biggar, J., & Siemiatycki, M. (2020). Tracing discretion in planning and land-use outcomes: Perspectives from Toronto, Canada. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 43:508-524. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X20904427
Carmona, M., Carmona, S., & Gallant, N. (2003). Delivering New Homes: Processes, Planners and Providers. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203402733
Chen, X., Zhu, H., & Yuan, Z. (2020). Contested memory amidst rapid urban transition: The cultural politics of urban regeneration in Guangzhou, China. Cities, 102:102755. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2020.102755
Choguill, C. L. (1994). Crisis, chaos, crunch? Planning for urban growth in the developing world. Urban Studies, 31:935-945. https://doi.org/10.1080/00420989420080761
Guo, Y., Zhang, C., Wang, Y. P., & Li, X. (2018). (De-) Activating the growth machine for redevelopment: The case of Liede urban village in Guangzhou. Urban Studies, 55(7):1420- 1438. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098017729788
Gyourko, J., Sehn, Y., Wu, J., & Zhang, R. (2022). Land finance in China: Analysis and review. China Economic Review, 76:101868. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2022.101868
He, S. (2019a). The creative spatio-temporal fix: Creative and cultural industries development in Shanghai, China. Geoforum, 106:310-319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.07.017
He, S. (2019b). Three waves of state-led gentrification in China. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 110(1):26-34. https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12334
He, S., & Wu, F. (2005). Property-led redevelopment in post-reform China: A case study of Xintiandi redevelopment project in Shanghai. Journal of Urban Affairs, 27(1):1-23. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0735-2166.2005.00222.x
He, S., & Wu, F. (2009). China’s emerging neoliberal urbanism: Perspectives from urban redevelopment. Antipode, 41(2):282-304. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00673.x
Healey, P. (1997). Collaborative Planning: Shaping Places in Fragmented Societies. London: Red Globe Press.
Hsing, Y.T. (2006). Land and territorial politics in urban China. The China Quarterly, 187(2006):575-591. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741006000385
Jiang, Y., Waley, P., & Gonzalez, S. (2018). “Nice apartments, no jobs”: How former villagers experienced displacement and resettlement in the Western suburbs of Shanghai. Urban Studies, 55(14):3202-3217. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098017740246
Lai, Y., Tang, B., Chen, X., & Zheng, X. (2021). Spatial determinants of land redevelopment in the urban renewal processes in Shenzhen, China. Land Use Policy, 103:105330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105330
Liu, H., Zhou, G., Wennersten, R., & Frostell, B. (2014). Analysis of sustainable urban development approaches in China. Habitat International, 41:24-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2013.06.005
Liu, T., Huang, D., Tan, X., & Kong, F. (2020). Planning consistency and implementation in urbanizing China: Comparing urban and land use plans in suburban Beijing. Land Use Policy, 94:104498. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104498
Liu, Y., & Zhou, Y. (2021). Territory spatial planning and national governance system in China. Land Use Policy, 102:105288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105288
Long Y., Gu, Y., & Han, H. (2012). Spatiotemporal heterogeneity of urban planning implementation effectiveness: Evidence from five urban master plans of Beijing. Landscape and Urban Planning, 108(2-4):103-111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2012.08.005
Long Y., Han, H., Lai, S.K., Jia, Z., Li, W., & Hsu, W. (2020). Evaluation of urban planning implementation from spatial dimension: An analytical framework for Chinese cities and case study of Beijing. Habitat International, 101:102197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2020.102197
McGee, T., Lin, G.C.S., Marton, A., Wang, M., & Wu, J. (2007). China’s Urban Space: Development under Market Socialism. London, New York: Routledge.
Munneke, H.J. (2005). Dynamics of the urban zoning structure: An empirical investigation of zoning change. Journal of Urban Economics, 58:455-473. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2005.07.001
Ren, X. (2014). The political economy of urban ruins: Redeveloping Shanghai. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 38(3):1081-1091. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12119
Shih, M. (2017). Rethinking displacement in Peri-urban transformation in China. Environment and Planning A, 49(2):389-406. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X16670158
SICDRI - Shanghai Industry Conversion and Development Research Institute (ed.). (2017). Cases of Shanghai Industrial Conversion and Urban Regeneration. Shanghai: Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House. [in Chinese].
Talen, E., Anselin, L., Lee, S., & Koschinsky, J. (2016). Looking for logic: The zoning-land use mismatch. Landscape and Urban Planning, 152:27-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.04.002
Tian, L., & Shen, T. (2011). Evaluation of plan implementation in the transitional China: A case of Guangzhou city master plan Cities. Cities, 28(1):11-27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2010.07.002
UN-Habitat. (2015). International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning. Nairobi: UN-Habitat.
Wang, M., Krstikj, A., & Koura, H. (2017). Effects of urban planning on urban expansion control in Yinchuan City, Western China. Habitat International, 64:85-97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2017.04.008
Wu, F. (2015). Planning for Growth: Urban and Regional Planning in China. London: Routledge.
Wu, F. (2016). State dominance in urban redevelopment: Beyond gentrification in urban China. Urban Affairs Review, 52(5):631-658. https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087415612930
Wu, F., Xu, J., & Yeh, A.G.O. (2007). Urban Development in Post-reform China: State, Market, and Space. Oxon, New York: Routledge.
Wu, F., Zhang, F., & Liu, Y. (2021). Beyond growth machine politics: Understanding state politics and national political mandates in China’s urban redevelopment. Antipode, 54(2):608-628. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12781
Xia, Y. (2017). Industrial Transformation and Urban Redevelopment: Thirty-eight Practical Approaches. Beijing: Zhongxing Publishing House. (in Chinese).
Yeh, A.G.O. (2005). Dual land market and internal spatial structure of Chinese cities. In: L Ma and F Wu (eds.). Restructuring the Chinese City: Changing Society, Economy and Space. London, New York: Routledge.
Yeh, A.G.O.Y., & Wu, F. (1996). The new land development process and urban development in Chinese cities. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 20(2):330-335. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2427.1996.tb00319.x
Yin, C., Xiao, J., & Qian, X. (2023). Understanding urban planning failure in China: Identifying practitioners’ perspectives using Q methodology. Cities, 134:104193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2023.104193
Zhang, T. (2002). Urban development and a socialist pro-growth coalition in Shanghai. Urban Affairs Review, 37:475-99.
Zhang, Y., & Fang, K. (2004). Is history repeating itself?: From urban renewal in the United States to inner-city redevelopment in China. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 23(3):286-298. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X03261287
Zhao, P., Lu, B., & Woltjer, J. (2009). Growth management and decentralisation: An assessment of urban containment policies in Beijing in the 1990s. International Development Planning Review, 31:55-79. https://doi.org/10.3828/idpr.31.1.4
Zhou, X. (2017). The Institutional Logic of Governance in China: An Organizational Approach. Beijing: SDX Joint Publishing. (in Chinese).
Zhu, J. (1999). Local growth coalition: The context and implications of China’s gradualist urban land reforms. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 23:534-548. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.00211
Zhu, J. (2004). From land use right to land development right: Institutional change in China’s urban development. Urban Studies, 41(7):1249-1267. https://doi.org/10.1080/0042098042000214770