GUIDED LAND DEVELOPMENT

Guided land development (GLD) is a land management technique for guiding the conversion of privately owned land parcels in the urban boundary from rural to urban uses through the infrastructure systems.

The example was taken to make understand why provision of basic service is required for proper urban development to make safe and resilient cities as well as to guide the lands in a proper manner. One of the best design and planned concept to channelized the land with best possibilities of infrastructure development as well as preserving the green belts.
Urban design concept in Moscow. (Image source: Google)

Urban Design, Moscow

Guided land development is undertaken in the partnership with land owners, who can be participated by donating their land for the better levies. To facilitate the area with Infrastructure planning, this process is the best way to achieve the necessary targets. 

This proceed with the preparation of an infrastructure development plan which follows the existing plot boundaries. 

To finance this method and schemes, initially a loan is taken from the government or the PPP (Public-Private-Public Partnership) or joining the hands with multilateral partners and developers to build the necessary infrastructure in that locality which is paid from betterment levies which is provided by the land owners and can be either on limited time frame as partial installment or annual or in lump sump upon the land or in the terms and condition agreed by the land owners.

Guided Land Development is the best options used in different locations as where the areas being spread with urban settlement. When cities grow, people from different locality want to move into the urban areas to live there.

The city changes when areas are expanding into areas of privately owned land and where governments are not able to control the process of land modification from rural to urban use. By installing public infrastructures in those areas where government believes that the growth can be managed and can maintain flow of land, this tools (Guided Land Development) can encourage landowners to realize the increased value of their privately governed land resulting from its sub-division and servicing by either selling it to a builder or developer or sub-dividing and developing their governed land by themselves. 

This point of view requires that land administration office or agencies and the service providers act in a coordinated manner and have sufficient resources to install infrastructure of public basic services (like water-supply pipeline in a link roads to the planned area, drainage, road services, electricity and other most essential services which most of the people want on their daily lives to live for in a proper planning) in advance of demands and without guarantees of repayment. 

Similarly, this method can be adopted to change our land-use policy to preserve the land so as to protect the green growth as well, as day by day increasing number of population cutting trees and the green belts changing into a concrete belts lead to natural disaster threats from one point while climate change issues from the next perception. 

In Nepal this process is also carried out. There are two basic approach carried out but only from the profit and business point of view. People go for plotting of land as the concept of town planning is different in this case. 

However, Land pooling and Guided land development process were carried out in Kathmandu Valley but due to poor regulatory framework, it's ain't working properly. In Nepal the policy is quite different in context of developing lands. 

Here first a buyer buy the land from different landowner and the public facility comes next which is an issues to control the land and to facilitate the people as concerned stakeholders and social group even don't know what actually is the planning? They just know how to plot the land and sell it. Only profit and they do not concern on the basic services and facilities as the trend is that's not their issues. 

However, the regulatory instruments must be carried out for effective planning. Most of the stakeholders associate land use planning toolkit, especially in developing countries and cities. But in Nepal as being under-developed this process is biased in many cases depending upon the location and context. 

However, there are critical limitations to the efficacy of these instruments especially in our cities like Kathmandu Valley and other cities of Nepal where the built form is largely informal, the enforcement of the regulatory framework in its capacity seems much weak as observing thoroughly. 

Therefore, regulatory instruments must be based on appropriate standards targeting for locals, cities and regional development with strong enforcement capabilities. If not, regulatory instruments may be inappropriate or ineffective in shaping the urban form. Cities should be developed as per the designing and planning effective tools as well as prioritize based on their level of development plans and policies with strong laws and bylaws. 

Thus, a cities with severe financial control normally gives higher priority to form urban setting aside land in an organised manner for low-income communities and ensuring that land is plotted to enable basic public services and facilities for better service delivery to the ordering of land use for its own purpose. 

When the cities reaches to the middle or high income ranking, it is imperative that the land needed now or in the future to deliver public services be protected through proper rules and regulation so to avoid significant retrofitting costs which can be help to provide safe and resilient cities which would be a better tomorrow for the upcoming generation with proper infrastructure and a genuine approach for good service delivery.

Thank You,

Amit Pokhrel

M.Sc. Urban Design and Conservation

B.E. Civil