Government Intervention In City Land Use

Since China’s reform and opening up, as economic system reformed and compensated land use system established, the government urban land utilization orientation, their own interests, and their relevant policies influence on the urban land utilization which further causing the huge change in the urban land utilization spatial structure. Along with the rapid development of urbanization, how to protect and reasonable develop urban land, guide urban land use towards efficient development, promote urban sustainable development of society and economy, have been a urgent practical problem needs to solve in urban land management for the central and city government in our country. The perspective on research of government intervention to urban land use is currently increasingly rich, content and technical methods also expand and improve. But so far, most of the research concentrated on the means of government intervention, the government role and behavior description, the analysis of government intervention failures, the lack of a systematic government intervention in the discussion of the impact of urban land use system. There are many content and perspective on government intervention to urban land use study, this paper mainly from the perspective of planning management, research government intervention in urban land use structure and layout and its behavior during the evolution.Urban land natural, social and legal properties determine the urban land market mechanisms existing obvious defects, such as the limitation of urban land quantity making supply relative lack of elastic; position immobility making urban land market is regional monopoly market; the land plot individual making trading information is very important; use diversity making urban land use externality widespread; the land of wealth and natural value making the flood of land speculation. In order to make the urban land utilization conforms to the social and public interests and overcome the defects of market mechanism, there are universal existence of urban land use behavior of government intervention in market economy countries. At present, our country executes the socialist public ownership of land, in practice by the governments at various levels is on behalf of the country on the ownership of the land, which determines the government has very strong reaction in our urban land use development process. In fact, government intervention at this stage there is still some limitations, ordered intervention is still looking forward to further study.Through theoretical analysis and empirical studies, our thesis puts forward the following basic conclusion:(1) Government intervention is to correct the market failure and supplement.Pareto efficiency can not be achieved merely by market. Individuals purchase land for maximizing profit and their behavior are not always inconsistent with social benefit. This conflict sets obstacles for forming reasonable land use structure. This may cause chaos in structure and planning of city land use. Therefore some specific methods need to be carried out to make things right. Government intervention exists because markets have faults. Government intervention balances the market supplies and demands by economic, law and necessary administrative means. Government intervention provides suitable economic and social environment to guide each benefit group to make appropriate decision. Government controls the city land use under specific purposes and this could lead to reasonable allocation of city land resources.(2) Government effort is the leading factor of forming city land structure and planning.Difference with our country, western urban development more influence by market forces which caused urban land use pattern formation and evolution, the government forces only occupy auxiliary status, main effect is generated, catalytic and improve market forces. But in China, the government forces are the dominant factors in spatial structure of urban land use formation and evolution, making the critical and irreplaceable role.①From the administrative power and concept direction, the western city is a relatively independent legal, economic and lifestyle system, and our city is the accessories of central power.②From the people composition and ideology direction, citizens are the host of city, common interest groups in western culture. In our country, the urban residents and authorities are rulers and the ruled relationship, without special relevance between the city and the public.③From urban management concepts direction, the western city construction is on the basis of the law, the government power and public power are clearly defined in the law. In China the urban construction is on the basis of the rule which is the fundamental interests of the state, making it the highly centralized government domination mode.④From the urban management methods direction, in western countries, the government’s identity is just as social management, whose main responsibility is remedy the defects of urban land market mechanism. They mainly by means of legal administration and administrative means only in certain cases will be adopted. In China, the government not only as a manager, but also as the land owners and land market operators, with multiple identities in urban land market. The land resources management is emphasized by administrative means, economic means use limited, and legal means are still unsound.(3) Planning is the most effective way to guide and control city land use.In urban land use, the central government and local government intervention should achieve a combination way in the longitudinal and horizontal intervention by means of planning management. Comparing with other methods, planning has direct influence on the city land use. It has functions to harmonize and guide. It becomes the important method to offset the negative effects in the land use and development and even to achieve some social aims. Nowadays around the world, planning is the most important part of government functions. In China, for city land use, the most essential part is the overall land use planning and overall city planning. They both form the overall guidelines for city land spatial management in some major areas in China. Planning could set the land use method, structure the land use and control the size of city land use through certain technical methods. It could guide city land use in four areas that is characteristic, quantity, location and time sequence. Through the reasonable allocation of land resources, the land use structure, size and spatial structure could be finally settled with the purpose to optimize city land use. This purpose could also be reached by information supply, reducing researching fee, improving city managing level and the operation of land market.(4) Government management mechanism is the chief factor to influence government intervention.From the positive side, the "all over the country mechanism" could collect present man power, financial power and material resource in a very short time. This powerful intervention drives the rapid development of city economy. It helps to advance the process of city road urbanization. The centralized city land use could also improve the efficiency and benefits of city land use. However, the law lacks of ruling and monitoring government management mechanism. Local government and officials also have the authority for city land use. This behavior is not written in law. Sometimes the authority is abused. Too much power is given to local government and some of the planning can not be carried out properly. The planning department is not treated with proper respect. The planning could not turn out to be real projects. City land use is affected both by planning economy and modern functionalism. With the influence of localism, self satisfaction and high local government performance, the local government may not obey the rules and laws. They tend to alter the planning to meet individual needs. Construction targets and farm land target can not be met according to plan. A plenty of land is used improperly. It is common that the land use efficiency is low for all kinds of developing areas. Thus, the profits got from land asset are lost greatly.Based on the research above, this essay tries to analyze the forming of orderly government intervention. This including:the implementation of institutional decentralization, and regulate government behavior; establish the concept of governance, management functions of government policy rather than defined as the implementation of policy; building collaborative planning and management system, establish a central government control will perform both vertical interventions, but also reflects the development aspirations of local government intervention in the horizontal, co-ordination, mutual cooperation and mutual restraint and joint action planning and management system. Improve security measures to expand public participation in the body and ways to improve the legal awareness and increase the force of law.