The Construction of urbanization needs Land Protection Law

The new urbanization strategy and the practice of urban growth management at home and abroad objectively require our country to formulate policies and laws in time to cope with the impact of rapid urbanization on land protection.

Aldo Leopold, the founder of American new environmental theory, carefully observed and considered the relationship and fate between human beings and land, and put forward a series of issues about the protection of land environment in the Sandy country Yearbook published in 1949. However, at that time, the United States was confidently conquering nature and using land for the post-war economic recovery, and did not pay attention to the concept of "land community" and "land morality" emphasized in this book.

The prominence of the problem leads to the reform of land management.

In the sixties and seventies of the 20th century, many American cities expanded in low density and disorderly, engulfing a large number of farmland resources and natural landscape, bringing serious social, economic and environmental problems; suburbanization causes problems such as the decline of the center of the old city, the inefficiency of municipal facilities, traffic congestion and the lack of community atmosphere in the suburbs, which have many negative effects on urban development. In order to solve these problems, American academia, planning agencies, government departments and real estate groups reflect on the urban development model. "American growth ethics is challenged, and it is no longer accepted unreservedly as a prerequisite for progress." In 1971, Fred P. Bosselman and David L. Kallis wrote the quiet Land use Control Revolution (The Quiet Revolution in Land Use Control), pointing out that land management in the United States is in a revolution within the scope of law, and that American state governments and regional agencies should regulate the unregulated land market through planning and policies.

In 1973, Oregon Senate Act 100 promulgated the Oregon Land use Regulatory system and created the Land Protection and Development Commission and its subordinate Department of Land Protection and Development. The Ministry of Land Protection and Development is responsible for approving all local programmes and related analytical reports to ensure that local planning (including urban growth boundaries) processes and results are consistent with statewide planning objectives and related principles of action. Oregon took the lead in creating a statewide planning system in the United States, establishing the concept and implementation method of "urban growth boundary", and establishing a strict examination and approval system for public participation and supervision. In 1976, Salem, the capital of Oregon, was the first to adopt the "urban growth boundary" to delineate the scope of urban development. The so-called "urban growth boundary" is to use an imaginary line to divide urban and non-urban land (farmland and woodland, etc.), and to restrict urban land through the implementation of low-density land use policies and zoning control technology. prevent cities from developing beyond the growth boundaries. The "urban growth boundary" achieves an orderly and efficient transition from agricultural to urban land, meets the land needs of urban population and urban employment within the boundaries of urban growth, ensures effective land use, promotes compact growth in existing urban areas, and protects farms, woodlands and open spaces, providing livable communities.

Oregon's "urban growth boundary" policy is governed by strict state legislation and approved by state-level authorities, and there is a scientific basis for its establishment, implementation and updating. Oregon legislation requires counties to report annually to the State Land Conservation and Development Board on all their decisions on land use and land zoning permits for farmland, forests, pastures and mixed land areas. About 16 million acres of private land in Oregon are located in exclusive agricultural areas and are subject to the statutory jurisdiction of the state planning system. The zoning law for exclusive agricultural areas prohibits the use of land for urban purposes, such as residential areas, shopping malls or parks. The Oregon government protects resource land by establishing land management policies such as dedicated agricultural areas, forest areas, agricultural-forest areas, urban land reserve areas, rural reserve areas and land development rights conversion system. ensure that urban land can be used efficiently within the boundaries of urban growth; guide urban expansion through the phased development of urban infrastructure; and regulate land through tax policies.

American urbanization "changes from urban sprawl to shrewd growth"

Intensive urbanization mode protects a large amount of rural land from being occupied by urban development and construction. So far, Oregon has more than 240 "urban growth boundaries", of which the Portland metropolitan area covers the largest area. When there is widespread disorderly spread in American cities, intensive urbanization represented by Portland protects a large amount of rural land from being occupied by urban development and construction. In addition, cities such as Seattle, Washington, San Jose, California, Miami, Florida, and Twin cities, Minnesota, also use the "urban growth boundary" model in planning practice to effectively control city size and land area.

At the same time, American scholars continue to enrich the theory of urban land use management policy, in which "Land Zoning Law" is regarded as an important part of the study of American land use control. "the transition from urban sprawl to smart growth" has become a special chapter of the American Law School case course "Land use" (Cases and Materials on Land Use). "growth Management" has been discussed in detail by many land law monographs and teaching materials. The policy and legal research of land protection has produced a variety of research methods and innovative ideas in foreign interdisciplinary research.

Urban sprawl has led to a large number of land urbanization, and the fragmentation of ecological space such as farmland, wetlands, mountains and forests has become a common phenomenon in the world, which has been concerned by government officials and researchers in the field of planning and management. Western scholars also continue to pay attention to the environmental problems caused by urban expansion in Asia, Africa and Latin America. George Haldoy (Jorge Hardoy) uses the method of comparative study to summarize the emphasis on land use and how to promote sustainable development in Brazil, China, Germany, Mexico and the United Kingdom in the past 10 or 20 years in his book Environmental problems in the urbanized World (Environmental Problems in an Urbanizing World).

It is urgent to establish a land protection law.

China is transforming from a society dominated by traditional agriculture to a modern society with industrialization and urbanization. American economist Joseph Stiglitz (Joseph Stiglize) called China's urbanization process one of the two things that "affect the process of the world and change the face of the world in the 21st century". Since the reform and opening up, the process of rapid urbanization in China has caused serious land problems, such as urban sprawl led to a large number of land urbanization; a large number of land enclosures in the name of urbanization, land idle, serious waste and so on. The reason behind these land problems is that the concept of the legal system of land protection in China lags behind, the system is missing, and the operation of the system can not keep up with the rapid development of urbanization.

As the core issue of urban growth management, land use and protection need policy and legal response urgently. On the premise of studying many factors and development characteristics of China's cities, such as society, economy, culture, resources and so on, it is of outstanding practical significance to integrate the "urban growth boundary" into China's urban planning system and draw lessons from the urban growth management policy of the United States. it is of outstanding practical significance to absorb the experience of urban sprawl management in the United States and localize it, so as to promote the quality upgrading and transformation of urbanization in China. In July 2014, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Land and Resources jointly identified 14 cities across the country to carry out pilot work to delineate urban development boundaries, with the aim of transforming urban development and land use patterns. The "opinions on accelerating the Construction of Ecological Civilization" published in 2015 emphasized "vigorously promoting green urbanization". This programmatic document puts forward a task for the construction of the rule of law of land protection in the new urbanization strategy, and clearly requires that "scientifically determine the intensity of urban development, improve the efficiency of urban land use, the population density of built areas, and define the boundaries of urban development. We should strictly supply urban construction land and promote the development of urbanization from extension expansion to connotation promotion".

Carrying out the compact and continuous spatial development model of cities in our country, building eco-cities and strengthening the rule of law of land protection are the key to all kinds of work. In view of the fact that there are few provisions on land protection in the current laws and regulations, scholars call on China's land legal system to determine the principle of saving and intensive land use and to establish new land use, that is, "ecological land use" and its legal system. It is advocated that incentive land use control should be used to replace the traditional administrative control with excessive system cost, and the "urban-rural dual structure" in environmental legislation should be eliminated.

The new urbanization strategy and the practice of urban growth management at home and abroad objectively require our country to formulate policies and laws in time to cope with the impact of rapid urbanization on land protection. In order to promote the construction of the rule of law of land protection in China's new urbanization development strategy, we should construct an urban development evaluation system based on the concept of ecological civilization, and take resource consumption, environmental damage and ecological benefits as important indicators of the urban development evaluation system; comprehensively build a land protection system with the land planning system as the forerunner, the land use control system as the core and the ecological protection responsibility system as the backing. Establish the urban environmental spatial planning and control system represented by the overall urban environmental planning and the red line of urban ecological protection, and establish the implementation mechanism and guarantee mechanism of land protection in urban construction.

Only by deeply understanding the importance and urgency of the construction of the rule of law of land protection in the development strategy of China's new urbanization, will it be more helpful for our country to "grasp the correct direction and walk out a new road of urbanization".