Chiang Mai presses for decentralisation of urban planning

Jenkit Sawasdio, vice president of the Chiang Mai Chamber of Commerce, said the committee would ask the central government to accelerate legislation related to decentralised urban planning in rural communities, allowing them to take part in setting out town plans. 

The private sector has suggested more decentralisation for Chiang Mai’s principal urban planning to keep pace with the city’s changing environment, the government’s economic development, the AEC and border trade, he said. Currently, urban plans nationwide are established by the central administration in Bangkok.

Decentralisation would be proposed for decision-making with three urban planning committees: a national land-use and urban planning policy committee; a central urban planning committee; and a provincial urban planning committee. Currently, there is only one central urban planning committee.

Jenkit said Chiang Mai city needed urban-planning reform speeded up as it was facing problems attracting investment and an economic slowdown as a result of its principal urban plan not being set by locals who understood the landscape.

The problems of Chiang Mai’s urban-planning development will be prioritised before the committee’s January 14 meeting, he said. These problems include outdated laws.

In its attempt to solve some of these problems, the chamber had a pilot model for Chiang Mai drafted that set out four visions. 

Among these visions, Chiang Mai’s conservation areas and promotion zones would be clearly separated and green areas would be kept as indicated in the city’s 2012 principal urban plan. Land use would be reintegrated with stations or stopping areas for a new mass-transport system with a likely land-use review for more mass-transport connectivity, while investment-promotion zones would be located in the east of the city.