Abstract
Although urban growth control policies are widely adopted to help sustainable development in various countries, including China, few studies have been conducted to investigate the effectiveness and optimization of such policies in Chinese cities. Hangzhou, China, was chosen for this study as the research object, where the local authorities manage the urban sprawl via an urban development boundary policy. The institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework was employed to identify the conflicts between the central government and the local government as well as the developers and homebuyers in the formal/informal stage. The analysis shows that, with the implementation of the policy, problems such as fiscal crises, property inflation, and illegal construction will appear as a result of actors’ interactions. The study also highlights that industrial land transfer inside the boundary should be controlled in a reasonable range and that a land value tax should be introduced during the implementation of the urban development boundary policy.
Highlights
Due to the continuous extension of traffic infrastructure to the periphery of cities, lowdensity developments appear in large numbers, leading to the unsustainable development of the economy and society
An urban containment policy is broadly considered to be necessary for efficient land use and the promotion of sustainable development in rapidly changing cities
The urban development boundary policy remains in the initial stage of implementation in Hangzhou, and the actual results of its implementation have not yet been observed clearly from the objective reality
Summary
Due to the continuous extension of traffic infrastructure to the periphery of cities, lowdensity developments appear in large numbers, leading to the unsustainable development of the economy and society. Countries all over the world have responded to the growing concern about the issues associated with urban sprawl by creating urban containment policies designed to manage urban growth and protect open space [1,2]. This phenomenon can be described as policy transfer, a process in which knowledge on policies in one place is used in the development of policies in another place [3]. The urban containment policy in the United States uses an urban growth boundary, which is very similar to a greenbelt. Cities in Oregon, Washington, and Tennessee began to implement an urban growth boundary policy [6,7]
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