Hainan Issues Detailed Rules for Implementing Urban Development Boundary Management

The Hainan Provincial Department of Natural Resources and Planning recently issued the "Implementation Rules for the Management of Urban Development Boundaries in Hainan Province (Trial)". This is one of the earliest specialized rules of its kind released nationwide, aiming to improve the level of territorial spatial governance through more detailed standards and procedures. The rules make differentiated arrangements for the management of construction land inside and outside urban development boundaries, clarifying the applicable scope, identification procedures, and planning basis for independent urban construction land, while also providing a clearer compliance path for special urgent projects outside the boundaries and the management of existing construction land. In terms of boundary adjustments, the rules further clarify the procedures for local optimization, technical corrections, and the use of flexible indicators. Among them, cases with an area of no more than 400 square meters and no more than 1% of the total land area submitted for approval may be recognized as technical corrections and counted toward the newly added scale of urban construction land. Hainan is also improving the coordination mechanism between detailed planning and boundary management, optimizing approval procedures, and introducing incentive and subsidy policies tied to indicators to encourage local areas to improve the level of land conservation and intensive use. The responsible official said these measures will help address shortcomings in the refined management system and provide support for the modernization of territorial spatial governance across the province.