Planning law and development approval
Prompted by emerging issues, I reviewed and reflected upon our planning law. I looked at other land laws and the constitution too. There are fundamental questions. I formed the opinion that the provisions requiring the surrender of private land upon applying for development approval under the Physical Planning and Land Use Act 2019 are flawed. It may be only a matter of time before the constitutional court expunges the offending provisions. They undermine private tenure rights. One wonders how they slipped into this important law.
See, we come from a background where previous planning law was abused to illegitimately move private land from proprietors seeking development approvals to some holders of strategic state and political offices. This is how it happened. Proprietors would make applications for the subdivision of private land, which would require the approval of the then Commissioner of Lands, and the respective local authorities, where applicable. Regulations under the Land Planning Act, Cap 303, now repealed, required that land for proposed public uses such as schools, hospitals, shops, markets and open spaces, among others, be freely surrendered. In some development schemes, this would amount to quite a lot of land. Once approval was accorded, the proprietor would lose such land to public purposes. Ironically, the land administration regime of the time would have such land covertly allocated to preferred public officers or political leaders, or quickly sold out to willing buyers at below market rates. This fate befell many company and cooperative farms whose subdivision approval was sought at the time.
