Tan Kin Lian's Blog: New concept in town planning

Thursday, October 18, 2007

New concept in town planning

I have a new concept in town planning.

Each town comprise of 100,000 residents. It has the facilities, such as a schools, malls, medical facilities, restaurants, services, offices and workplaces.

Several clubs are available in the town. You can join a club to enjoy its sporting and social activies. You get to make more friends and get to know your neighbours.

The unique feature is that all transport within the town will be by elevated light rail transport. Adequate trains are provided, so that the waiting time is less. There are no internal roads. Private cars are not allowed.

People can work or cycle at ground levels, and sheltered. They can move by travelletors. Bicylces belong to the town and can be rented for hourly use.

The internal transport will take the residents to the MRT stations, bus terminus or car parks that are located at the fringe of the towns. Some people do not need to own cars, as they can rent a car for a day.

This concept allows a higher density of development. It may be possible to have 50% more usage of the land.

It can support a good quality of life. Children can move around the town, without the fear of being knocked down by traffic. They can study in a nearby school in the town.

The entire town is a real estate investment trust (REIT). Each resident owns units of the REIT and has the prioirty to rent an apartment at its market rate. The dividend from the REIT can be used to offset the rental.

If the owner wants to work in another town, it is easy to rent an apartment in that town, and reinvest in that REIT. They do not have to incur a high cost of selling an indivual property. It gives flexibility for people to change jobs and make a new life, with new friends, in another town.

This concept will encourage more people to work in their town. It will reduce traffic congestion on the main roads in Singapore that connect the various towns.

I hope to get more people to like this idea. It may be suitable for Singapore, due to our limited land.

3 comments:

Rani said...: your idea is inline with the concept of compact city, new urbanism. however, i think you enrich the city planning debate by incorporating the financing element (through REIT) in it. Rarely town planner think about financing and implementation aspect of town planning, while these factors are critical for land-scarce singapore. so I think, your REIT idea warrants to be explored further. May be fruitful to push this idea to URA and HDB, Mr. Tan.; October 14, 2007 10:43 AM
Tan Kin Lian said...: Someone told me that when the One North project in Bouna Vista was being planned, they wanted to encourage the residents to travel on light rail transport and to reduce the private car traffic.

They found that the building of the rail transport to be costly. So, this idea was scrapped.

In my view, the planners overlooked the following:

1. By building light rail transport, it is possible to reduce the space taken by roads.

2. It allows a higher density, so that more buildings can be put on the limited land area.

3. The quality of life is better, if people can move around in public transport and do not have to worry about road traffic.

I hope that this project can be reconsidered.; October 20, 2007 7:42 PM
Zzz said...: Dear Mr. Tan,

i hv read your post about REITS long ago, but nv seriously think about it, today when I read some article about REITS, i remember your blog and come to search REITS in your blog, find that u are really v wise, even from 3 yrs ago, already start to educate public abt REITS investment. I totally agree wiz ur idea about investing in REITS and renting house. This reduce the high cost of owning property and all the hassle of selling it. Also, you can choose whatever place you want to live, v great idea for single young adult who cannot purchase HDB flat. Thanks a lot for your great advice.; January 05, 2010 11:03 PM