In the "urban village," illegal constructions are ubiquitous, and the passages are extremely narrow, preventing large bulldozers from entering. As a result, manual labor with hammers is required to carry out demolition work. Photo by Liu Weiguang.
Correspondent: Liu Weiguang
There are a total of 67 households, but astonishingly, 58 of them have engaged in unauthorized construction. On average, each household has more than nine illegal buildings, covering an area of 131 square meters. In one extreme case, a single family built over 20 illegal rooms. The largest-scale "urban village" violation cleanup operation in Shanghai to date commenced on February 10th in Songjiang District.
90% of Families Engage in Unauthorized Construction
Upon entering Yicun Salt Warehouse located in Daijiabang, Yueyang Subdistrict of Songjiang District, one is immediately met with a dusty atmosphere. Under the occupation of various shabby illegal constructions, the already narrow streets appear even more congested. According to responsible officials from the district's landscaping and urban appearance bureau, this area represents the largest and most concentrated "urban village" with illegal constructions in Songjiang District. It has existed for five to six years and features numerous and complexly distributed illegal buildings. Due to the inability of large machinery and excavators to enter the village, the demolition of illegal constructions relies entirely on manual labor, presenting significant challenges.
Within the village, common issues include privately installed electrical wiring and dual-purpose commercial-residential use of spaces, posing serious fire hazards that greatly impact residents' lives and safety. "At the end of last year, there were two fires within the community, and fire trucks couldn't even get in," said Cao Guoping, deputy director of the Songjiang District Landscaping and Urban Appearance Bureau. "Finally, firefighters managed to extinguish the flames by using flexible hoses in a relay."
Villagers informed reporters that nearly 90% of the families in this "urban village" engage in unauthorized construction, subsequently renting out these spaces or opening small shops, leading to an extremely dirty and disorderly environment. Among them, one particularly notable family used their own vegetable garden and pig farm to construct over 20 illegal buildings, which they rent out to migrant workers at monthly rates ranging from 300 to 500 yuan.
To address this issue, the current largest-scale "urban village" rectification campaign in Shanghai will involve 58 households, totaling 546 rooms and covering 7,600 square meters. This operation, starting from February 10th and lasting 10 to 15 days, will focus on dismantling independent illegal constructions located on both sides of roads as well as those attached to main buildings. By February 12th, over 4,760 square meters had already been demolished. Following this, relevant departments will comprehensively level the roads, replant greenery, and improve the living environment. After the rectification, the roads in this area will be widened by an average of about 2 meters compared to before.
Increased Efforts to Dismantle Illegal Constructions in Villa Areas
Besides "urban villages," another challenging aspect of illegal construction removal involves high-end villa areas. This year, Songjiang District plans to intensify its investigation and dismantling efforts regarding illegal constructions in these zones. Deputy District Chief Chen Meng of Songjiang stated that last year, a comprehensive screening was conducted for illegal constructions within residential communities (including high-end villa areas). Through focused rectifications in villa areas such as Baijia Garden, Qiaoai Villa, Oasis Beverly Hills, and Yuehu Mountain Villa in She Town, the spread of illegal constructions in villa areas was effectively curbed. However, from last year's experience in removing illegal constructions, it was found that in addition to difficulties in detection, definition, division of responsibilities, and handling, there also exist certain human factors involved.
Relevant officials from the district's landscaping and urban appearance bureau also reported that last year, a villa owner dissatisfied with the outdated design of his villa spent 500,000 yuan hiring relevant personnel from a planning and design institute to create construction blueprints. He then secretly dug three additional floors underground beneath his two-story villa and added one more floor on top, transforming it into a six-story villa. After surrounding villa owners noticed this situation, not only did they fail to report it, but they also followed suit.
According to reports, last year, Songjiang District removed 3,617 households of existing illegal constructions, amounting to 12,181 rooms and a total area of 258,992 square meters, exceeding the initial goal of removing 180,000 square meters of illegal constructions by 136.4%. Additionally, throughout the year, newly added illegal constructions consisting of 455 rooms and covering 7,714 square meters were also dismantled.