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Presently, Bangkok has been rapidly growing and becoming more densified. However, the city faces the problem of Land Vacancy resulting from ineffective usage of sites in the inner city. Several land plots are neglected, abandoned, deteriorated, or deserted without proper plans of development. This phenomenon has negative impacts on economy and urban development. This research is purposed to be an empirical study about the phenomenon of vacant land in the inner Bangkok, with 3 objectives; to explore the land use change patterns of vacant land in inner Bangkok, to analyze and summarize those changing trends, and to suggest policies to utilize vacant land in urban development. The research questions are; what changes have happened to the vacant land plots, and what are the reasons and motivations to encourage development of the vacant land in inner Bangkok?
The author conducts investigations of agglomeration and dispersion, and land use changes of vacant land plots in inner Bangkok, by categorizing the Geological Information Data (GIS) data into three different groups of vacant land size; group of small polygons ranging from 1.5 to 5 Rai, group of medium polygons ranging from 5 to 15 Rai, and group of large polygons ranging from 15 to 30 Rai, and compares the changes of land use that have occurred among groups. The GIS data, collected in 2015 by the Division of Urban Planning Geographic Information, City Planning Department, BMA, is used as the base data for this research to identify the locations of vacant land plots, and researchers compare them with present situations show in Google Street View to discover changes and analyze differences among divided groups. Besides, interviews with 9 key informants are conducted; 5 from the group of land owner, and 4 from the group of developer and expert, in order to explore and analyze points of view, attitudes, and motivations toward the development of vacant land.
The result shows following findings. (1) Approximately 50 percent of vacant land plots do not have any change implemented during 2015-2022, and still remain deserted. (2) As land use changes found, the group of small polygons seems to have fewer changes comparing with the other groups. This can be explained that small plots do not attract business interests upon land developers because there are more limitations for real estate development, and it is hard to make enough profit to meet the cost of land acquisition in the area with high land price. (3) it is interestingly noted that around 22 percent of land plots in the group of large polygons have been changed to agricultural use, comparing with the number of 10 and 7 percent of the groups of medium and small polygons. Therefore, changes to be agricultural land found in large land plots are significantly high. This can be presumed as an impact of execution of Land and Building Tax Act BE 2562, because tax rate for vacant land is set progressive year by year if the owners leave their land deserted, contrast with tax rate for agricultural use which is set low, thus large land plot owners change their land use agriculturally in order to reduce their tax burden.
Above findings lead to the following policy suggestions. (1) New tax rates for agricultural land use should be considered. With greater detail, agricultural land use in urban areas should be taxed at a higher rate than ordinary agricultural land use, in order to prevent tax avoidance. (2) There should be more investment in infrastructure by public sector, or implementation of land readjustment to encourage more urban development of medium and small land plots. (3) BMA should have a mechanism to establish cooperation with land owners to transform vacant land into temporary public spaces, while they are waiting for a suitable development period, exchange with some tax benefits. |
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