While people speak out against Hà Nội’s Red River Landscape Boulevard project, a nonprofit website called “Cộng đồng ven sông Hồng”—the Red River Riverside Community—has emerged to help residents understand their rights and file petitions.
Why it matters: Amid concerns over a lack of transparency in land clearance and compensation, residents recently have circulated a handbook titled “Guidance on petitioning the Hà Nội People’s Committee over the Red River Project,” compiled by the Red River Riverside Community project.
The handbook provides a prewritten petition asking the Hà Nội municipal government to clarify four groups of issues: the appraisal of the project’s total investment, the scope of land allocated in exchange for the project, the resettlement plan, and public consultation.
Residents only need to copy the prepared petition title and content, then submit it through the “Petitions and Feedback” section on the website of the Hà Nội People’s Committee.
The site also encourages residents to “invite others to submit the same petition” to give the request more weight.
The Red River Riverside Community project: The project is a community information platform for residents concerned about planning along the Red River—especially households worried about possible relocation, land acquisition, compensation, and resettlement.
The website states that it was created to compile public information from official sources and explain it in accessible language, clarify residents’ legal rights, provide practical guidance, and preserve village memory.
However, the operators do not present themselves as a group of planning experts or lawyers.
At present, the website analyzes key information related to the Red River Landscape Boulevard project and provides petition templates, questions, tools, and lists of documents residents should prepare when working with public authorities.
According to information on the website, the project’s first post was published on May 20, 2026.
A Facebook page bearing the same name published its first post on May 22 and began sharing information about the project in resident groups related to the Red River Landscape Boulevard on the same day.
Luật Khoa Magazine has not been able to verify whether the website and the Facebook page are part of the same project.
What remains unclear: It is not yet known who created and operates the website and the project.
Background: Since information about the Red River Landscape Boulevard project began emerging in early May 2026, the project has faced a wave of public opposition. Several Facebook groups have been created to share information and express residents’ frustration over the project.
Earlier, after a clearance plan surfaced on May 6, those groups circulated a petition from residents of Hồng Hà Ward in Hà Nội, calling on authorities to “clarify signs of irregularities in financial management and land use, and propose the preservation of the existing Hồng Hà residential area” within the project zone. The petition stressed that authorities must not carry out blanket clearance.
Other residents have also posted appeals urging the government to preserve and renovate existing residential areas rather than demolish them.
In recent days, residents have continued to warn that if implemented, the project could erase historical relics and cultural spaces that have existed for thousands of years.
The project file: The Red River Landscape Boulevard is a strategic megaproject of Hà Nội, with the stated goal of reshaping urban space along the Red River and improving the quality of the capital’s central urban area.
On May 11, 2026, the Hà Nội People’s Council approved the project’s investment policy. The project is expected to cost 736.963 trillion đồng ($28 billion), cover a planned area of 11,418 hectares, and relocate 247,431 residents across 16 communes and wards within the project area.
The project is expected to be carried out over 12 years, from 2026 to 2038. Its investors are Đại Quang Minh, Trường Hải, and Hòa Phát.
Hoàng Nam wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on May 25, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine has the copyrights of the English translation.
