Since the beginning of this year, Huai'an City has focused on addressing problems in urban public spaces—particularly in "grey spaces"—such as poor environmental conditions, disorder, and prominent safety hazards. Following the principle of "one place for three uses," the city has concentrated efforts on "two areas, two belts, and one corridor," using refined governance to reshape the urban fabric.

Huai'an has developed the Implementation Plan for Urban Public Space Governance in Huai'an City for 2025, which outlines work objectives, governance principles, governance scope, key tasks, and implementation steps. For this year, approximately 160 square kilometers of urban public spaces have been designated for governance. Efforts are concentrated on tackling "grey spaces" such as urban-rural fringes, administrative border areas, inefficient land use zones, and agricultural-related plots. Through meticulous inspections, the city has identified issues related to poor sanitation, disorder, and poor environment. Three targeted lists have been created: one for problems, one for corrective requirements, and one assigning responsibilities. Adhering to the approach of "inspecting and rectifying simultaneously," Huai'an has already achieved a 77.6% completion rate in addressing such issues along main and secondary roads.

Focusing on environmental remediation, infrastructure upgrades, business revitalization, and enhanced integrated use, the Huai'an Urban Management Bureau, in collaboration with the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau, Water Conservancy Bureau, Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, and Natural Resources and Planning Bureau, as well as county and district governments, has removed 68,000 tons of accumulated waste, demolished 19,000 square meters of illegal structures, rectified 6,400 meters of unauthorized fencing, reorganized 117 sets of utility poles and overhead lines, and cleared 46 makeshift dwellings with safety risks. A total of 1.81 million square meters of idle land has been repurposed; 17,000 fruit tree saplings have been planted; 610,000 square meters of grass seed and commercial turf have been sown; and 670,000 square meters of economic crops such as rapeseed have been cultivated. In addition, 31,000 meters of silted ditches have been dredged and ecological waterways renovated, 890 new parking spaces have been added near residential areas, and 61 sets of public sports facilities have been installed.