– Urban planner advises city government not to forget its vision statement
WHILE THE Davao City government is getting the flak for taking it so long to amend the zoning ordinance, a prominent environmental planner has raised doubts over the necessity of changing the code which regulates the use of the city’s land resources in the implementation of the City Land Use Plan (CLUP).
“Urban patterns or urban growth cannot happen drastically in five to 10 years unless you are just allowing anything to happen. Pero kung magaling po ang CLUP and zoning ordinance (implementation) magkakaroon po ng controlled and regulated urban development,” said Liza Marie K. c, president of the Philippine Institute of Environmental Planners, during the general membership meeting last Friday of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII).
Davao City’s CLUP and the corresponding revised zoning ordinance passed in 1996, were approved for implementation by the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) only in mid-2001 amid criticism that the document had already become outdated at the time of the approval by HLURB. The CLUP covers a 25-year period until 2021.
Elum said that a CLUP, as a long-term guide for the physical development of the local area, already identifies areas where development may, or may not, be located with a time horizon of up to 30 years, depending on the population growth rate.
She emphasized that an urban pattern changes when a population of a certain area doubles. In the case of Davao City, which has an annual population growth rate of 2.57% between 1995-2007, the population doubling time is 27 years or two years over than the 25-year period covered by the current CLUP of the city.
Elum also clarified that a local government unit is not obliged by law to update its CLUP and zoning ordinance every five years. “What is mandated (by HLURB) is to review and update only when necessary.”
In the midst of the fast-paced development taking place in Davao City, Elum said a controlled growth can ensure both the city’s ecological integrity and the quality of life of its people.
“It’s very expensive to overhaul physical development, but what you can do is to identify where areas that you do not want growth anymore and where you can no longer expand. You should direct growth where it should be,” she said.
Roberto P. Alabado III, consultant on planning and development of the City Planning and Development Office, said the city’s current CLUP already identifies urban settlements and growth areas.
The CLUP embodies “multi-nuclei” development strategy defining hierarchy of urban settlements that seek the establishment of a network of growth centers meant to rationalize development initiatives in the city’s vast land area.
The strategy provides “a springboard for a productive management and optimum utilization of the city’s physical and human resources” by designating district urban centers like Toril, Buhangin, Agdao and Calinan, as the city’s sub-economic centers.
Elum, however, also emphasized that the provisions of the CLUP should be strictly enforced.
“When enacted into zoning ordinance, the CLUP becomes a statutory plan whose provisions are not merely indicative but are legally enforceable,” she said.
A case which drew a lengthy discussion during the open forum of the meeting is the proliferation of informal settlements along the city’s foreshores and waterways.
“One of the generic goals of physical planning is the rational distribution of population. Our local government officials must understand that they have the responsibility to remove settlements from danger zones,” Elum said.
“Foreshore areas are danger zones, especially now with the heightened threat (of the effects) of global warming like tsunamis and sudden rise of water levels. What is really needed is the political will,” she added.
Abalado conceded over the non-enforcement of laws prohibiting settlements along the foreshore areas.
“We Filipinos have so many laws that we don’t even enforce,” he said.
But Abalado justified the problem on the informal settlers is more economic in nature.
“The problem of our people right now is an economic situation such as ours where we have massive poverty. We have available lands for subdivisions, for developers. However their prices are almost out of reach for our people. So, their option is to squat on public areas,” he said.
Saying that relocating the settlers is too costly, Abalado instead asked the business sector to help address the problem on squatting.
“We all know that they should not be there, but are we willing, everyone of us—city government, developers, corporations—to invest para tanggalin sila doon? It will take millions of pesos just to relocate everyone. So, if you say you are willing to contribute, then kausapin natin ang city government,” he said.
“If you have land, you contribute land, why not? But if you are going to expect the local government to act alone, we will not be able to solve that,” Abalado added.
At the same time, urban planner Elum lamented the propensity of local government units to write fancy and ambitious words as their mission statements, but completely forget about them after hanging them on the with in fancy frames.
She said that a mission statement of an LGU should be different from the others, so that each it will be clear what a niche wants to develop for itself.
A mission statement, like a CLUP, should always be the guide or “bible” of the Sanggunian, City Hall and the entire LGU in starting projects designed to develop their areas or jurisdiction or in approving request for development permits.
