Thursday, June 30, 2005
Cebu City land use plan mired in zoning conflicts
The absence of many details left members of the Cebu City Council and its guests “in limbo” yesterday, the start of a series of executive sessions on the proposed comprehensive land use plan (CLUP).
Questions on the names of the barangays and their classification went unanswered, as nobody from Schema Konsult Inc., the consulting firm that prepared the plan, was around.
The executive department is pushing for the approval of the CLUP, which segregates commercial, industrial and other activities within Cebu City.
The City’s total land area of 29,589 hectares is classified into four major zones, the biggest of which is for a protected area.
An area of 14,109 hectares or 47.68 percent is classified as the Protected Area Management Zone (PAMZ). The rest will be declared for peripheral urban land use (9,810 hectares or 33.15 percent), urban land use (4,166 hectares or 14.08 percent) and inner city or the urban core (1,504 hectares or 5.08 percent).
Divisions
Fr. Mar Alingasa of the Cebu United for Sustainable Water (CUSW) made a 15-minute presentation to summarize the 350-page plan.
He said it took the development council’s ad hoc committee three years to discuss what to do with the peripheral-urban area, which separates the center of the city from the PAMZ.
The peripheral-urban covers the riparian (areas adjacent to rivers), agri-tourism zone, eco-park, forest zone or the timberland, residential 1 and residential 2.
The urban land use zone covers 22 urban barangays, the cemetery, institutional, commercial, open space and recreation, residential 1 and residential 2, as well as the special economic zone (SEZ). The SEZ covers the South Road Properties (South Reclamation Project) and the Asiatown IT Park in Barangay Lahug.
Councilor Hilario Davide III asked for the difference between residential 1 and residential 2 and both Alingasa and Joel Reston of the City Planning and Development Office said the difference is the density of developments.
Comparison
As to the details of the developments, Alingasa said the Management Information and Computer Services (Mics) could provide more information.
“What is the density? What are we talking about? How big? My colleagues here are in limbo. We don’t understand anything,” Councilor Christopher Alix lamented.
Also, Alingasa said there are no details on the activities of the SRP, as there was no available land use plan on the 240-hectare reclamation area when they deliberated on the CLUP.
Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera thanked Alingasa for presenting the CLUP, but she said somebody from the City Planning and Development Office, the implementing office for the local zoning ordinance, should have made the presentation.
“They could have done better by presenting both the pictures of the existing land use then put the proposed land use plan on top. This way, we can see the difference,” Pesquera said.
She was referring to the proposed increase of 737 hectares in the urban land use zone, which she could not trace in the proposed map.
Critical
The existing plan defines 7,809 hectares for urban land use, while the proposed one by Schema Konsult will cover 8,546 hectares.
“From what area are we going to get this?” Pesquera said.
Alingasa explained that this could be taken from the peripheral urban land area or the peri-urban land area.
But the peri-urban will not be reduced if the 737-hectare difference will be taken from there. Also, intensive expansion should be avoided because of the “critical geographic and topographic formation of the area,” he said.
A representative from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources planning office, Councilors Edgardo Labella, Alix, Arsenio Pacaña and Procopio Fernandez also raised their concerns.
Vice Mayor Michael Rama hopes there are documents found at Mics, the Geographic Information System (GIS) and other government agencies that would be incorporated in the CLUP.
The body will meet again on July 20 with representatives from Mics, GIS, CPDO, Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board and, the DENR. (GAC)
(June 30, 2005 issue)
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