Public needs to take part in city planning<\/p>\n
By Hayati Sari Hasibuan<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta provincial legislative council
\nendorsed a new bylaw on city planning on July 28, 1999,
\nstipulating stricter control of land use to ensure adequate green
\nareas in the capital. The bylaw also stipulates city planning
\nshould be evaluated every five years.<\/p>\n
Under the new bylaw, the city administration will regulate the
\nexpansion of green areas from 7.2 percent of the city's current
\ntotal area of 650-square kilometers, to 13.94 percent by 2010.
\nThe bylaw will introduce no other significant changes.<\/p>\n
The bylaw was based on the projection of 12.5 million city
\nresidents by 2010, compared to 9.7 million at present. Under the
\nnew city plan, which consists of 13 chapters and 100 articles,
\ndevelopment will be concentrated in East, West and North Jakarta,
\nwith South Jakarta maintained as a water-catchment area.<\/p>\n
Development in North Jakarta will be focused on turning the
\nThousand Islands into major tourist and marine attractions,
\nimproving the fishery sector and preserving the area's mangrove
\nforests. A previously planned reclamation project in the Jakarta
\nBay will also be continued.<\/p>\n
In West Jakarta, development will focus on business and
\ncommercial centers. An industrial center will be the specific
\ntarget of development in East Jakarta. Development in Central
\nJakarta will focus on a center for government offices and
\neconomic enterprises.<\/p>\n
Urbanization and urban development are inevitable prices of
\neconomic and social development. In fact, cities are the prime
\nmovers of economic development. The question is can we manage the
\nurban development and urbanization? Can we make them prime movers
\nin national development? What can we do to organize urban
\ndevelopment in the future?<\/p>\n
In Indonesia, the past style of managing urban development,
\nwhich relied heavily on the government, will no longer be
\nsuitable. In the near future, the public and private sectors will
\nplay a bigger role, because they are the actual agents of urban
\ndevelopment. However, a model for development management that
\ninvolves the private sector and communities in Indonesia is yet
\nto be established.<\/p>\n
The role of the government in urban development should be
\nchanged from one of authority to administrator and enabler. And
\npublic participation should be increased to direct and decide the
\ndevelopment of the city. The public should be given the authority
\nto offer input, opinions and comments in the process of designing
\nthe city plan.<\/p>\n
For the next step, the public's input will be formulated by a
\nplanner -- who has the capability and skill to design a city plan
\n-- into an integrated city plan. In this way, the city plan will
\nguarantee extensive public participation and consultation, and
\ntherefore will preserve public ownership and security of tenure.
\nThis will mean less displacement and greater social equity.<\/p>\n
In the past, public participation in designing the city plan
\nwas extremely limited. City planners -- with all of the
\nconstraints placed on them -- tried to predict and analyze the
\ndynamic movement of millions of people, with no regard to a
\nmechanism to enable the public to provide input. With almost zero
\npublic participation, the previous city plan was no longer
\nusable because of its incompatibility with the people's
\naspirations.<\/p>\n
The next stage is public participation in monitoring and
\nguarding the consistency of the implementation of the city plan.
\nFor proof that the implementation of a city plan without any
\npublic participation could lead to violations, one only has to
\nlook to the past.<\/p>\n
In the past, the city administration made it possible for
\npeople to change the city plan for the sake of business, so
\npublic facilities were eventually owned by certain groups of
\npeople only. This explains how green areas became shopping
\ncomplexes or apartments, for example, or how lakes and swamps
\nwere converted to housing complexes.<\/p>\n
In the past, people who violated the city plan were not
\nstrictly punished due to collusion and corruption between city
\nofficials and developers. Only property developers and high-
\nranking city officials knew the details of the city plan,
\nproviding a great opportunity for both officials and
\nbusinesspeople to settle violations out of court.<\/p>\n
In the past, it was not only the public who found it difficult
\nto access information on the plan, but also city counselors. And
\nthe administration never revealed its evaluation of the plan. For
\nthat reason, we have no data on the number of violations of the
\ncity plan. However, through public scrutiny, such practices will
\nbe tightly controlled in the future.<\/p>\n
Hopefully, extensive public participation would put an end to
\nbreaches of the plan. It is impossible to place the burden of
\ncontrolling all development activities entirely on the
\nadministration.<\/p>\n
Three points are necessary to ensure public participation:<\/p>\n
* Dissemination of information<\/p>\n
The city plan must be prepared and its details publicized as
\nquickly as possible to avoid the possibility of violations, which
\nwere rampant in the past. If the public has access to such
\ndetailed information, they can more properly function as a
\ncontrol against violations. Transparency is the most crucial step
\nin achieving a consistent city plan.<\/p>\n
The administration should publicize the detailed plan in the
\nmass media, booklets or some other form of publication to be
\nfreely distributed to the public. By doing so, it would be hoped
\nthe control mechanism would work properly.<\/p>\n
The spirit of transparency was, indeed, stipulated in the
\nnewly endorsed city planning bylaw. The bylaw clearly regulates
\nthat a city plan should be displayed publicly in every district
\nand subdistrict to provide the information to all people who need
\nor want it. The administration could also disseminate this
\ninformation through books sold at bookstores.<\/p>\n
* Public participation and consultation in planning, designing
\nand implementing projects<\/p>\n
The previous city plan lacked credibility due to the absence
\nof public participation in any stage of planning. When the
\npressure for development was high as a result of dynamic changes
\nin the population, the regulations could not accommodate these
\nchanges because of the lack of public participation as a primary
\nsource of information. Changes in development occur so quickly,
\nboth the public and the administration should work hand-in-hand
\nto achieve good city planning regulations, and ensure the
\nimplementation of these regulations to create a nice city for
\neveryone.<\/p>\n
In this era of reform, it is the right time for the
\nadministration to prepare accountable regulations, because there
\nis a marked increase in people's awareness of urban development
\nand related issues which affect us all. We should also be aware
\nthat development always moves faster than regulations.<\/p>\n
With the role of the government in urban development changing
\nfrom one of authority, to administrator and enabler, the city's
\ngovernmental role and technical capacity in urban management
\nshould be improved, especially in land development, funding and
\nbudgeting, infrastructure development, environmental management,
\nand public service. Thus, what is needed is a municipal
\ndevelopment which provides the basic improvement of public
\nservices. It should also be emphasized that the implementation of
\nurban development should be decentralized. The local government
\nand local communities should have a greater freedom to set
\npriorities for urban development in their respective areas. One
\nway to do that is for them to empower the people.<\/p>\n
* Grievance redress mechanism<\/p>\n
To protect public rights there must be some mechanism which
\nenables people to air their complaints, criticisms and opinions
\nrelating to the city plan, especially if the plan causes misery
\nto the people. A sophisticated judicial system which is effective
\nand impartial must be established.<\/p>\n
In the past there were numerous complaints about demolitions,
\nunfair compensation and the rejection of certain projects. And
\nadministration officials openly practiced discrimination in
\nsolving these problems. So the question is who really owns this
\ncity? Does it belong merely to the wealthy and powerful people,
\nleaving ordinary people suffering in hardship?<\/p>\n
We hope such grievances can be aired in the future in a fair
\nmanner and under a good judicial system. To a large extent,
\ntherefore, the next administration will have to do much more than
\nsimply implement the city plan as they did in the past. And one
\nof their main tasks will be to encourage public participation.<\/p>\n
The writer is an alumnus of the Department of Regional and
\nCity Planning at the Bandung Institute of Technology.<\/p>",
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