Architect urges review of Greater Jakarta planning

Architect urges review of Greater Jakarta planning

JAKARTA (JP): The chairman of the city's Urban Design Review
Board, M. Danisworo said all development plans for Greater
Jakarta should be re-evaluated.

This would provide a basis for the municipal administration to
centralize planning, Danisworo told The Jakarta Post in an
interview at the 7th Asian Congress of Architects, which ended on
Thursday.

Several new satellite towns, all based on the individual
developers own designs, have been cropping up in the city's
outskirts, he said.

"Greater Jakarta must have one plan," Danisworo said.

He added that he supported the controversial suggestion from
former environment minister Emil Salim that Greater Jakarta must
be under one authority.

Whether the 5.7-square-kilometer area should be led under one
governor at the level of minister, Danisworo said, has become a
political issue.

"But for the authority to make central planning, I think
Greater Jakarta should be led by a junior minister," Danisworo
said.

The junior minister would have access to the cabinet, national
utilities and public service, such as the state-owned railway
company, and report to the President, he said.

The guidelines for Greater Jakarta, which has around 15
million people, would ensure not only better physical
development, but also improved social, environmental and cultural
development, Danisworo said.

An existing body called the Greater Jakarta (Jabotabek)
Development Coordination Board does not have such authority.
Governor Surjadi Soedirdja himself has lamented its shortcomings
in handling problems such as congestion and garbage.

The condition of the sprawling metropolis and its new
satellite towns will get worse if preparations for central
planning do not start immediately, Danisworo said. The "egoism"
of designers and developers will spur more unnecessary facilities
like malls which all attract more traffic, he added.

Developers have said that given the absence of spatial plans
for Greater Jakarta, they cannot be blamed if one day their real
estate developments flood.

The individually proposed designs are all approved by relevant
authorities like the provincial offices of the National Land
Agency, even though these authorities may lack the proper data on
land use, Danisworo said.

Currently the city only has the 1985-2005 spatial plan for
Jakarta, which is currently under review.

The plan drawn for Greater Jakarta, Danisworo added, must
incorporate the aspirations of the private sector which will be
doing most of the building.

The developers of the new towns have argued that in time their
towns will be independent of the city as residents will no longer
commute to Jakarta.

"But before the new towns have an economic basis to provide
jobs, things will get worse," Danisworo said.

The central plans must aim to link the new towns with the
city, for instance regarding drainage and roads.

If each developer builds its own drainage system which may be
unnecessary, he said, the consumer is the one who bears the extra
cost.

Centralized plans would also prevent the emergence of kampongs
within the new towns, the architect said.

Danisworo, who advocates that all humans in an area should be
central to any planning, said the workers who come to build the
new towns eventually settle in the areas. But residential sites
for them were not planned.

He said the developers should at least provide public services
for low income inhabitants in their area, such as clean water
networks and more access roads apart from one small path.

The urban design review team is trying to prevent further
damage in the city, Danisworo said, by drawing up urban design
guidelines.

"We are very thankful to Governor Surjadi for his support," he
said. "But sadly, only foreign architects appreciate these
guidelines. It has taken me 15 years to convince local
colleagues," whom he said are not trained in relating
architecture to human surroundings.

With such guidelines, buildings will no longer be designed per
plot, but with more consideration to surrounding public
interests, he said. (anr)