Jakarta needs new directive on spatial plan

JAKARTA (JP): The head of Jakarta's Spatial Planning Agency, Ahmaddin Ahmad, has urged the government to issue a new directive for Law No.24/1992 on spatial planning to prevent further overlapping of development projects.

Ahmaddin Ahmad told a seminar that Jakarta's rapid economic growth and development had made the existing directive out of date.

"A new directive is badly needed to guide the enforcement of the law," Ahmaddin said.

He said a directive was needed to apply the law and take action against people using land for purposes other than the purposes designated in city's spatial plan.

"The law has long been issued, but it lacks a directive to enforce it," Ahmaddin said.

Another directive is needed to get the public involved in implementing the spatial plan, the management of certain city areas and procedures to revise the spatial plan itself, he said.

City development should be carefully planned because of the scarcity of land, he said.

There had been a significant change in the city's development with individual buildings being replaced by community buildings and superblocks, Ahmaddin said.

"But without referring to the spatial plan, the construction of high-rise buildings won't help save the city's land because there are still many others who violate the designated use of land," he said.

Such violations were widely publicized recently when Governor Surjadi Soedirdja instructed the South Jakarta Mayor to close some businesses in Kemang for violating the spatial plan.

The 1985 to 2005 spatial plan sets aside Kemang as a residential area, rather than a commercial one.

But about 90 percent of Kemang's buildings are no longer residential.

According to the spatial plan, only 15 percent of the area's buildings are allowed to be nonresidential.

The 1985 to 2005 spatial plan is being revised to become the 1997 to 2010 spatial plan.

The revision, which is expected to be completed this month, is necessary to meet the city's changing needs.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Consumers Foundation's executive director, Zumrotin K. Soesilo, said Friday the city had to implement its spatial plan consistently and not bow to parties with political or economic clout who want to change it.

"Inconsistency could cause people to feel insecure," she said.

Sociologist Sardjono Jatiman said changes to the urban spatial plan were acceptable as long as people were protected by legal certainty.

He said people who live in big cities like Jakarta were aware that they had to adapt to development changes.

"But, as a legal basis, the spatial plan should not change only to satisfy certain groups of people," Sardjono said.

Deputy Governor of Economic and Development Affairs, Tb.M. Rais, said last week that any changes in the spatial plan would be based on "responsible" evaluations through legal requirements, including approval from the governor, the minister of home affairs and the City Council speaker. (ste)