Mayoralty denies new permits to developer
Mayoralty denies new permits to developer
JAKARTA (JP): The North Jakarta mayoralty yesterday announced
that it has momentarily stopped issuing new building permits
(IMB) to PT Summarecon Agung, a giant housing developer, because
of its failure to comply with bylaws on building social and
public facilities.
Mayor Suprawito told reporters that his office is also
considering revoking land appropriation permits (SIPT) now held
by Summarecon and possibly even filing a lawsuit against the
company for continuing to neglect its obligations.
This is the first time that city authorities have taken action
against a housing developer for neglecting obligations to build
social and public facilities, which range from schools, parks,
houses of worship to roads and gutters.
While Summarecon, which developed and managed the huge and
luxury Kelapa Gading housing complex, is not the only one who is
violating the regulations, it is one of the largest. The North
Jakarta mayoralty said Summarecon owes some Rp 1 trillion worth
of social and public facilities to the city administration.
"The mayoralty will not accommodate the developer until it
fulfills its obligation to provide and hand over public and
social facilities to the city administration," Suprawito said.
He said the punishment meant that any new houses built by
Summarecon would be illegal and his office would have the right
to demolish them.
"Governor Surjadi (Soedirdja) supports the plan by saying that
the developer should be punished because it has been harassing
the mayoralty," Suprawito said.
PT Summarecon Agung is a publicly listed company on the
Jakarta Stock Exchange. It holds nine land appropriation permits
for North Jakarta allowing it to appropriate 307.6 hectares of
land.
Officials at the company were not available for comment on the
latest action by the authorities yesterday.
But Benny Lucman, the chief commissioner of the company, last
month acknowledged that Summarecon has not fulfilled its social
and public obligations.
The developer however is working on it, he said when he
received a visit from the Commission D of the City Council.
Benny said the problem dates back to the 1970s when the
housing complex was first built. He pointed out that the bylaws
at the time did not compel developers to build these facilities.
On a separate occasion yesterday, Governor Surjadi yesterday
called on city officials to be firm against developers who
continued to neglect their obligations.
"Firm action should also be taken against other developers,
such as Concorde 2000," he said referring to a luxurious housing
complex in East Jakarta.
Surjadi said the authorities could also link the issuance of
various documents to housing developers to their ability to
fulfill their various obligations.
"Because the most important thing is to make developers obey
the regulation," he said.
Officials at City Hall said that only a handful of the
hundreds of housing developers have managed to fulfill their
obligations to build the necessary facilities. (yns)