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)