Mayors empowered to handle developers

Mayors empowered to handle developers

JAKARTA (JP): The city's five mayors now have greater
authority in insisting that real estate developers honor their
obligation to build social and public facilities as required by
law, an official said.

Deputy governor for administrative affairs Idroes told
reporters yesterday that the extra authority was given by
Governor Surjadi Soedirdja.

Therefore, the mayors are no longer in charge only of urging
developers to abide by the existing regulations, but of receiving
the facilities from the developers and managing them as well.

Decree

Based on gubernatorial decree No. 540/1990, private developers
are obliged to build social and public facilities, including
school buildings, places of worship and parks. The facilities
have to be handed over to the municipal administration as city
property.

"The transfer of responsibility from the governor to the
mayors is intended mainly to give the mayors the freedom to force
developers to fulfill their obligations," Idroes said.

He explained that previously the facilities built by the
developers were handed over to the governor, while the mayors
were in charge of encouraging the developers to speed up
completion of the facilities.

The governor, Idroes said, has also instructed the mayors to
take firm action against any developers acting contrary to the
law. The action would include administrative sanctions, such as
temporarily refusing to process their applications for building
permits.

Idroes said that currently there are 175 registered real
estate developers in Central, East, West and North Jakarta, but
up until now only 81 of them have fulfilled their obligations.
Most of them prefer to build more houses rather than set aside
the land for public facilities.

Out of the 85 developers in Central Jakarta, only 39 have met
their obligations, in East Jakarta 33 of the 44 developers have
done so, while in West Jakarta 12 of 45 developers have carried
out their duty.

"In North Jakarta PT Summarecon Agung, the largest developer
in the mayoralty, has been given a deadline of Aug. 17 to finish
the construction of the social and public facilities in a number
of its housing projects," Idroes said. (yns)