No permits for unscrupulous developers, Surjadi warns

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Surjadi Soedirdja has said that the city administration will not give new permits to property developers who refuse to construct social and public facilities.

"Please don't expect us to grant permits for other projects before you have acknowledged your responsibility and have built social and public facilities," he said.

Surjadi was making the statement recently during a ground breaking ceremony marking the start of the development of Oasis Square, a Rp 250 billion (US$ 115 million) integrated building complex on Jl. Kalilio in the Senen area, Central Jakarta.

Surjadi said that he is aware that some developers might try to bend the rules by establishing new companies to cover their failure in honoring obligations to build social and public facilities as stipulated in the city regulations.

In order to tackle such recalcitrant developers, the governor gave a directive to the City Planning Office to scrutinize all applications from new developers during the annual registration period.

The existing law states that any developers operating in the city have to register annually at the governor's office, which will grade them into several groups according to experience.

An article in the law stipulates that developers building housing complexes also have to construct social and public facilities, such as environmental roads, greeneries, places of worship, school buildings and sport facilities.

In order to encourage developers to build the social and public facilities, Surjadi said the city administration will cooperate with the Indonesian Real Estate Association (REI).

This year the city administration has reprimanded several recalcitrant developers who failed to build the facilities.

In April, East Jakarta Mayor Sudarsono, for example, summoned 11 real estate developers and temporarily suspended their permits. The developers were prevented from acquiring land certificates, building permits or any other documentation because they had failed to provide public facilities and had violated a number of regulations.

In May the City Council summoned PT Jaya Property, a real estate developer.

The developer, which is jointly owned by businessmen and the city administration, reportedly has failed to transfer the management of the social and public facilities it has built on a 50-hectare housing complex in Bintaro, South Jakarta, to the city administration.(03)