Only 700,000 buildings in city have permits

JAKARTA (JP): Out of the city's known 1.2 million buildings, only 700,000 have permits, a city official said yesterday.

The head of the City Development Supervision Agency, Hartanto, said his office issues around 12,500 building permits every year.

The agency's records were based on the number of applications for building permits.

Its data shows that owners of 500,000 buildings had applied for permits, but were rejected. The agency could not trace how many buildings were without permits, because many owners had not applied.

After a council session Hartanto said yesterday, "We couldn't issue permits for 500,000 of the buildings because the sites were against the land use stipulated in the 1985/2005 urban spatial plan."

The council yesterday passed new bills on the organizational structure of both the City Spatial Agency and the City Parks Agency.

Councilor M. Rodja said the issuance of 12,500 building permits a year reflected people's awareness.

However the tendency to use buildings not in line with their designated use, for instance, the use of homes as shops, should be carefully monitored to prevent violations of the urban spatial plan, he said.

Deputy Governor of Economic and Development Affairs Tb. M. Rais said city services in issuing permits were sometimes delayed because requirements were not fulfilled.

Requirements are detailed plans, site plans and land documents.

He said it was difficult to control whether each building permit issued was in line with rules.

"Officials who are found having issued permits without fully meeting requirements will be punished," Rais said.

When asked about the illegal use of green areas, Rais said the city was trying to return the areas to its original function.

Currently 213 locations, or 1,044,444 square meters of green area, are used by vendors, gas stations, restaurants, local administration offices, and other buildings.

"There are some places which have been returned to green areas after being used as gas stations," Rais said.

However to support the city's Blue Sky antipollution drive, the city allowed several gas stations in green areas to remain as long as they started providing unleaded fuel.

He said out of the 21 gas stations in green areas, 10 had switched to unleaded fuel, and the rest were to follow.

"We expect the city to be free from leaded gasoline by the year 2001," Rais said.

The head of the City Parks Agency, Syamsir Alam, said his agency could not estimate when the city would be able to return all green areas to their designated function.

"Most changes happen because of people's interest," Syamsir said.

Governor Surjadi Soedirdja said earlier that 30 percent of the capital's 65,000 hectares should be planted with trees. However, he later admitted that the city could only afford to spare 15 percent of its area for trees. (ste)