Serious planning 'must back up development'

JAKARTA (JP): Noted urban planner Adhi Moersid expressed concern over Jakarta's rapid development progress, which according to him was not backed up by serious planning.

He warned that the lack of good planning in development programs would make both the city and its people victims of progress in the future.

Adhi, who won the Aga Khan Award for architecture, said in a seminar on Jakarta's development at Taman Ismail Marzuki Art Center Tuesday evening, "there's a wide gap between a high demand for faster development and its planning."

He urged that serious attention should be made by the municipality to city planning to help minimize the current development gap.

"The municipality can start making plans, not merely designs, by considering the needs of people living in an area which will be developed," Adhi said.

He said that the inclusion of people's needs was needed as most development programs in the city failed to include them.

Former Jakarta governor Wiyogo Atmodarminto, who also spoke at the seminar, said that in implementing development programs the municipality was frequently put in a difficult position.

People, for example, usually blamed the municipality whenever land was cleared for the construction of toll road projects, which were actually financed by government funds, he said.

"People immediately blame the municipality, but mainly the governor, for land appropriation which deprives them of their properties," he said.

"On the one hand the governor is in a difficult position because there's a conflict of interest with the government, while on the other he can't just reject the plans," Wiyogo said. "It's complicated," he added.

Adhi expressed understanding of Jakarta's intention to develop the city to make it equal with other large cities abroad, but he said it did not make any sense if an area as large as Jakarta was sacrificed because of unplanned development.

"It's also impossible to maintain it (unplanned development)," said Adhi, former chairman of the Indonesian Architect Association.

He reminded that it was not too late to overcome the development gap, otherwise it would grow wider and more difficult to solve.

The municipality, he said, should strive to overcome the gap and should not bow to any parties with political or economic clout.

"Only with an honest, clean and fair political will, will the municipality be able to solve the problem," Adhi said.

The municipality is currently finalizing a revision of 1985/2005 city planning into 1985/2010 city planning. Revision was considered necessary to meet developing needs of the city.

A draft of the revised city planning was presented for the first time last month to Governor Surjadi Soedirdja and other executives.

Deputy Governor of Economic and Development Affairs Tb.M. Rais said earlier that the revision of city planning was necessary to attract investment to raise development funds.

He said in the revision, the city tried to accommodate for social factors.

For instance, the city would consider whether it was wise to allocate an area just for office space, where people would be hesitant to wander through after office hours.

In the revision, Rais said, the city would also give attention to an area's density before planning any developments. (ste)