Urban planner says jobs must come first

Urban planner says jobs must come first

JAKARTA (JP): Jobs and not houses must come first in projects
to build self-sufficient towns, an urban planner said recently.

Djoko Sujarto of the Bandung Institute of Technology said the
public still confused satellite towns with self-sufficient towns.

Announcements of new West Java towns are increasing.

The latest are the 30,000-hectare Bukit Jonggol Asri in
Jonggol, Bogor, developed by a consortium under PT Bukit Jonggol
Asri and a 300-hectare town called Kota Kembang Depok Raya in
Depok developed by the Daksa Group. Both are south of Jakarta.

In east Cibubur, the Ciputra Group recently launched a new
town called Kota Indah Nuansa Alam.

Djoko said a satellite town was dependent on its "mother-city"
while a self-sufficient town was the workplace of its residents.

Satellite town residents commute to the main city while self-
sufficient town residents live and work in the area, he said.

"In claiming self-sufficient towns we should question the job
potential in the area," Djoko said.

Attracting jobs could take 10 years, Djoko said, citing a
self-sufficient town north of London, England, called Milton
Keynes.

"The jobs came first and eventually employers agreed to
employees' requests to house them in the area," said Djoko, who
studied in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Since new towns were introduced, critics have pointed to the
potential for worse traffic jams as most new town residents were
commuters.

The first projects were in Tangerang, mainly Bumi Serpong
Damai, south of Jakarta, and Lippo Karawaci, west of Jakarta.

A source among the Bumi Serpong Damai's builders said he was
optimistic the 6,000-hectare complex would be a self-sufficient
city in about 10 years.

In September, State Minister of Public Housing Akbar Tandjung
said the government planned to limit the development of new
towns.

He said development should be aimed at self-contained cities
instead of "an extension of big cities."

An architect who heads the city's architectural team, M.
Danisworo, said earlier new town developers must take into
account surrounding residents and the workers who built the
projects.

Otherwise, new kampongs lacking basic facilities like clean
water and roads, will crop up around and in between new town
projects.

Developers providing such facilities would indirectly help
expose low income residents to important aspects of modern life
such as hygiene, Danisworo said. (anr)