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)