The City Planning and Development Office and the City Building and Architecture Office (CBAO) disclosed that some twenty five percent of more than fifty one thousand small and big buildings around the city do not have the required building permits, which is why the local government is having difficulty in addressing the problems of rapid urbanization.
City Planning and Development Officer Arch. Donna R. Tabangin stated that the data was gathered from the ongoing audit being conducted by the city government on the structures that had been erected in the different parts of the city regardless of their sizes.
She claimed that the ongoing audit on the actual use of all the structures in the city will help in the crafting of the proposed changes in the city’s comprehensive land use plan (CLUP) to conform with the prevailing trend of the times.
The city planning officer disclosed that the proposed changes to the zoning ordinance and land use plan will help the city government deal with the problems of urban decay which has been projected to happen by 2043 if no concrete action will be taken to deal with the said situation.
According to her, the ongoing audit on the use of the structures around the city is 56 percent complete and figures might change once completed within the next several months.
Tabangin stipulated there is an urgent need to institute the appropriate corrective measures on the city’s zoning and land use plan to avoid the situation in the city from being chaotic so that there will be order in the use of structures to prevent decay.
The city government is inclined to introduce the necessary amendments to the zoning ordinance land use plan after the City Planning and Development Office shall have completed its findings and recommendations on provisions that need to be revised for the greater interest of the present and future generations.
Photo by Armando Bolislis