Massive consultations up on updated city land plan

By Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – The proposed updated Baguio City Comprehensive Land Use Plan and Zoning Ordinance will be subjected to extensive consultations with the various sectors before adoption by the city council.

The CLUP defines the utilization and uses of the city’s various zones and serves as the basis in the implementation of the city’s zoning ordinance.

Mayor Mauricio Domogan, chair of the City Development Council which drafted the updated CLUP, said the CLUP serves as “our City’s road map to 2020” and “our blueprint for our City’s physical and economic development toward a safer and healthier environment.”

Councilor Isabelo Cosalan Jr., head of the council committee on urban planning, lands and housing which is studying the proposed CLUP and zoning ordinance, held an initial consultation with urban planners and members of the academe last Wednesday to come up with a framework for a massive consultation process that will ensure maximum participation of the stakeholders from the various sectors.

The participants led by Dr. Priscilla Macansantos of the University of the Philippines (UP) Baguio, Arch. Robert Romero of the University of the Cordilleras, Dr. Romeo Gomez of the Benguet State University and developer Alexander Bangsoy agreed to the conduct of a series of consultations with all organizations comprising each sector including the city government even as they also agreed to submit their own position papers containing their comments, suggestions, corrections and counter-proposals.

All the inputs will be submitted to the city council for final action.

Domogan said the updated CLUP which took time to complete is a result of a collective effort of the different sectors but the consultations to be conducted by the city council would ensure that the plan would truly mirror the desires and aspirations of all the sectors.

The mayor said one of the important highlights of the plan would be “the adoption of a cost-effective spatial development pattern, like the multi-nodal form combined with circumferential and radial road networks.”

“That is most appropriate for our City as we are faced with the challenges of effective use of limited resources vis-à-vis Baguio’s multi-roles as center for tourism, education, trade and regional center and an alternative haven from the adverse effects of climate change,” the mayor said.

Engr. Evelyn Cayat, officer-in-charge of the city planning and development office (CPDO) and head of the CDC secretariat said four “major spatial strategies” highlight the CLUP, which are the decongestion of the Central Business District through the provision of growth nodes along strategic locations in the City, the designation of additional areas for institutional purposes that support the city’s role as an education center north of Manila, the preservation of existing watersheds, forest reservations, parks and other areas supported by Presidential Proclamations and other laws and setting of Environment Development Controls.

The new CLUP’s updates center on the allowed uses within the different zones, building heights and the provision of a land use map which specifies the land use allocation of the various zones namely residential, commercial, industrial, institutional and utilities zones.