Zambo Land Use Plan approved!

THE DEPARTMENT of Human Settlements and Urban Development or DHSUD is expected to release some P100 million in financial grants and assistance for a housing project and an evacuation center here following its approval of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan or CLUP 2016-2025 of Zamboanga City.

DHSUD Secretary Eduardo Del Rosario. (Jasmine Mohamadsali)

Mayor Beng Climaco and City Planning Officer Rodrigo Sicat. (Jasmine Mohamadsali)

CLUP is a planning document prepared by local governments to rationalize the allocation and proper use of land resources. It also projects public and private land uses in accordance with the future spatial organization of economic and social activities. 

Mayor Beng Climaco said DHSUD has approved and ratified the CLUP during a recent online meeting presided over by DHSUD Secretary Eduardo Del Rosario. She said City Planning Officer Rodrigo Sicat also attended the meeting. 

With the approval of the CLUP, Climaco said the DHSUD will provide financial grants and assistance worth P60 million and P40 million for the site development of a housing project and evacuation center, respectively. 

She said DHSUD will also lobby for the transfer of the Cabatangan property owned by the Muslim autonomous region to the City Government, among others. 

The 72-hectare property was formerly under the Lupong Tagapagpaganap ng Pook or LTP in Region IX or Western Mindanao which was purchased by the local government. When the LTP was abolished upon the creation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the sprawling Cabatangan property was placed under the jurisdiction of the ARMM. 

Climaco stressed the importance of the CLUP and highlighted Zamboanga’s efforts to maximize land resources in cognizance with the needs of the various sectors of the population. 

The DHSUD also recommended to the local government to focus on high density public housing and to establish an operations center to monitor changes in the land use and zoning at the barangay level, and also to encourage preparation of barangay development plans anchored on the CLUP and to establish livelihood centers within resettlement areas, and resist reclamation projects. 

 Mayor Beng Climaco and world renowned urban planner, Architect Felino Palafox Jr. shake hands in this December 2015 photo. Palafox declares that in 15 years or more Zamboanga will boom into becoming another global city in Asia, next to Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong. Palafox, the founder of the Palafox Associates, a multi-disciplinary firm hired by the local government to develop Zamboanga's Comprehensive Land Use Plan and Zoning Ordinance, cited Zamboanga’s God-given resources and the present visionary leadership of Climaco, among others, as enough yardsticks or potentials of development— given the proper urban planning, good design and engineering, and good governance.

In 2015, Palafox Associates was awarded the contract to prepare Zamboanga’s CLUP. A draft CLUP was submitted to the local government in 2016 and was submitted to the Regional Land Use Committee for further improvement and refinement. 

On October 15, 2019, the City Council passed Resolution No. 1384 approving the CLUP for 2016-2025 and was submitted to the DSHUD. 

According to Palafox Associates, the CLUP, Zoning Ordinance or ZO and Comprehensive Development Plan or CDP are aimed at rehabilitating and reconstructing Zamboanga City. 

It said the CLUP is a guide to address and sustain the overall growth and development of the city in line with its Local Climate Change Action Plan and Disaster Risk Reduction Management Plan. 

On the other hand, the CDP identifies priority sectoral programs (social economic, land use, transportation, infrastructure and utilities, environment, DRRM, and local governance and finance) and projects in accordance with the Department of the Interior and Local Government guidelines and will be within the framework of the CLUP. Both the CDP and the CLUP, ZO guide Zamboanga City’s growth and development in the next five to 10 years. The priority areas identified for Zamboanga City were Barangay Rio Hondo, Paseo del Mar, Sangali Fishport, Santa Cruz Island and Taluksangay Village. (Zamboanga Post, Jasmine Mohammadsali)