Business, Economics and Consulting

In general, when land use plans are prepared, circulation and movement of people and goods are often missed out. While existing planning guidelines provide that transport system should be carefully looked into before any planned development is undertaken, planners and land developers usually take this concern for granted. This practice results to unprecedented traffic congestion, initially in major activity areas then gradually spreading out to residential or settlement areas.

The practice of opening up privately-owned vacant lots for development without the appropriate support infrastructure facilities, particularly road and transport system, would tend to decrease the real value of these properties. It might be nice to offer these properties at low prices where people could easily afford them, hence, gaining the notion that the local land market and the local economy are strong and vibrant. This belief, however, may be detrimental because while they are sold at lower prices than what they could actually command when they are provided with the right kind of facilities, the quality of development could also be compromised. The dilemma is that the market is more attracted to lower prices even without these facilities and services than to pay for a little more to have a semblance of a completely planned development.

Unlike in more developed countries, the practice in the Philippines is that infrastructure support facilities are provided only when areas have already been inhabited and small patches of development have occurred, or worst, when problems such as poor drainage, poor road condition, poor water supply system and all sorts of indicators of low quality development have cropped up. The provision of these facilities is generally described as reactive.

More developed countries could afford to be in the other extreme – to be proactive. They provide facilities and services in areas where development is and should be encouraged, and withhold servicing areas that are restricted regardless whether or not such areas have already been inhabited. Sad to note that in the Philippines when informal settlers occupy restricted areas, the government allows itself to be forced to provide service facilities and utilities. Humanitarian consideration easily becomes the name of the game.

The proactive stance could serve as a mechanism of control and regulation for land use allocation and management. Yet, it is not widely recognized as it should be. In fact, as mentioned above, it is - more often than not - ignored and taken for granted. It should complement the provisions of the local zoning ordinance, and should facilitate its enforcement to ensure the attainment of orderly land allocation among competing, complementing and reinforcing uses and activities.

This scheme is easier said than done simply because it requires political will expressed in terms of allocating funds to build the necessary facilities and provide the needed services as well as in ensuring discipline in planning where land use and transport are recognized to have significant and interrelated impact to each other; hence, one should not compromised over the other.

The provision of infrastructure support services based on an ideal kind of development before it is actually introduced could prevent a long list of problems from happening. The type and capacity of service facilities should be carefully identified and put in place first prior to any development, and they should be able to match or respond to the requirements of the envisioned level and quality of development in the future.

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