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3.1
Rationale
The land use plan
gives the physical dimension to the city’s
development plans and programs. When implemented,
it becomes the most potent mechanism to guide the
city’s development not only within, but also
ultimately beyond the plan period since the
effects of utilization are seldom temporary in
nature. Thus, it becomes imperative that both the
essence and spirit of the city’s desired
development be embodied in the land use plan and
thence to its implementing instrument, i.e., the
zoning ordinance.
3.2
Goals,
Objectives and General Approach
The land use plan
shall be reflective of the city’s development
goals and objectives as united through the vision
for the plan period.
“A
globally competitive, culturally enriched garden
city by an empowered community with a free trade
zone, balanced ecology and sustainable
development.”
Zamboanga City
Multi-Sectoral
Visioning Workshop, 24 October 1997
The goals and
objectives of this vision shall guide the city’s
land use plan. Two basic goals are recognized.
First,
from economic development perspectives, there is a
need to build up the city’s productive capacity.
To achieve this goal, the strategy is to boost the
urban-based economy. This in turn, will generate
and increase the number and scale of urban
services that will lay the foundation for future
industrial, commercial and commercial and service
growth. It will, by itself, serve as a market for
rural production. There will be a multiplier
effect across the urban economy that will make
Second,
from the perspective of
social development, in order to help share the
fruits of economic growth, there is a need to
enhance access to basic services and productive
resources. As far as land use is concerned, this
goal can be achieved by establishing a hierarchy
of urban service centers throughout the city.
Based on the existing urban core, such hierarchy
can provide greater opportunities for the people
of Zamboanga City to have access to health,
education, and other social services. This
hierarchy will require an infrastructure network
that encourages geographic integration instead of
today’s concentration of such service to only the
urban core.
Third,
these goals and objectives shall be approached
within the constraints of preserving natural and
environmental conditions. Thus, primary
consideration will be given to the sustainable
utilization of the city’s resources, with due
regard for environmentally critical areas such as
forests, watersheds, mangroves, highly productive
agricultural areas, etc.
As the city’s
population grows and economic activities
intensify, the land use plan is expected to play a
regulatory role in managing competing demands for
the use of land.
3.3
Overview
Of The City’s Morphology
General
Development Pattern.
Zamboanga City faces a multitude of development
challenges going into the next millennium. Its
vast land area is subdivided into 98 barangays,
and the wide variety of natural characteristics
poses many possibilities for growth and
development. The City has a very large hinterland
composed mainly of hills and mountains with the
highest elevation reaching to about 1,200 meters
above sea level. Flatlands are generally found in
the southern tip of the peninsula and in narrow
strips along the eastern coastline. There are also
25 small islands dotting the southern and eastern
portions of the City.
Today, the City has
become the major urban center of Western
Mindanao. Urban growth and development
initially concentrated around the Fort and has
since spread to the north, northwest, west and
northeast. The eastern side of the poblacion, on
the other hand, is constrained by the presence of
wetlands, which so far has discouraged the spread
of intense development towards that area.
The poblacion and the
adjacent barangays, as a whole, define the City
Core and its fringes, which is an
agglomeration of 28 barangays having a total area
of about 6,956 hectares representing 4.7% of the
City’s total land area. This small area is home to
about 56% of the total population. It is
administrative, additional, commercial, financial,
business, industrial, residential and
transportation center of the City.
Current trends
indicate a tendency for urban and population
growth to spread towards the northeast corridor
following the general direction of the
Zamboanga City-Pagadian Road. The estimated
midyear population for 1997 is 536,906 with growth
fueled by an increasing migration rate from 1980
to 1995.this is projected to reach 805,363 by year
2012, the end of the planning period.
Like many cities,
congestion, squatting and artificial land scarcity
is present. The urban road network,
originally designed to accommodate calesas, has
not been able to cope with increasing development
densities. The airport’s location adjacent to the
city proper limits building densities while
seaport operations contributes to congestion
within the inner city. Urban blight has made
itself felt. To date, the City has a total housing
backlog of 28,314.
The attempt to
industrialize is manifested by the privately owned
200 ha. Ayala de Zamboanga Industrial park (AdZIP),
which is the Regional Agri-Industrial Center
of Western Mindanao. Located 15 km. From the City
Proper, the AdZIP aims to focus on processed
marine-based products, processes tropical fruit,
gifts and house wares, garments and other light
industries. Another is the Zamboanga City
Special Economic Zone and Freeport (ZAMBOECOZONE)
covering 15,446 has in San Ramon and the Upper
Pamucalan and la Paz logged-over areas. This will
be a multi-use development and is expected to be a
major contributor to the City’s development. The
ZAMBOECOZONE Authority is also considering the
Philippine Tourism Authority’s (PTA) golf area at
Pasonanca Park and the R.T. Lim Boulevard
Reclamation Area to be part of its proposed
development.
3.4
Development
and the Environment
Development activities
have taken its toll on the City’s environment.
There are already widespread cases of uncontrolled
agricultural land conversion. Also evident are
forest and watershed degradation, river
degradation due to lack of proper waste handling
facilities, marine resources degradation, river
degradation, and air pollution within the City
proper. Indiscriminate quarrying of sand and
gravel especially in the coastal areas of San
Ramon and Ayala are causing irreversible erosion
of the coastal area and endangering the highway.
3.5
Towards
A New Land
Management Mechanism
Existing Land
Management Mechanism.
The last official land use plan adopted by the
City was the Framework Plan prepared in 1975 by
the Department of Economic Development and
Planning.
It had a 25 -year coverage (1975-2000) and was
prepared to correct the “previously unguided
growth” of the City. The trends addressed by the
plan then still hold largely true today:
“extensive growth manifested by increased
population, diversified
economic activities, and
the increasing intensity of interaction between
other cities and its hinterland.”
The plan’s policy
guidelines designated an “urbanization limit”
to be within 15 kilometers from the Central
Business District with 28 barangays. This urban
area was grouped according to a Central Core of
nine (9) barangays geared fro urban improvement,
an intermediate Area for urban development
“designed to decongest the central area” and Outer
Area for residential development with support
service facilities.
The plan also called
for the transfer (out of the city core) of the
barter trade market and the city and regional
government offices. It also called the
pedestrianization of designated areas within the
city core, expansion of recreational areas,
opening up of new residential areas and the
establishment of a new business district capable
of servicing regional trade. Key infrastructure
projects include the construction of a major
circumferential loop along Talon-Talon Loop
towards the city proper and the transfer of
international shipping operations to Recodo.
The land use
plan was made part of the City Zonification
ordinance in 1978 (amended in 1982) covering the
Poblacion area only. The ordinance covers an area
with a radius of about 16 kilometers fro the City
Hall. Interestingly, the concerns that the 1975
Framework Plan sought to address are much the same
today; only this time they have grown in
magnitude. The City is presently faced with the
following; low agricultural and industrial
productivity, trickling investments, inadequate
infrastructure and utilities, high unemployment
rate, squatting and traffic congestion.
One of the major
weaknesses observed in the said Framework Plan is
its lack of clear-cut guidelines on how to
attain its objectives. Another weakness is the
lack of continuity between the frameworks
lands use plan and the zoning ordinance in the
sense that the latter did not reflect the basic
features of the former. Hence, most development
policies and objectives of the Framework Plan
(such as dispersal of growth, balancing of
man-made and natural environments, etc.) were not
supported at the implementation level. The
inadequacy and absence of appropriate land
development guidelines within and outside the
urbanization limit prevented the plan from
becoming an effective developmental tool.
3.6
Area
Suitability
Assessment: Zamboanga City
A general area
suitability assessment of Zamboanga City was done
using the Eco-Engineering approach. This was based
mainly on three sets of secondary data;
Environmentally Critical Areas Map, Slope Map and
the Protected Areas for Agriculture Map. Please
refer to Map III-14, Area Suitability Map, Volume
3.
Eco-Engineering showed
that most of the City’s lands are environmentally
critical and are best used for forestry, forest
and watershed conservation particles. These are
the so-called non-negotiable areas for urban use
and form the inland part of the City. Areas below
this category are the mid-slopes or land with
gradients from 18% to 50%. Though not critical,
these areas are mandated by law to be devoted to
forestry and/or forest production purposes. The
next groupings are the moderate to good
agricultural lands located in the plains. In
narrow strips along the eastern portion and in
bigger portion at the southern portion of the
coastline are lands that are best suited for
settlements?
In actual use,
determined through the Barangay Land Use Survey,
it becomes evident that built-up area expansion
has first occurred on the southern tip of the
peninsula (wide space highly suitable for
settlement use) but has since expanded to encroach
on good agricultural areas and the forest margin.
Moreover, crop cultivation has reached the
uplands, causing forest denudation, Map 1.
3.7
Land
Demand and
Supply; Planning Implications
An initial assessment
of the City’s land demand and supply (based on
aggregate model)
was undertaken in order to get a broad picture on
how the projected increase in population will
impact the City’s environmentally critical and
agricultural areas. Land use analysis focused on
these two land zones since these will become the
most adversely affected when population and its
corollary demand for urban land grows.
The assessment showed
that the fifteen (15) year urban land requirement
is estimated to be 8,343 has (considering urban
area density). The identified development
opportunity areas (lands suitable for settlements)
can easily accommodate such requirement negating
the need to encroach in areas, which have slopes
greater than 18%, on environmentally critical
areas and on protected areas for agriculture. This
shows that considering the populations built-up
area demands alone, there is no need to
drastically alter the natural environment in order
to accommodate housing, business, industries and
other urban-based requirements during the plan
period.
It was also
observed that the supply of land suitable to
staple crops (rice and corn) is not sufficient to
provide for the total domestic consumption
requirements.
Given this scenario, the City should not hope to
attain production levels equal to food sufficiency
requirements. Among the more tangible land use
implications of cropland scarcity along with the
degradation of marine resources are increased crop
cultivation in the uplands (posing dangers of
flooding, siltation, watershed degradation, etc.)
and increased migration into urban core
(unemployment, underemployment, squatting,
congestion, etc.)
3.8
Locating
Demand: A
More Realistic Approach
Traditionally, land
demand for various activities (education,
commerce, industry, etc.) is projected and
quantified by any of several methods and planning
standards.
Planning in this classic mode seeks to establish
an end-state. It is premised on the assumption
that future conditions can be sufficiently
predicated. Experience, however, reveals that this
is difficult to expect a specific zone to be
confined to a specific land use, but all future
factors that affect land use can be anticipated.
In the formulation of
a land use plan, therefore, it is preferable to
allow some flexibility for individual land use
decisions provided that these are consistent with
broader development objectives and parameters. The
land use plan has to be policy-driven
instead of end-state oriented to maximize
opportunities for creativity, innovation and make
ample room for the land market to develop without
compromising environmental integrity.
To manage such a plan,
it is necessary to depart exclusionary zoning,
which focuses mainly on use regulations, and to
move towards a more flexible type of regulatory
device. Performance standards which are
sensitive to the environment, quality of
development, inter-property relationships, social
equity and infrastructure requirements have to be
the basic features of such a regulatory device
instead of merely spelling out what type of
activities are allowable or not.
Existing General Land
Use Plan
3.9
Alternative
Land
Development Strategies
Given the City’s
structure (i.e., development is and should be
largely confined to the City’s relatively flat
area bordering the coastline), and the
considerations for environmental conflicts (e.g.,
urban and agricultural land use activities tend to
complete for the same spaces), the following
alternatives presented the most feasible form of
development.
Alternative 1: Confine
Urban Development To Current Growth Centers
This alternative (Map
2, Alternative 1) fully capitalizes on the four
existing growth centers. The primary center shall
remain the City Proper and the secondary centers
shall be the ZAMBOECOZONE, AdZIP and the Singali
Fish port Complex. The hinterlands shall be left
largely rural providing raw materials and support
activities to the four centers. This alternative
poses the least case for causing
urban-agricultural area conflict. There is a need,
however, to strengthen the road link between the
East and West Coasts. A regional scale service
center within this area may not be realizable
given the density constraints posed by the
airport; the congestion caused by shipping
operations; limited road handling capability; land
scarcity; and high land values. This may
eventually lead to urban sprawl causing the
build-up areas to eventually overrun the
agricultural areas in the urban fringe.
Alternative 2: Establish
Mercedes As New Growth Center
In order to help
relieve the congestion in the City proper, as well
as maximize its land utilization potentials, the
second alternative (Map 3, Alternative 2)
considers closing down the present airport site
and the establishment of a new international
airport in Barangay Mercedes, it being the most
suitable site in the entire City. This would
expand the central business district of the City
Proper, making room for the establishment of a
regional scale service center. A new government
center may also be located in the Mercedes area to
further decongest the City Proper, thus freeing up
more valuable land for more intensive use.
Compared to the first, this strategy has an
airport-led growth center. The City Proper remains
the primary center with the other four (4) serving
as secondary centers. To further decongest the
City Proper, the present seaport shall be limited
to passenger handling and cargo operations shifted
to an upgraded port in Singali. The new center in
Mercedes will be connected by road to the City
Proper and to the other growth centers at the East
and West Coasts. An international airport of
sufficient scale and magnitude may require up to
about 2,000 has. Barangay Mercedes has a land area
of about 1,288 has., 636 has. Of which are
irrigated palay areas.
It is protected that
by the year 2012, domestic tourist arrivals in the
City will number to around 188,525 while foreign
arrivals will range from 30,600 to 56,548. This
would lead to total arrivals ranging from219, 125
to 245,073. The average tourist stays for four (4)
days and spends about PhP2, 817.00 per day (at
1993 prices – data from Tourism Sun-Sector). Using
the same data, 245,073 tourists in a single year
(2012) will plough in approximately PhP2.76B to
the domestic economy (at 1993 prices). This influx
considers tourist spending alone and does not
consider the increase in trading activities that
will be generated by airport operations.
Alternative 3: Dispersal
Of Urban Centers
Alternative 3 (Map4)
is similar to Alternative 2 but with further
dispersal of economic opportunities by the
addition of two more growth centers in the East
Coast; Barangays Curuan and Vitali being gateways
to Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur,
respectively. The City Proper will remain as the
primary center, the four becoming secondary
centers and the new two new ones shall become
tertiary centers. Curuan and Vitali shall be made
to host small agri-industrial zones in order to
bring economic opportunities much closer to the
countryside.
3.10
The Preferred Strategy
The presented
alternatives could be viewed as entirely different
sets of growth considered as different stages of
growth scenario. Alternatives 1 and 2 were
considered initial stages of growth and
Alternative 3, the preferred strategy (Map 5
Location of Growth Centers), was considered as the
ultimate stage within the plan period.
Essentially, the adopted strategy recognizes a
hierarchy of urban centers (with a primary center,
four secondary centers and two tertiary centers)
with wedges of productive open spaces in between
allowing for improved access from the hinterland.
Critical to all centers is the strengthening of
the road linkages between and among them.
Further, barangay roads shall also be upgraded in
order to provide easy access to markets in the
urban centers. The road links between the City and
its outlying provinces shall also have to be
improved in order to stimulate trade and
facilitate inter-area movement.
Other minor centers,
some of which are subsumed into the identified
major growth centers, to be implemented include:
Primary Wholesale and
Retail Centers in Brgy. Sta. Cruz and Secondary
Wholesale and Retail Centers in Brgy. Singali and
Ayala
Tourism Centers,
namely, Pasonanca and Cesar Climaco Freedom Parks,
Great Sta. Cruz Island, Bog Lake, Eleven Islands
with Bolong as jump-off point, Little Santa Cruz
Island and viewing decks (Abong-Abong, etc.)
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