SP commences public hearing on Zoning Ordinance for 2023-2032

SITTING as the Committee-of-the-Whole, the City Council has initiated the two-day public hearing on the proposed Integrated Zoning Ordinance for Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) 2023-2032.

Councilor Edgar S. Cabanlas, chair of the Committee on Subdivision and Landed Estate, presided over the public hearing to gather insights and feedback from the community and stakeholders about the regulations in specific geographic zones of the CLUP zoning map. 

According to the City Planning and Development Office (CPDO), all local government units are required under RA 1760, or the Local Government Code, to prepare CLUPs and enact zoning ordinances that align with the Philippine and Regional Development Plans to guide, regulate, and control zone boundaries.

Officers of homeowner’s associations, developers, barangay officials, and civil society organizations attended the two-day public hearing.

A resident called for the need for respect of contractual rights and existing residential status of their homeowners village, while another raised the recurring issues on traffic and flooding which may worsen if the zoning ordinance is not well thought out.  

Some presidents of homeowner’s association also urged the LGU to consider urban planning comprehensively before proceeding with zoning changes, citing that it is best to have foresight before implementing the proposed legislation.

Factors such as the environment, disaster risk reduction, prevention and mitigation, infrastructures, the residents, and the present situation should be considered carefully, they added.

The CPDO, however, clarified that the guidelines from the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development were followed in the drafting process and that urban planning had already been considered.

Other concerns included the turning of protected agricultural areas to mountain quarries and the conversion of residential areas to commercial use, especially in subdivisions and specific barangays.

With this, Councilor Cabanlas requested the stakeholders to submit their position papers on the proposed legislation within 15 days.