City approved land use plan in 2005

CONTRARY to a claim of Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young, the Cebu City Government already has its own comprehensive land use plan (CLUP), the mayor said yesterday.

Mayor Michael Rama said the CLUP had been approved during the 10th Sanggunian Panlungsod, when he was still a vice mayor. “Na-approve na na. Pataka lang sila ug pasangil (That has been approved. Their accusation is careless),” the mayor said in his regular news conference.

The City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) chief, Engr. Alipio Bacalso, confirmed the CLUP was approved by the City Council in 2005 yet.

A CLUP is a 10-year plan that segregates commercial, industrial and other activities within the city.

Like Rama and Bacalso, former city councilor Jocelyn Pesquera also said the City’s CLUP was already passed.

“I was still a councilor when it was approved,” she said.

Pesquera added that what is lacking now is the amendment of the City’s zoning ordinance, which she said was pending before the office of Councilor Noel Wenceslao.

Wenceslao chairs the council’s committee on urban planning.

Sun.Star Cebu tried to get a statement from Wenceslao but the councilor was not available for comment yesterday.

Match

According to Bacalso, the zoning ordinance needs to be amended so it will jive with the CLUP. He said the City’s zoning ordinance was passed in 1999 yet.

Under the approved CLUP, the City’s total land area of 29,589 hectares is classified into four major districts: the protected zone (14,109 hectares), the peripheral urban land use zone (9,810 hectares), urban land use zone (4,166 hectares), and inner city
or urban core (1,504 hectares).

Young earlier blamed the executive department for the City Government’s alleged lack of a CLUP. That discrepancy reportedly barred the City Council from earning a third win in the Department of Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) search for The Most Outstanding Council nationwide.

When sought for comment about the matter, Rama said he expected the council to blame him for their loss.

Why?

“Kanus-a man na wa ko nila pasanginli? Diperensiyado lang gyud sila. Nag-una man sila ug ingon nga makadaug sila gud (When have they ever not blamed me for anything? Something’s wrong with them. The problem is they preempted the announcement of winners),” he said.

Young has said he will ask the DILG for a report on its search for the outstanding council, so they will know why the City lost to the council from Zamboanga City.

Among the accomplishments of a legislative body that DILG earlier considered in naming the outstanding council nationwide were the passage of an appropriation ordinance, zoning ordinance, local tax code, disaster management code, environment code, Annual Investment Program and the CLUP, among others.