IMAGINE a sky garden providing the greens and the shade while you promenade along Roxas Avenue to eat your favorite barbecue isaw in hot sauce or dragonball siomai. Why not?
This, among many other concepts of how Davao City can look like when redesigned into a post-modern urban center complete with the greens and the spaces that ensure a healthy livable environment.
Concepts on how the city can be redesigned even with its existing urban sprawl was presented in the third public consultation of the Metro Davao Urban Development Plan on Thursday, July 19, 2018, by the Palafox Associates.
“We are making sure that when we try to develop the city, we also consider the environment as a big part of the plan,” Palafox communications manager Mikey Ramos said.
Palafox Associates is the multi-disciplinary architecture and design company of Archt. Felino Palafox Jr., who is among the most vocal and staunch advocate of urban master planning. The company is into architecture, master planning, and/or urban design of islands, provinces, cities, municipalities and towns, retail and entertainment centers, golf course communities, commercial, office, institutional, industrial, residential, and tourism estates and mixed-use development projects of high-, medium-, and low-rise buildings.
Ramos said that after the recent public consultations they had with local government units (LGUs), and national development vision, they crafted a mindmap that will represent their plans for Metro Davao.
They anchored their proposals on a greener sustainable Metropolitan Vision Mindmap for Davao City with the tagline, “Build, Better, Berde!”
The Mindmap aims to build efficient mass transportation, better gateways for economic development, and greener sustainable communities through waste management and renewable energy.
The project also considers making sure that the plans will be accepted by Dabawenyos. Safety and convenience are among the main factors considered.
In the study, Palafox presented Davao City still has 82 percent of green spaces given the geographical setting the city has. And only eight percent has been used for city development.
Of the city's 244,000 hectares around 46 percent is for agriculture, 31 percent are protected areas, while only seven percent is for residential purposes, and less than a percent for commercial, industrial, and open-space infrastructure.
But, Ramos said, this does not mean the city will use up the remaining 82 percent for the city’s development on building more infrastructure and buildings as the plan proposed means to maximize space us, including building up as Davao is gifted with a rich biodiversity -- being home to the Philippine Eagle and the waling-waling.
In the proposed development plan for the city, rivers are planned to be protected with easements and buffers so as not to pollute the water source. The buffers will also secure residents and establishment near the river from flashfloods.
Barangays Bangkerohan and Matina are just few of the places affected in the 30 easement of the river and are located in the hazard zones.
Even the flood-prone La Verna Hills Subdivision has a suggested solution.
Based on the study, with La Verna’s low elevation in some of its places, the subdivision along Maharlika highway is a catch basin for heavy rain. This can be addressed by constructing a small impounding basin along the highway. An automatic pumping machine shall also be installed when there is a rise in water level.
“We also wanted to make sure that when establishments are going to be built, they must be safe as well, and would not hinder natural occurrences, like the river flow,” Ramos said.
Another presented plan for Davao region is the creation of more parks and sidewalks. These will be situated in cities and municipalities in the region like Tagum, Digos, Panabo, and Sta. Cruz.
Davao City, meanwhile, will have bike lanes to reduce carbon emission, improve health, and save on transportation expenses.
Focus is also given on waste management and renewable energy.
Currently, Davao City is also initiating partnerships with the Japanese government in creating a Waste-To-Energy facility in the city. The proposed project led by city mayor Sara Z. Duterte-Carpio as the waste management part of her top ten agenda was granted by Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica).
Meanwhile, among the plans presented in the event is the Davao Gulf Bridge which will connect Davao to Samal Island, which features the geometric patterns of a Maranao panolong.
Even the night market at Roxas Avenue gets a spruce up with the Roxas Park and Sky Garden where an elevated sky garden is proposed to house the food stalls at night and provide more green space downtown. Top on the requirements here is a city waste management program.
A cruise port for international cruise ships and other sea transporting vessels is also envisioned to be built in the neighboring areas.
Common to all the projects is making sure that they won’t compromise the environment. Ramos said that in taking a leap forward into progress, Dabawenyos must not lose track of their responsibility to protect the environment.