BUSINESS establishments along Davao City’s Chinatown area will soon be required to adopt traditional Chinese architectural design in the renovation of their structures.
On Wednesday, December 18, the City Council passed on third and final reading an ordinance “requiring all the establishments in the Chinatown area to have a Chinese-themed façade in the event of renovation or construction.”
The ordinance covers the business buildings along Ramon Magsaysay Avenue, Monteverde Avenue, Sta. Ana Avenue, and Leon Garcia Street that will need to undertake renovation and/or new construction.
In the ordinance, Councilor Myrna Dalodo-Ortiz, chair on the committee on tourism and beautification, said the establishments in the Chinatown area will be identified as one of the tourist attractions in the city.
“It aims to promote, encourage, and develop the city’s tourism such that it will be an instrument to accelerate the development in the city and to protect the City’s culture, history, traditions, and natural beauty,” she said.
Apart from adopting a traditional, oriental, or modern Chinese architecture and signages in Chinese and English characters, the ordinance also provided guidelines for renovation.
This includes a 3.60-meter sidewalk with canopies and landscape or green zone of 1.2 meters on the roadside, access to persons with disabilities (PWDs), aside from the construction guidelines required by existing laws, codes, rules, and regulations in the national and local government.
However, there was no mention of the development of a night market promoting Chinese food and products as previously reported to be proposed by members of the Davao City Chinatown Development Council (DCCDC).
In a previous report, DCCDC officer Steve Arquiza said they plan to allocate open spaces for Chinese hawker restaurants similar to Singapore and Malaysia.
Based on the ordinance, the City Government of Davao will fund the works involving public spaces and public structures such as the sidewalks, drainage, park and wharf, and the traffic and security while the cost of the implementation of the Chinese architectural design will be shouldered by business establishments.
The business establishments who will fail to comply with the guidelines set by the ordinance on their construction or renovation will no longer be allowed to renew their business permits. (With reports from Ralph Lawrence G. Llemit)