Spatial Planning: Optimal Use of Land
Built-up land continues to increase in the Greater Jakarta extensions, leading to the deterioration of its carrying capacity. Optimal spatial control is therefore needed and not just about the land tenure system.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Jakarta and its surroundings are already connected. It is now difficult to find vacant land. In a short time, swamps, rice fields and other productive lands have turned into tall buildings or residential complexes.
In Jakarta, based on information obtained by Kompas Research and Development, from among other sources the Study of Land Use and the Evolution of Land Use in Jakarta Province in 2012, it was discovered that in 2008 an area of 57,063 hectares, 86.3 percent of the total area, had been converted to human settlements.
About 893.2 ha of the territory comprised rivers, reservoirs, or lakes, 3,234.8 ha were in the form of vacant land and the rest, 4,934.7 ha, was included in the non-urban category of land.
The area of the built-up land in Jakarta in 2008 was eight times what was recorded in 1950. Based on data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the population of the capital city is now about 10.3 million people. The total area of the Greater Jakarta (Jabodetabek) likely has more than 30 million people and twice as much built-up area as Jakarta, or about 120,000 ha.
The land conversion has caused a shortage of surface water, a lack of ground water, an increase in temperatures (in Jakarta in 1940 the average temperature was 26.48 degrees Celsius, but by 2003 it rose to 31.4 degrees), land subsidence (5 centimeters per year in Jakarta since 2013) and water pollution.
These adverse impacts did not include those resulting from traffic jams, air pollution, garbage, floods and other things. One the right approaches is for the central and local governments to issue specific policies to design spatial planning wisely, not just allocating land for various types of development.
It can be started with spatial planning to meet the need for decent places to live. A decent place to live is still a problem in Jabodetabek.
As reviewed in this daily newspaper on Wednesday, in Jakarta there is a shortage of more than 1 million houses. About 50 percent of the citizens of the capital city, 40 percent of which are in the lower or middle income segments of the population, do not own their own homes and have to rent.
Starting in the city center
Suryono Herlambang, a researcher and lecturer at Tarumanagara University’s Urban Planning and Real Estate Department, said that regional governments, such as the provincial government of Jakarta, could begin to organize areas around public transportation service lines, such as along Transjakarta bus lines and the railroad tracks, including the commuter line, MRT and LRT railway transportation systems.
"The first layer on either side of the main road and the transportation lane can be used for offices, buildings, or premium business centers. The second layer, if in Jakarta, mostly in the form of residential areas, can be arranged," said Suryono.
Land owners would not lose their rights. With a good approach, the residential areas can be built into apartment complexes. However, the land owners should be guaranteed to get apartments that are decent and adequate. The rest of the land can be used for various purposes for rivers and green open space, enabling the city to breath more easily. To do this is quite possible. With government assertiveness and program transparency and persuasive approaches, this policy can be realized in stages.
A public policy observer from the Islamic University 45 of Bekasi, Adi Susila, said that one of the options for providing housing to people was to build vertical housing, such as rental apartments for low-income residents.
However, housing needs to be supported by public transportation. The problem is, in urban areas in Indonesia, including in Bekasi and Jakarta, there are still many residential areas that are not reached by public transportation. For this reason, building vertical residential areas, saving land and accelerating the development of mass public transportation, both road-based (bus) and rail, are strongly recommended.
The head of Jakarta\'s Human Settlement, Land and Spatial Planning Office, Heru Hermawanto, said that the Jakarta provincial government\'s current policy is to provide affordable housing for low to high income people. "All efforts are made to realize it," he said.
For this reason, there are special provisions in the detailed spatial plan (RDTR) for which revisions are being prepared. One of them is to facilitate the construction of apartments so that later developers can get permits to build apartments anywhere, except in the green and blue zones.
Apartments are open to all strata, from cheap to luxurious. As one of the convenience requirements, for example, an apartment building can be built with an area of 3,000 square meters. Construction of apartments will get an additional coefficient of 3.5 from each building floor. Single-dwelling houses only have a coefficient of two.
For low-income people, there are subsidies, such as exemptions from the down payment, which are expected to prevent a price increase. Heru’s office is also trying to encourage residents who still have land in the city to cooperate with adjacent landowners to develop their land for apartments. Abroad, this concept is quite common and is called a community land trust.
Thus, residents who own land in the city are not easily tempted to sell their land. Efforts to encourage land consolidation cannot be included in the RDTR because the RDTR is neutral. This effort must be supported by relevant agencies, such as in the ease of licensing and in the management of the apartments. (IRE/JOG/VAN/ NEL)