A study says superblocks in Jakarta violate spatial planning regulations, increasing the risk of land subsidence in the capital.

Conducted by a team of researchers on architecture, city planning and real estate, the study said the massive development of the superblocks had reached an alarming state, where many of the properties were built with building floor coefficients (KLB) two to four times the standard.

The Tarumanegara University team studied the development of shopping centers in Jakarta over the last 40 years, between 1965 and 2005.

In the past decade, shopping centers have been built in clusters in Mangga Dua, Kelapa Gading, the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, Blok M, Senayan, Tanjung Duren, Puri Indah and Casablanca, research team head Suryono Herlambang said.

“Developers now tend to develop large-scale properties like superblocks to keep up with the fierce competition,” he told a Wednesday seminar about super development at the university.

“We find that some of these so-called super developments have exceeded by twice to even four times the KLB as regulated in the city’s spatial planning.”

The KLB is the standard for a building’s total maximum size allowed to be constructed on an area. A 1-million-square meter building can be built on 10 hectares of land area with a KLB of 10, while a developer with a KLB of only 4 must have 25 hectares of land. The 2005 detailed district spatial planning and the 2010 Jakarta spatial planning regulate the standard coefficient in most commercial areas should be between 4 and 5.

In reality, many developments reach KLBs of 8 to 13.

The team said such excess could increase the risk of land subsidence. Data from the mining agency shows land in Jakarta subsides 1.4261 centimeters every year, 17.5 percent of it due to groundwater consumption and 82.5 percent due to the weight of buildings on the land.

The team released a list of 11 developments that exceeded the limit.

PT Lippo Karawaci, developer of St. Moritz Penthouses and Residences in Puri Indah, West Jakarta and Kemang Village in South Jakarta, said the study was inaccurate.

“We never exceeded the coefficient. We don’t know how the university collected data for the study.” Danang, head of Lippo corporate communication, said.

Handaka Sentosa, CEO of the Agung Podomoro Group, the developer of Senayan City and Kuningan City, said his company had never exceeded the coefficient, and questioned the measurements made in the study.

“They only used data from building sketches, but they didn’t perform any field research,” he said, adding that no researcher had contacted him for the report.

Ciputra Group director Artadinata Jangkar said, “The measurement of the coefficient is complicated. Besides, there’s a regulation that if developers wish to add coefficient, they have to pay an official fine.”

Herlambang admitted that exceeding the coefficient was not necessarily a violation because developers were permitted to pay to get an official additional coefficient.

“But is the administration sufficiently prepared with the infrastructure to support the super developments?” he said.

To date, he went on, the administration had not provided adequate and comfortable public and social facilities, including roads or integrated mass transportation.

Due to the difficulty of reaching developers, Herlambang performed the research by searching data of area and space width from the developers’ official websites, promotional brochures and media publications.

“I assume developers are fully responsible for the information they publicly announce,” he said.

City planning board (Bapeda) head Nurfakih Wirawan said, “We are considering increasing the coefficient standard at certain locations with high accessibility in the spatial planning of 2010 and 2030, which is currently under discussion.” (hwa)

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