Among the last: A house on Jl. Cik Ditiro in Menteng still retains its original style. Its owner, Sari Shudiono, is selling the house but said finding a buyer who wanted to keep it in its original form was hard. JP/R. Berto Wedhatama

Residents in designated residential areas complain about the increasing number of house conversions, following  incessant noise and traffic.

Ade, 53, a resident of Jl. Laman-dau in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, said he was disturbed by business ventures around his house.

“My house is surrounded by restaurants, distros, food stalls and many other business outlets,” Ade, who has spent his whole life in Kebayoran Baru, said.

“It is always noisy, from morning until late at night,” he said.

“On weekends, it is even worse. More visitors come, cramming up nearby streets and parking their vehicles everywhere.”

R.A Anggraeni, another Kebayoran Baru resident who lives on Jl. Mendawai, said the number of converted houses in Kebayoran Baru increased as more people moved into the area.

“Most of them [new residents] convert houses they bought or rented into stores, offices, restaurants, distros and other business ventures.

“Several long-time residents and I have complained directly to some house owners, but they don’t care about it.”

Anggraeni, 56, who has lived in Kebayoran since 1952, said she would not stop protesting the conversions. 

“Long-time residents, like me and my 81-year-old mother, deserve

to have peaceful surroundings,” said the lecturer of University of Indonesia.

Kebayoran Baru was developed in the 1950s solely as residential area. Initially covering 600 hectares of land, it is now 1,200 hectares, with some 700 hectares occupied by houses.

Kebayoran Baru is surrounded by a ring of roads, comprising Jl. Senopati, Jl. Wijaya, Jl. Gandaria and Jl. Pakubuwono.

The vertical axis of Jl. Sisingamangaraja and Jl. Panglima Polim connects Jakarta’s southern part to the business district Sudirman, while the horizontal axis of Jl. Kyai Maja and Jl. Wolter Monginsidi connects the area to Jakarta’s inner road ring, Gatot Subroto.

At the strategic position, many residents in the area have con-verted their houses into commercial properties.

In December last year, the South Jakarta Property Management and Control Agency (P2B) recorded that 765 residential buildings in Kebayoran Baru  had been converted into business ventures, including offices, cafes, spas, restaurants and boutiques.

The figure has increased from 300 converted homes in 2005.

Such conversions have also sprouted up in the exclusive residential area in Menteng, Central Jakarta.

Gito Purnomo, 58, a Menteng resident, said he was upset with traffic congestion along the street in front of his house and the noise from passing vehicles.

“In the morning, hundreds of cars ply the street heading in to the city’s business areas. In the afternoon they come again to visit restaurants, boutiques and health clinics.”

Partly because of easy access to the city’s central business districts, Menteng has become one of the most expensive residential areas in Jakarta.

Gito, a retired Jakarta administration official, said he had been thinking about moving to another place because he no longer felt comfortable living in a commercialized area.

“Menteng has become too busy and noisy,” he said.

Feeling disappointed with the uncontrolled housing conversions, residents in Kebayoran Baru and Menteng have established resident forums to pressure the city administration.

Nadia Chiarina, 31, a spokeswoman for a forum of residents living on Jl. Lamandau and Jl. Mendawai, said the forum had sent a number of complaint letters to the Kebayoran Baru district office but had not received a clear settlement.

“Last December, we invited officials from Kebayoran Baru office to discuss the conversions,” she said.

“They said they would soon warn the owners of converted houses. But weeks have gone by and the places are still crowded,” Nadia said, adding that the forum was supported by 143 residents.

The same thing has happened in Menteng.

“Right after Fauzi Bowo was inaugurated as Jakarta governor, he asked Menteng residents to establish a forum to file official protests about the area to related city agencies,” Ilona, a coordinator for a Menteng resident forum, told The Jakarta Post.

Ilona said she had tried to file complaints to several city agencies but had received no significant response.

“The city administration didn’t give the forum legal stance to work.”

Following the unsuccessful moves, Ilona said some residents had chosen to quit the forum.

“They said it was impossible to regulate the new Menteng,” she said.

With the city’s economy expanding and commercial spaces lacking, experts have different opinions about the conversions.

Sonny Harry Harmadi, an urban economics expert from the University of Indonesia, said conversions in suburbs like Kebayoran Baru and Menteng were inevitable as the center of the city was no longer able to accommodate Jakarta’s economic activities.

“The economic value of suburbs like Kebayoran Baru and Menteng will continue to rise until they are no longer fitting as residential areas.” he told The Jakarta Post recently.

Urban planning expert and Menteng resident Marco Kusumawijaya disagreed, saying that such conversions were unnecessary if Jakarta had a comprehensive design in city planning.

“The city administration should calculate in detail how many more houses and business spaces it can build in a certain city area,” he said.

“It will take time, but a well-planned city will help its residents improve their work productivity and quality of life.” (hwa)

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