T

he No. 2 man in the Jakarta administration is asking for more time to complete the draft of the Detailed Spatial Plan (RTDR) that will guide the capital’s development over the next 20 years.

Deputy Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama said on Wednesday that it would be impossible to finish a draft of the plan by the end of the year, as was previously promised.

“It does not make sense if we complete it in December. I expect it to complete by the middle of next year,” Ahok said on Wednesday.

The deputy governor also said that he wanted more time to allow for increased public comment. “We want to make a spatial plan that is suitable for all the people of Jakarta. I want activists to work with us, and to promote it [the plan] to the people, too.”

Ahok ordered the city’s spatial planning agency chief, Agus Subandono, to promulgate the current draft to all local officials so that residents could better understand it.

Agus said that the agency would immediately gather public input on how people would like their city to develop over the next 20 years.

“In drafting the RDTR, we never collected any input from the people. We will try to make it more open this time,” Agus told reporters said after he met Ahok at City Hall.

Meanwhile, Jakarta Construction Supervision and Regulation Agency (P2B) acting chief Wiriyatmoko said that a public campaign to promote on the RDTR would be held in every subdistrict in the city over the weekends.

“During the campaign, residents will be guided by urban activists, communities and also private entities.”

The bylaw draft on the RDTR and zoning regulations was derived from the city’s bylaw for spatial planning for 2011 to 2030 that was passed earlier this year. While spatial planning provides macro-policies, while the RDTR provides implementation guidelines.

Urban activists and analysts have criticized the plan and called on the public to participate in the RDTR discussions to make needed amendments to the current draft.

Councillors from several parties on the on Jakarta City Council also previously asked the administration to clarify its spatial plans, including its plans for infrastructure growth and the conversion of land usage designation.

Officials failed to submit an RDTR by the 2010 deadline established by the 2007 Spatial Planning Law, which required every province to submit a proposed spatial plan two years after its enactment.

Jakarta was one of 12 provinces that failed to meet the deadline.

The council signed a spatial planning bylaw for 2011 to 2030 in August last year after numerous delays and long negotiations with the administration.