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Experts warn against relaxing KLB rules
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More elevated roads: Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama displays an image on his cell phone depicting planned elevated roads around the Semanggi cloverleaf. PT Mitra Panca Persada will fund the new elevated roads construction in return for an increased floor area ratio (KLB), the standard for a building's total maximum size permitted on a given area. (thejakartapost.com/Dewanti A. Wardhani)
T
he city administration’s policy of allowing developers to break floor area ratio (KLB) limits by payment of a fine, at the discretion of Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, to generate funds to speed up infrastructure projects in the capital, may do more harm than good.
The policy will not only increase the city’s burdens, but also potentially cause environmental damage, including land subsidence and more severe congestion, analysts say.
Ahok has so far given approval to the owners of 11 buildings allowing them to break their KLB limits after paying fines totalling Rp 3.8 trillion (US$286 million) in the form of public infrastructure.
The administration has a list of infrastructure projects that developers can choose from to build if they want to increase their KLB above the limits set in the 2014 Bylaw on detailed spatial planning and zoning. “More and more infrastructure will be built in 2017 through this scheme,” the governor said.
Exceeding the KLB limit for a building is a common violation in Jakarta. Ahok said rather than having companies bribe city officials, it would be better to legalize the issue.
While many praise the governor’s creativity in seeking additional funds to develop the capital, critics say his quick-fix approach may hurt the city in the long term.
Rujak Center for Urban Studies program manager Andesha Hermintomo recently calculated the additional burden on the city from the increased KLB of PT Mitra Panca Persada, which raised its KLB from 7 to 13, amounting to 48,000 square meters, in its project on Jl. Sudirman in Central Jakarta. The company paid fines worth Rp 579 billion by building various public facilities, including the Semanggi Interchange.
The figure is based on a statement by City Secretary Saefullah during the ground-breaking ceremony of the Semanggi interchange recently. “[They] are building land in the air by increasing the building size by 4.8 hectares, or 48,000 square meters,” he said in April as quoted by kompas.com.
Andesha said a building that would have an additional 48,000 square meters would accommodate 4,800 people as according to the Presidential Regulation on the development of state buildings, each person should be accommodated by 10 square meters. “These people will need water and electricity,” he said.
One office worker, he said, consumed 150 liters of water per day, which meant the building would need around 720 cubic meters per day. This number is far greater than household water usage, which averages around 30 cubic meters per month.
Andesha said that volume of water could not be provided by piped water as both private providers of piped water in Jakarta could only fulfill 60 percent of its coverage.
“This will definitely exploit ground water, which causes land subsidence,” he said.
Land subsidence is a major problem in Jakarta, especially in Central Jakarta and North Jakarta. According to the Spatial Planning Bylaw, Jakarta suffers land subsidence ranging from 10 to 180 centimeters.
Land subsidence is one of the factors that leads to the city’s frequent flooding, it also led to the initiative of building the controversial giant sea wall project.
The bylaw specifically warns of subsidence in Central and North Jakarta, the city administration has listed areas like Tanjuk Priok in North Jakarta, Senen, Tanah Abang and Jl. Sudirman, all in Central Jakarta, as the areas that have seen exemptions granted for KLB limits, which means more exploitation of ground water.
Building Experts Team (TABG) chairman Gunawan Tjahjono said the policy should be complemented by other policies that can minimize the impact. “The companies should re-inject the ground water that they use, for example,” he said.
Besides the over exploitation of water, the policy would also contribute to the increasing congestion that already afflicts Jakarta. The extra 4.8 ha at Mitra Panca Persada, for example, will require 480 extra car-parking spaces.
Gunawan said development principles should be based on improving the quality of life. He said areas near mass public transit systems such as the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) could be denser than other places, as people could easily travel by public transportation modes.
He added that if buildings were near MRT stations, they would not need so many parking spaces. “However, none of the supplemental regulations needed have been issued so far,” he said.
Separately, urban analyst at Trisakti University, Nirwono Yoga, said Rp 3.8 trillion seemed a lot but it was actually small compared to the consequences of allowing developers to break the KLB limits.
Nirwono also questioned the process of giving the permits. “There is no transparency in determining which building [is allowed to break the KLB] it’s as if the city administration only deals with the developers,” he said.
Edy Junaedi, the head of the One-Stop Integrated Service, who is responsible for issuing the permits, played down the impact of breaking the KLB limits, saying that the policy was necessary for economic development.
He claimed that the technical teams in various agencies already calculated the impact, though he declined to elaborate.
Edy added that the maximum KLB that could be proposed was 14. “It depends on the ability of the companies to pay the fines. As long as their buildings are situated in the designated areas, we will allow them to break KLB rules,” he said.
