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Amid shortage of land, Jakarta eyes more green spaces
Despite prolonged struggles with limited land availability, the Jakarta administration remains upbeat about its efforts to provide more green spaces for residents
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span>Despite prolonged struggles with limited land availability, the Jakarta administration remains upbeat about its efforts to provide more green spaces for residents.
A lack of available land has long been a stumbling block for the administration as it works to meet a stipulation set in the 2007 Spatial Planning Law that requires the city to reserve 30 percent of its total area for green spaces.
According to the Jakarta Forestry and Public Cemetery Agency, 9.97 percent of Jakarta comprised open green spaces in 2015, 6.9 percent of which was owned by the public sector and 3.07 percent by private entities. The agency manages approximately 3.9 percent of the figure, or around 2,665 hectares.
Agency head Suzi Marsitawati said the city administration aimed to increase the total area of green spaces owned by both the public and private sectors.
The city administration is currently developing dozens of Taman Maju Bersama (Move Forward Together Park), a new concept introduced to replace child-friendly integrated parks (RPTRA).
The parks are considered green spaces and involve the participation of communities who work together to design and then maintain them.
“Until 2020, we hope to increase the number of parks in the city,” Suzi said at City Hall on Thursday.
The agency plans to build around 200 parks by 2020. It developed seven parks last year and is currently developing 53 parks, 30 of which are already complete, Suzi said.
The remaining projects are expected to be finished by December, while another 50 are now being planned for next year.
Revitalization projects are also in the works for 17 public cemeteries that will be turned into public parks.
Suzi said the agency would propose a budget of Rp 190 billion (US$13.44 million) from the 2020 city budget allocated to develop parks, a Rp 60 billion increase from Rp 130 billion allocated this year. More funds were needed to make adjustments to the parks’ designs and materials used to build them, she added.
Land availability, or lack thereof, has been the main obstacle hampering the city's progress. To tackle the problem, the city administration is set to propose Rp 1.78 trillion for next year’s land acquisition budget for green spacing, including parks, forests and public cemeteries. The figure is a 6 percent rise from Rp 1.68 trillion allocated this year.
The agency also plans to revitalize several parks by providing more facilities, including Puring Park in South Jakarta and Matraman Park in Central Jakarta. The renovation of six parks was initially planned for this year but four have been postponed to 2020 following technical issues, Suzi said.
To meet its target, the agency is cooperating with the central government to make use of available spaces, such as under highways and elevated LRT railways.
The city administration is urging the private sector to take part in its efforts to add more green spaces to the capital by, for example, setting aside 10 percent of their property for vertical gardens, roof gardens or water catchment areas.
Suzi added that the city administration would also collect arrears of fasos-fasum (social and public facilities) that should be provided by private companies next year.
To support the expansion of green spaces in the city, University of Indonesia (UI) urban analyst Teguh Utomo Atmoko suggested that the city administration revise its spatial planning requirements, such as by changing the value of building floor coefficients, which would increase the percentage of fasos-fasum.
Trisakti University urban analyst Nirwono Joga questioned the city’s decision to push for facilities like vertical gardens, roof gardens and land installed with porous materials as they were not included in the criteria for green open spaces.
“Green open spaces function as natural catchment areas and the city’s lungs to supply oxygen for residents. Vertical gardens and roof gardens do not significantly contribute to such things despite having ecological functions such as absorbing pollutants and cooling the surrounding temperature,” he told the Post.
Nirwono suggested that the administration enforce a 2019 gubernatorial regulation on rural land and building tax (PBB-P2), which includes 50 percent tax discounts for landowners that transform unutilized land into green open spaces.
