Monitoring

The Disobedience of Local Land Use Planning

For Commercial and Industrial Area

Hendro Prastowo

International Institute of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation - ITC

Email : hendro24245@itc.nl

1.     Introduction

Land policy deals with how government allocates land and its benefit to improve life quality of the citizen. Land takes position on its benefit when having an effective usability. Government play important role to make a policy in how to bring land to higher productivity through effective land use (Deininger, 2003). For attracting investors, governments need to establish legal and institutional framework in land use planning. This planning is very important to provide reliable data of the available and legal area, a clear procedure of the land acquisition and investment costs so that investors have operational security.

FAO, 1993 stated that land use planning has three levels: national, district and local. National level covering the whole country is concern with general allocation of national resources. District level deals with the implementation of development sitting, infrastructure improvement and guidelines for improving land use.  Local level planning provides detail information about specific development areas of land - what shall be done where and when, and who will be responsible. The greater detail of specific land use planning includes demarcation of the precise boundaries of commercial and industrial estates (UN, 1996), thus means for commercial investment purposes as the research limitation of this paper. Detail land use of each local area on local planning level has to be consistent with the higher level planning (district planning and national planning) because local objectives should fit in wider objectives (FAO, 1993).

In many countries, national and local development relates to economic opportunities need investment in land, this investment is a key element underlying sustainable economic growth (Deininger, 2003). Local government should make an effort to encourage investment by reducing various obstacles that undermine investor interests by establishing land use planning. Local land use planning has detail plot of commercial and industrial in urban area and long term investment such as plantation and mining in non-urban area. This planning will lead to investment permit for owning or using land as base on their land acquisition.

Although land use planning is a legal planning established by regulation for allocating land use in some time periods, but many factors may affect the implementation and the maintenance. This paper will monitor the changes of land use planning due to differences in various interests.

2.     Research Problems

An aim of land use planning is to accommodate the many competing demands for land and development. Because the local land use planning is established by legal framework, the implementation is also binding local government interests as a part of the law system. In reality local governments are not always aware of this, the general interest interprets in many ways by local government to attract as many investor and only takes priority on investor interests (commercial use: plantations, agribusiness, mining, factories, shopping mall) or local government interest (public use: recreational, highway) without considers current land use planning, private interest, social impacts and environmental effects.

Disobediences of the local land use planning implementation may in forms of violation of the current planning, refusing permit applications and an accidentally land use planning conversion to accommodate investor interests. The fact that there are disobediences will be the main research problem of this paper.

3.     Research Objectives

Base on the research problem, the objectives of this research relate to the issue are:

1.      Identify the implementation of current land use planning, limited only on commercial and or industrial area.

2.     Identify disobediences of the land use planning

3.     Identify the background of disobediences of the land use planning maintenance.

4.     Research Questions

Research objectives will generate to some questions to conduct the research. The research questions are:

1.      Is the commercial zone so interesting?

2.    How to detect the real implementation of land use planning for commercial area?

3.    Why do disobediences of the land use planning maintenance happen?

5.     Research Methodology and Research Answers

To answer research questions, the methodology for writing this research is based upon literature studies as well as own experiences relating to the implementation and maintenance of land use planning in local government level.

5.1.      Is the commercial zone so interesting?

Population growth resulted in heavy demand of the basic human needs and the scarcity of land. The functionality of land as the production factor for the provision of goods and services are primarily considered from an economic point of view. Increased demand for goods and services result in increased production, which equivalent as increasing the need of land for investment.

In China rapid urbanization and economic expansion have resulted rapid industrialization (Meng, 2008). Land use planning deals with this situation by allocate certain zone for industrial area. In Indonesia, investors have been greatly assisted in obtaining land for business purposes; land use planning rapidly change arable zone into zone for industrial, large-scale housing development, condominiums, offices, retail spaces and cultivation or plantation (Firman, 2004). In Ghana, since the launching of the National Economic Recovery Plan (ERP) circa-1983, foreign investment has increased significantly in the Ghanaian mining sector, leading to the design and construction of a series of large-scale mines (Hilson, 2001).. Government has a consequence to allocate land for the investor by provide legal framework to use land as large-scale mining zone. In the Netherland, the most important changes of land use during 1989-1996 periods are expansions of residential, industrial or commercial, and recreational areas (Verbug, et.al, 2004).

5.2.      How to detect the real implementation of land use planning?

Paul Van der Molen, 2010 notes there are 3 (three) land use regulation and zoning:

1.      Planning process; need land information part of broader information need,

2.   Implementation instruments; in form of intervention in private rights and enforceable the legal regulation and restriction;

3.     Maintenance; in form of land use control through restriction and permit procedures.

Comparison between the land use planning map with the realization in the field can identify the real use of a certain study areas. This method is not only related to the implementation of land use planning but also the maintenance instruments of land use regulation. Identify the implementation also mean the detection of land use change, especially for this research is from non commercial area into commercial area. The unsuitability considers as disobedience of land use planning.

Some studies detect spatial change use remote sensing and GIS. Yilmaz ,et.al, 2006 using Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) data and Landsat 7 Enhance Thematic Mapper (ETM+) for detect spatial-temporal land use in Aksara City, Turkey. Schlerf, et.al, 2007 also uses Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) data and Landsat 7 Enhance Thematic Mapper (ETM+) to detect land cover change in Rhineland-Palatine. For answering this research question, the satellite image is overlaid to the local land use planning map as the reference. For local planning level, maps of between 1:20.000 and 1:5.000 are best (FAO, 2003). This comparison will produce suitability land use map for commercial area and a table of suitability land use as the description.

5.3.      Why do disobediences of the land use planning maintenance happen?

Appropriate institutional and legal framework in land use planning will drive to land tenure security and lead to successively greater investment in land, economic growth, and increased welfare (Deininger, 2003). This framework is very important because the government intervene should be legitimate and backed by the law. In fact, the legal framework on land use planning does not go smoothly because:

a.      Pressures for expanding current commercial areas

The need of industrial labors causing demand for space, housing areas, leisure and recreational areas, transportation, infrastructure and energy and water resources pressures increase in the industrial and commercial areas (GTZ, 1996). The rapid development of commercial area is even faster than the validity period of the current land use planning (usually 5 years).

In Indonesia, economic development has resulted in a significant increase in the demand for industrial and real estate area (Firman, 2004). This has resulted in rapid land conversion in urban and rural areas where most commercial activities take place. In urban and peri-urban area, any light manufacturing industries have been developed individually outside the available industrial estates (Firman, 2004). Many housing developers build thousand of settlement projects next to industrial area, followed by shopping mall and other commercial projects. In rural area, manufacturing industries have also been developed to support large-scale cultivation activities. These natural pressures cause land conversion from non commercial into commercial zone without considering the “static” land use planning.

b.      Planning process that does not fit to local conditions.

According to the FAO Guidelines, 1993, land use planning has to consider the information about suitability of the land, supplies and demands of goods and services on the available land, now and in the future. Thus, characteristic of each spatial and social-economic of local area define the policy of land use planning. Some developing countries, innovations in planning are often copied from the social learning process done in industrialized nations (GTZ, 1999). Contradiction between “copied land use planning” and the local environment will lead to the disobedience due to accommodate the dynamic changes of land use. For example, region with agriculture characteristic have to be forced to change into industrial and commercial zone.

Decentralization also takes a part of local land use planning issues. In Indonesia, local government has an authority to establish local framework on land use planning policy. Contradictory between national, regional and local level often occur when translate higher planning into detail planning. For example, area considered as conservation area by national planning is a barren land in reality. Local government will face dualism and may exploit their authority to prior their interests, for example convert that area become large-cultivation area.

c.       Political Interests

Land policy issues are complex, country-specific, of a long-term nature, and often controversial politically.(Deininger, 2003). Rakodi, 2001 notes that political behavior implies not only just for agenda setting, building alliances and handling conflict but also, in turn, for the planning process. The power of local policy maker or ruling parties has a strong influence on the implementation of land use planning. In Indonesia there have been several violations in the implementation of spatial planning in the attempt to accommodate the interests and pressures from certain parties (Firman, 2004). For example dynamic change of ruling parties in local district may call up disagreement with current land use planning which made by previous parties and cause “legal disobedience”.

6.     Discussion

Making land use planning is not only determining the forming process but also anticipation on the implementation, monitoring and control. Land use plan prepared well not guaranteed to be implemented well. The implementation will get direct respond from the parties while the maintenance may prohibit the parties to deviate from the regulations. Clearly, some studies expose the disobedience of the implementation and maintenance of land use planning because of some pressures in economic, social and politic. Local government as decision-makers has to consider the trade-off between the consistency with different interests in time and reality.

List Of References

1.   Albrecht, D., Eller, E. , Fleddermann, A. , Karin, Janz.,  Wieland, K.,  and Robert, R. , ed. Experiences of Land Use Planning in Asian Project. 1996, GTZ: Colombo.

2.   Amler, B., Betke, D., Eger, H., Ehrich, C., Hoesle, U., Kohler, A., Kösel, C., Lossau, A.V., Lutz, W., Müller, and S. U., T., Seidemann, S., Siebert, M., Trux, A. and Zimmermann, W., Land Use Planning Methods, Strategies and Tools. 1999, GTZ: Berlin.

3.   Deininger, K.W., Land policies for growth and poverty reduction. World Bank Policy Research Report;. 2003, Oxford etc. Washington, D.C.: Oxford University Press, The World Bank. 239.

4.   FAO (1993) Guidelines for land-use planning.

5.   Firman, T., Major issues in Indonesia's urban land development. Land Use Policy, 2004. 21(4): p. 347-355.

6.   Hilson, G., Land use competition between small- and large-scale miners: a case study of Ghana. Land Use Policy, 2002. 19(2): p. 149-156.

7.   Meng, Y., et al., Industrial land-use efficiency and planning in Shunyi, Beijing. Landscape and Urban Planning, 2008. 85(1): p. 40-48.

8.   NATIONS, U., Land Administration Guidelines. 1996.

9.   Rakodi, C., Forget planning, put politics first? Priorities for urban management in developing countries. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 2001. 3(3): p. 209-223.

10. Schlerf, M., Borens, S., Seeling, S. and Hill, J., Land use and land cover change analysis in Rhineland - Palatinate based on multi - temporal image classification. Mitteilungen der Forschungsanstalt für Waldökologie und Forstwirtschaft (FAWF) Rheinland-Pfalz, Heft 45/2007) pp. 235-243, 2007.

11. Yilmaz, H.M., Reis, S., Atasoy, M., Detection of Spatial-Temporal Changes of Development Potential of Aksaray City Using Remote Sensing and GIS. Shaping the Change, XXIII FIG Congress, Munich, Germany, October 8-13, 2006, 2006.