URA will keep Singapore green

URA will keep S'pore green

Fun Siew Leng Group Director (Urban Planning & Design),
Urban Redevelopment Authority
TODAY, 30 Sep 2011

WE THANK Mr Richard Hartung for sharing his thoughts in his commentary "Our CBD is losing its green edge" (Sept 23).

We fully agree that Singapore should continue to build upon its strong reputation as a City in a Garden by providing more lush greenery, parks, open spaces and park connectors within the urban environment.

The 100-hectare Gardens by the Bay and The Lawn @ Marina Bay located between The Sail and Marina Bay Financial Centre are examples of our commitment to plan and provide more greenery and recreational spaces within the city.

There are other parks such as Pearl's Hill City Park, Ann Siang Hill Park and Hong Lim Park that will continue to serve as green lungs in the city.

Even as the city grows, we want to preserve the sense of greenery. Land that is sold for new developments will have to retain or set aside space for greenery/open areas.

For the upcoming Peck Seah Street/Choon Guan Street development, the developer is required to upgrade Tanjong Pagar Park and build a public space of at least 1,000 sq m on the ground floor of the new development.

Under the Landscape Replacement Policy, all new developments within the Downtown Core (including the Central Business District and Marina Bay), Jurong Gateway and Kallang Riverside will have green landscape areas equivalent to the development site area.

These could be roof gardens, sky terraces, first-storey communal landscape areas and communal planters.

The land parcel at Robinson Road/Cecil Street was zoned for commercial use since Master Plan 1998 but has been used as a green space in the interim.

With the Landscape Replacement Policy, we are able to cater to demand for office space while ensuring that affected green spaces are replaced.

Over the next 10 to 15 years, we can expect to see more greenery in Singapore, as we plan to increase the amount of green space from the current 3,600 hectares to 4,200 hectares, as set out in Master Plan 2008.

We assure Mr Hartung and all residents that we will continue to set aside land for quality recreational and green open spaces.

Our CBD is losing its green edge
As parks disappear, Singapore's downtown loses part of what makes it so attractive
By Richard Hartung, Published TODAY, 23 Sep 2011

"Great cities are defined as much by their parks and open spaces as they are by their architecture," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said when plans for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation were announced in 2003. The city spent more than US$100 million (S$129 million) on 20 parks in that downtown area.

In Seoul, the government spent about US$280 million on the Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project and created a new park in the middle of the city. 

In contrast, patches of green here in Singapore seem to keep disappearing. One of the latest is Robinson Green, in the heart of the Central Business District. 

At the end of June, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) announced that it had launched the commercial site at Robinson Road/Cecil Street for sale. A sign invites companies to submit a bid to the URA so they can turn the park into an office building. 

While Robinson Green is tiny, it's an oasis of trees and flowers that brings a brief respite to workers pausing for a break or rushing past. And despite plans for small "pocket parks" in the urban centre, Robinson Green's demise seems emblematic of a continuing loss of greenery in the CBD. 

Singapore used to seem more focused on greenery. Indeed, the National Parks Board states that "Singapore's development into a Garden City started four decades ago with the establishment of the greening programme. The driving force behind this was the former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew who identified a green Singapore as a key competitive factor in attracting foreign investments to the country". 

New plans, however, have brought change. The end of Robinson Green is part of Master Plan 2008, which the URA says will guide Singapore's development "over the next 10 to 15 years". 

The Master Plan is in turn part of the Concept Plan, a "strategic land use and transportation plan to guide development in the next 40 to 50 years". 

When the URA released the Master Plan in 2008, few other than developers may have looked seriously at what would change in the coming decade. The Plan shows that Robinson Green, along with nearby Telok Ayer Park, are among the "interim green" areas slated for redevelopment. The lawns above Tanjong Pagar MRT station, in contrast, are "park/open space" areas. Even some of that greenery seems to be disappearing, though, following the sale of land at Peck Seah Street earlier this year.

It is easy to sell off green spots and build buildings. It's far harder to retain the greenery that differentiates Singapore's downtown from the many drab valleys of skyscrapers elsewhere in Asia. 

By eliminating these pocket parks, Singapore seems out of sync with trends in other cities and risks losing the greenery that makes it so attractive. The Sustainable Cities database says that Copenhagen and Chicago, for example, are among a number of cities actually acquiring more land to create small parks. 

An increasing body of research also shows the importance of urban parks. Georgia Institute of Technology professor Joe Hughes, for example, found that "parks play a role in market restoration, value creation, job creation, green space development and neighbourhood stabilisation". Other research shows that urban parks are part of what attracts everyone from Fortune 500 companies to knowledge workers.

Admittedly, it can be hard to prove the value of these green spots. As former mayor of Bogota Colombia Enrique Peñalosa said, "we cannot prove mathematically that wider sidewalks, pedestrian streets, more or better parks make people happier, much less measure how much happier. However if we reflect, most things that are important in life cannot be measured either: Friendship, beauty, love, loyalty are examples. Parks and other pedestrian places are essential to a city's happiness".

Studies by Rotman Research Institute researcher Marc Berman do, however, help demonstrate that parks benefit people. The Wall Street Journal reports that Mr Berman found "performance on memory and attention tests improved by 20 per cent after study subjects paused for a walk through an arboretum" whereas "no cognitive boost was detected" when they strolled down a busy street. Even "a quieter city street with interesting natural elements to look at" can help, Mr Berman found. A stop in a place like Robinson Green might actually improve performance. 

Rather than losing the tiny parks and open spaces in the CBD that help make Singapore green and bring so many benefits, perhaps it's time to re-examine the headlong rush into building and consider how to preserve or expand what makes Singapore so attractive. 

Richard Hartung is a consultant who has lived in Singapore since 1992.

My take on this; The guy wrote about the CBD not Singapore. Anyway if you ask the average man/woman in the CBD, they'll want an air-con park to relax during what's left of their lunch hour or worse smoke break !!

The CBD is practically dead after 7pm, there are already numerous parks near our homes where the general population would be better advised to do a spot of exercise instead.