Planning and replanning land use

By Grace Chua, The Straits Times, 1 Apr 2013

SINGAPORE, like many other cities, is heavily planned, and replanned.

It has a long history of planning, from the Raffles Town Plan of 1822 to the Singapore Improvement Trust pre-independence, and then the State and City Planning Project of 1967 to provide adequate housing and employment.

The scope of city planning has grown even further.

In its most recent Land Use Plan released earlier this year, the Government laid out its vision for housing, transport infrastructure, commerce and industry, and parks and reserves till 2030.

But some of these plans have drawn both cheers and criticism.

For example, environment and heritage groups have expressed concerns that Singapore is chipping away at its green and historic spaces.

And in Parliament, Nominated Member of Parliament Faizah Jamal expressed worry that a proposed MRT line through the Central Catchment Nature Reserve would affect wildlife there.

It is one thing to develop land use plans that meet basic needs, but quite another to create a sense of "place" or identity which draws people to a city.

Around the world, cities are trying to balance economic growth, the needs of a growing population, and conserving the spaces which give a city its identity.

Some have taken to redevelopment.

In the United States, once-industrial cities like Cleveland and Cincinnati are being given a new lease of life through community farms, new housing and commercial spaces.

Shanghai's artists, drawn by cheap rent, have turned a former textile factory area into a warren of art galleries and studios.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong and London, there is a chronic housing crunch.

Wealthy investors snap up multi-million-dollar apartments even as these cities struggle with shortages of affordable housing, unable to meet their residents' needs. Might some of these cities' much-vaunted green lungs or historic buildings have to go?

In Singapore, planners make nearly every piece of land serve at least one function, and many serve multiple functions.

For example, a nature reserve is also a water catchment area.

Its trees capture carbon dioxide, and it might also serve as a recreational area with trails for hikers and bikers.

Reservoirs and rivers are also used for water sports and fishing.

In fact, the latest land use plan consolidates single-use sites such as military areas, and devotes less space to others, like golf courses.

But some of the functions of a piece of land may run counter to each other.

A road may be a thoroughfare for easing jams, but also a barrier between one place and another.

Consider the plight of elderly Marine Parade residents.

The raised Still Road South ramp is hard to cross, separating the senior citizens' centre on one side from other amenities in Marine Parade Central on the other.

So planners must balance, for example, the need for East Coast traffic to get onto the expressway with the ability of older residents to get around the estate.

Besides using land for multiple purposes, planners also conserve historic elements, giving the city character and making it a more desirable place to live.

For example, Singapore is turning historic landmarks into public institutions. The former Supreme Court and City Hall buildings will become the National Art Gallery in 2015.

But at the same time, the Government tore down the former National Library at the foot of Fort Canning in 2004 to make way for a road tunnel - something people are still sore about nearly a decade later.

Planners recognise that a little community involvement in the use of space gives the community some ownership of that space. For example, cafes at Kampong Glam bear decorative graffiti, and businesses in the Haji Lane area organised a weekend road closure to entice visitors on foot.

The former Bidadari cemetery will be turned into a housing estate with a memorial park to mark the cemetery's significance.

But another cemetery, Bukit Brown, will soon have a road through it and make way for housing.

Though it is no longer open for new burials, biodiversity-rich Bukit Brown remains a space for religious rituals, birdwatchers and joggers - not to mention the final resting place of pioneers like Nanyang University co-founder Tan Lark Sye and businessman Ong Sam Leong.

How might Singapore house a growing population while preserving more nature areas and retaining the character and community feel of its neighbourhoods?

Dr Stephen Cairns of the Future Cities Laboratory here, a research collaboration between Singapore and ETH Zurich, suggests allowing "3-D cities" to evolve.

Of course all cities are technically three-dimensional.

But what Dr Cairns means is that some, like Hong Kong or Tokyo, have on their upper floors and levels the same kind of vibrant city life one normally finds on the street.

Having mixed-use developments at multiple levels - say a coffee shop on one floor, a hairdresser on another - and allowing for serendipitous encounters between neighbours could be a way of building the community even as land use intensifies, he said.

"It gives more possibilities for identity to develop. If I'm living in a particular part of the block, close to emerging manufacturing, I can look across to a common park - I feel like I own it, like it's in my neighbourhood."

And increasing density allows the city's existing heritage areas and green spaces to be less threatened by development, he added.

Singapore may not be accustomed to living this way, he said, but a few generations ago, even high-rise living was a new concept.

The city is always changing - even if change takes place over very long periods. The question is how best to ease the transition.

During Budget debates in Parliament last month, Senior Minister of State for National Development Tan Chuan-Jin said the Government tries to seek out and weigh different views on development, and engage stakeholders.

But he noted the balance between conservation and development was subjective and highly contextual.

"For example, one may strongly believe that this patch of greenery is very important. But somebody else might say, does it really matter? Why are we spending so much time, so much resources, dragging our feet on the issue?"

THE SINGAPORE PERSPECTIVE
Making every patch of land work harder
By Grace Chua, The Straits Times, 1 Apr 2013

SINGAPORE is not unique: not in its ambition to be a leading global city, not in its size constraints, or in its diversity and the tensions that result when people from all backgrounds rub shoulders with one another.

But it has tried to manage its land use in some unusual ways, such as reclaiming a large percentage of its land area, going underground, and making every patch of land work harder.

Turning marshes or sea to solid land is one of Singapore's oldest methods of creating more land area.

Since the 1960s, Singapore has added more than 100 sq km, or a sixth of its original size - five times the size of the greater Tampines area.

The industrial Jurong Island itself is made up of seven smaller islands stitched together by reclamation, and at 32 sq km it is larger than Singapore's four gazetted nature reserves put together.

Today, the Government's Land Use Plan proposes future reclamation along northern and southern coastlines and islands from Pulau Tekong to Pulau Hantu, though environment groups are concerned this could affect marine biodiversity.

Land reclamation also has a limit: Filling in greater sea depths takes more sand and is more costly. Along the southern coast, reclaiming land farther out to sea would also begin to interfere with shipping lanes.

Singapore also puts some functions underground, particularly those that would otherwise take up too much valuable surface land.

Since 2008, the military has stored ammunition beneath a disused Mandai quarry, while the Jurong Rock Cavern is being built to store crude oil and other petroleum products.

Critical infrastructure like power cables, MRT lines, the Deep Tunnel Sewerage System, and the Common Services Tunnel under Marina Bay are also beneath the surface, and there are theoretical proposals and studies for housing power plants, water treatment, waste incineration and even nuclear energy underground.

Finally, it is trying to squeeze as much use from every piece of land.

The western Tengeh reservoir will get floating solar panels in a pilot project to tap the sun's energy for electricity, while community farms in Bukit Panjang and Clementi serve as recreation areas and a food source.

Even roads could be put to better use.

Last month, in a Budget debate in Parliament, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said the Land Transport Authority was studying the feasibility of a "reversible flow" traffic scheme for some areas where heavy traffic is one-directional at different times of the day, such as the stretch between the Kranji Expressway and the Pan Island Expressway.

This is the first of 12 primers on various current affairs issues, which will be published in the run-up to The Straits Times-Ministry of Education National Current Affairs Quiz.