Comprehensive Land Use Planning: An Overview

A. Learning Objectives

By the end of this session, participants shall have:

1. Understood the difference and relationship between the CLUP and the CDP;

2. Familiarized themselves with some basic information on Comprehensive Land Use

Planning – the legal bases for its preparation, scope, and functions.

3. Acquired a working knowledge of the CLUP – CDP Process Flow and Convergence
Points in Plan Preparation and Implementation.

B. PARAMETERS DIFFERENTIATING THE CLUP FROM THE CDP

CLUP is one of two plans mandated by the Local Government Code, the other being the
CDP. The parameters that differentiate one from the other are shown in the table below:

Parameters CLUP CDP

Time Long – term • Long –term
• Medium- term
• Annual
Scope & Comprehensive in geographical or territorial Comprehensive, multi - sectoral
Coverage scope

Outcome Shapes overall physical development Service requirements of all sectors

Functions • Policy guide for zoning and other • Basis for investment
regulatory measures programming and
budgeting
• Properly locates all land-using • Allocates space for
activities various activities
• Protects and conserves resources to • Programs utilization of
last for all time resources to meet demand
over a plan period

C. THE CLUP – CDP PROCESS FLOW

The CLUP – CDP Process Flow to show emphasize and explain further the relationship
between the two plans is illustrated in the table below.

MODULE ACTIVITIES OUTPUTS

MODULE I ƒ Generating the planning data ƒ Updated Ecological Profile

• Statistics ƒ LDI Tables
• Maps ƒ Problem – Solution Matr
• Indicators
ƒ Data analysis
• Generating new
information
ƒ Extracting intelligence

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MODULE ACTIVITIES OUTPUTS

MODULE II ƒ Formulating new goals or ƒ New / revised vision statement

revalidating/ revising the old vision ƒ Vision element descriptors
statement ƒ Vision – reality gaps
ƒ Vision – reality gap analysis

MODULE III ƒ Generation of alternative spatial ƒ Draft Comprehensive Land (and

strategies and choosing the Water) Use Plan
preferred one ƒ Policy Maps
ƒ Formulating spatial policies ƒ Draft Zoning Ordinance
ƒ Drafting implementation tools ƒ Draft Co-management MOA

MODULE IV ƒ Formulating sectoral objectives ƒ Multi-year Sectoral Development

and targets Plans
ƒ Sifting and prioritizing policy ƒ Annual Investment Program
interventions: projects, services, ƒ Executive – Legislative Agenda
legislations
ƒ Local development investment
programming

D. Convergence Points of the CLUP and CDP in Plan Preparation and Implementation

a. Convergence in Plan Preparation

i. Common data base

ii. Same vision statement
iii. Consistent sectoral goals and spatial strategies
iv. Complementary programs

b. Convergence in Plan Implementation

i. Development regulation (zoning, building regulation, etc.) mainly applies to CLUP

enforcement but LGU capacity to enforce is taken up in the Capacity Development
Agenda of the CDP – ELA.
ii. Taxation provides funds to finance implementation of both CLUP and CDP
iii. Public investment programs in the CDP have a very strong impact on the realization of
the preferred spatial strategy or urban form.
iv. Private investments contribute substantially to total capital build-up, hence, are
encouraged in both plans.

E. Legal Bases for CLUP Formulation

1. Constitutional Bases

a. Article XIII, Section 1

The Congress shall give highest priority to the enactment of measures that
protect and enhance the right of all the people to human dignity, reduce social,
economic, and political inequalities, and remove cultural inequities by equitably
diffusing wealth and political power for the common good.

To this end, the State shall regulate the acquisition, ownership, use, and
disposition of property and its increments.

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 b. Article XII, Section 6

The use of property bears a social function, and all economic agents shall
contribute to the common good. Individuals and private groups, including
corporations, cooperatives, and similar collective organizations, shall have the
right to own, establish, and operate economic enterprises, subject to the duty of
the State to promote distributive justice and to intervene when the common
good so demands.

2. Local Mandates of LGUs as per RA 7160

Section 20 (c)

The local government units shall, in conformity with existing laws, continue to
prepare their respective comprehensive land use plans enacted through
zoning ordinances, which shall be the primary and dominant bases for the future
use of land resources: Provided, That, the requirements for food production, human
settlements, and industrial expansion shall be taken into consideration in the
preparation of such plans.

Responsibility of Sanggunian

Section 447 (a) (2)

i. (vi) Prescribe reasonable limits and restraints on the use of property within the
jurisdiction of the municipality;
ii. (vii) Adopt a comprehensive land use plan for the municipality: Provided, That
the formulation, adoption, or modification of said plan shall be in coordination
with the approved provincial comprehensive land use plan;
iii. (viii) Reclassify land within the jurisdiction of the municipality, subject to the
pertinent provisions of this Code;
iv. (ix) Enact integrated zoning ordinances in consonance with the approved
comprehensive land use plan,

3. Co-management arrangements between NGAs and LGUs

LGUs may enter into with certain national government agencies insofar as lands of
the public domain are concerned based on the following provision of the Local
Government Code.

Section 3 (i)

Local government units shall share with the national government the responsibility in the
management and maintenance of ecological balance within their territorial jurisdiction, subject
to the provisions of this Code and national policies.

F. Functions and meaning of the term “comprehensive” in CLUP.

 
The CLUP serves as:

1. A policy guide for the regulation of land uses within the LGU territory
2. The skeletal-circulatory framework for the physical development of the territory
3. The plan for the long-term management of the local territory

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 “Comprehensive” in the CLUP pertains to territorial coverage, i.e., the CLUP
embraces the entire territorial jurisdiction of an LGU and takes in the three domains
comprising an LGU territory: Public (untitled alienable and disposable lands,
timberlands, mineral lands, national parks and municipal waters), private, and
ancestral domains.

The comprehensive land use classification is illustrated in the chart below.

“Comprehensive” also pertains to policy coverage, i.e. the general land use policies
cover the four land use categories, namely:

a. Protection Areas which comprise the life support system of a locality;

b. Settlement Areas which are spaces for living;
c. Production Areas which are spaces for making a living; and
d. Infrastructure Areas, which serve as connectors between and among the other
land use categories.

COMPREHENSIVE LAND USE CLASSIFICATION

Protection TOTAL LAND
Land Use Infrastructure
Development
Settlement Production
NIPAS NON-NIPAS Development Land Use Power Plants

Strict Nature Second Industrial Tourism Irrigation &

Reserves Growth Forest Urban Rural Flood Control

Natural Park Easements/ Buffer Strips Mining Agricultural Water

Salvage treatment &
National Visual corridors Crops pump stations
Production
Monument
Mangrove/ Heritage/ Forest
swamps Historical sites Airports &
Wildlife Aquaculture
Sanctuary Timber seaports
Coconut Protected rice Livestock
Protected reservations lands
Grazing Road &
Landscapes
Environmentally Others railway lines &
& Natural biotic
hazardous Agro-forest yards
Seascapes areas

Resource Reserves Others Waste

disposal sites
Other categories established by
law, conventions & international Educational Telecommu- Health
agreements facilities nications Field facilities
 
 
 

G. Functions of the CLUP:

a. A policy guide for the regulation of land uses within the LGU territory
b. The skeletal-circulatory framework for the physical development of the territory
c. The plan for the long-term management of the local territory

The four policy areas are protection, production, settlements and infrastructures

a. The desired urban form, which is:

i. The creative combination of the built and the unbuilt environment to support
the generic goals of physical development listed below:

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 Ž Rational distribution of population

o From the national perspective, rational population distribution will

mean dispersion to prevent over-concentration in the national capital.

o At the regional level, rational population distribution requires

concentration so that fairly large urban centers can be developed as
alternative to or counter-magnet for Metro Manila.

o At the local level, rational population distribution can take the form of
safe, hazard-free and well-serviced human settlements. In the case of
fragile ecosystems such as uplands and small islands, the population
should not exceed the area’s carrying capacity.

Ž Access to economic opportunities and social services involves proper

location and positioning of services relative to the settlements from
where the intended clientele originate.

Ž Sustainable utilization of resources means leaving for future

generations an undiminished if not enhanced stock of natural resources.
 
Ž Maintenance of environmental integrity pertains to proper location, size
and intensity of the built environment to maintain the carrying capacity
and ecological functions of the natural environment.

b. The organizing concept for the proper location of space-using activities to ensure
sustainable environment for human habitat

c. The “form works” to shape the built environment and to preserve the unbuilt one

Urban Form Stereotypes

URBAN FORM DESCRIPTION CHARACTERISTICS

STEREOTYPES

Dispersed Sheet This pattern is similar to the native
settlements prior to the coming of the
Spanish colonizers – very small clusters of
huts in widely scattered barangays.
• New growth allowed to occur at the
periphery at very low densities with
substantial interstices of open lands kept
in reserve.
• Developments spread evenly over wide
continuous tract; circulation carried out by
individual vehicles.
• Very high accessibility to open land;
outdoor recreational possibilities are
plentiful.
• Transport network a continuous grid
designed for even movement in all
directions. There is no road hierarchy, no
major nodal points, no major terminals.
• Activity areas evenly distributed.
• There is maximum flexibility, personal
comfort, independence, local participation
highly possible.

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URBAN FORM DESCRIPTION
STEREOTYPES
Dispersed Sheet (Cont’d.)
Galaxy of Settlements The Spaniards reduced the number of small,
scattered settlements into fewer but larger
pueblos or towns. Later some barrios grew
into large settlements that rivalled the old
poblacion in population size and complexity
of services.
The Core City Some towns accommodate their urban
growth in the poblacion because of physical
and policy constraints to expanding sidewise
or horizontally. Examples are found in
Sampaloc and Lucban in Quezon province.
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CHARACTERISTICS
• There is no traffic congestions, no multi-
purpose trips, only single-purpose trips.
• There is no vivid or memorable image of
the city.
• Public service provision is expensive.
• Development clustered into relatively
small units, each with an internal peak of
density and separated from the next by a
zone of low or zero density.
• Each cluster is equal to the next in
importance although specialization say,
financial center, cultural center, etc. is
possible.
• Circulation mainly by private vehicle but
supplementary public transport is
possible.
• All advantages of the dispersed sheet
except flexibility are present.
• If clusters are not too specialized, need
for commuting is reduced.
• Access to open country is assured if
interstitial open spaces are maintained.
• Visual image of local communities
improved but not of the whole town.
• Local centers may develop monotonous
similarity unless deliberately made unique
and different.
• Development packed into one continuous
body.
• There is no single-detached single-family
housing; only high-rise apartments
available.
• No private vehicles; movement is by
pedestrian on foot or on mechanical
devices like elevators, escalators,
conveyor belts.
• Accessibility is high both to activity
centers and to open country at the edge
of the city.
• High density increases discomfort due to
noise, pollution, and poor climate.
• Range of housing choice available is
narrow
• It produces strong visual image for the
whole town.
• Initial investments are high but running
costs may be low.
• Highly rigid and inflexible; any change or
rearrangement is very expensive.
 

URBAN FORM DESCRIPTION
STEREOTYPES
The Urban Star When more radial roads were built traversing
the town center urban growth tended to
follow along the roads thus preventing the
town center from becoming very large. Thus
the urban form resembles a star. Ex.
Koronadal City or Tacurong City.
The Ring When there are constraints to urban
expansion at the center settlements tend to
go around like a ring. A good example is La
Trinidad, Benguet.
d. The land use policy framework
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CHARACTERISTICS
• A dominant core surrounded by
secondary centers distributed along main
radials.
• Tongues of open land incorporated in the
design resulting in a pattern with a star
shaped high-density core with fingers of
moderate densities along lines of radial
routes.
• System of flow radial patterns; efficient
public transport along radials and inside
the core, supplementary concentric rings
to connect secondary centers improves
circulation in general.
• Private vehicles allowed in the fringes but
may have to be curtailed in the center.
• Central core accommodates rapid
communications & specialized services;
offers wide variety of choice of habitat &
activities.
• Very strong visual image.
• Flexible, could easily accommodate
future growth.
• Costly circumferential road network.
• Congestion occurs at central core and
main radials.
• Doughnut-like form; center kept open or
at very low density surrounded by high-
density developments & special
activities.
• Circulation is through a series of rings
serving the rim supplemented by feeder
radials converging at empty center.
• No single dominant center but several
centers which might be specialized.
Other activities are distributed along
ring roads.
• High accessibility to services and open
land.
• Wide range of choice of housing and
services.
• Congestion avoided, circulation very
efficient.
• Strong visual image due to contrast
provided by the empty core.
• Rigid and inflexible as a form.
• Preserving the open character of the
core and the fringes of the built up ring
entails very strong political will and very
high civic consciousness.
 
 H. Five (5) Sets of Activities in the CLUP Process

1. Balancing the future demand for, and supply of land for urban development;
2. Generation and characterization of alternative spatial strategies or urban forms;
3. Evaluating the alternatives and selecting the preferred strategy;
4. Detailing the preferred urban form; and
5. Formulating the land use policy framework.

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