City plans to turn Kemang into commercial zone

The Jakarta Post, Wed, 03/18/2009 2:35 PM

JAKARTA: The city administration is planning to transform the hip residential area of Kemang, South Jakarta into a commercial area.

Wiriyatmoko, head of Jakarta's Spatial Planning Agency, said Tuesday that his office had carried out a study on transforming Kemang from a residential area to a commercial zone. The agency decided to let businesses in Kemang continue to operate.

"We plan to transform the area into a commercial zone," Wiriyatmoko said, as quoted by beritajakarta.com on Tuesday.

The agency will propose the plan to Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo.

Until now, companies operating in Kemang have been paying fines to the city administration for running their businesses in a residential area.

The area was a plantation in the 1950s. It became an expatriate enclave in the 1980s as cafes, bars and galleries began to flourish.

Some Kemang residents have complained of traffic jams, loud music, and drunks in their residential area. Responding to their complaints businesses have said that Kemang residents should accept that the area is turning into a commercial zone. - JP

All buildings to self-audit energy efficiency: New law

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With an aim of securing energy supplies, the government is drafting a regulation on energy conservation that is expected to push commercial and industrial building management to start saving energy voluntarily, an official said.

The head of the energy conservation sub-directorate at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, Indarti, said Tuesday the draft mandated an energy manager to audit total energy usage for all buildings and report it to the ministry every six months.

"An energy manager must know total energy waste for the building. The ministry will scrutinize it and give recommendations so buildings and plants can save energy without decreasing productivity."

The recommendations will vary with buildings' energy infrastructure in terms of cost implications, she added.

Indarti said the ministry wouldn't require reports from buildings that used only a small amount of energy.

The draft is expected to be completed next year, she said.

At present, energy audit responsibilities fall wholly on government. So far this year the ministry has examined energy usage at 68 buildings and 132 plants. Next year, when the energy audit budget drops to Rp 4 billion (US$431,732) from a current Rp 22 billion, it will examine only 16 buildings and 28 plants.

Tunggul Sirait of the Indonesian Electricity Society said the government would set up a national energy board to promote energy conservation. It will be chaired by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and include representatives from industry and universities, as well as technological experts, he said.

The board is mandated by a 2007 national energy law -- Law 30 -- intended to provide a framework for conservation and renewable energy.

Conservation, according to managing director of electricity management company PT Schneider Indonesia Eddy Tjahja, was the most efficient way to ensure that energy would be there when needed.

"We can save by up to 35 percent of total energy consumption if we use electricity efficiently," he said.

Some industries, including textiles and hospitality, say they have been using special devices and monitoring their utility bills to help conserve energy since electricity costs went up in 2006. (adt)

Entering the epicenter

The Jakarta Post

At this moment, Rasuna Epicentrum is probably one of the most ambitious superblock developments in Jakarta, on a parallel with other mixed-use areas like the Sudirman Central Business District and Mega Kuningan. I consider the mixed-use development concept to be the most appropriate for living in the city center.

The concept abandons the ancient zoning separations of commercial and residential, which play a major role in generating vehicle traffic. Some urban planners believe that the mixed-use concept can help reduce our carbon footprint.

In order to succeed, the complex should generate more pedestrian traffic because of the close proximity between living spaces and workplaces, rather than motorized vehicle traffic to avoid congestion. A mass transportation hub should be connected with the pedestrian network of the complex.

Designed by Urbane, a Bandung-based architectural design office, the entrance gate of the Rasuna Epicentrum complex takes a whole different approach to traditional gate design, emphasizing accessibility and the resurfacing of the landscape.

The resurfacing strategy, which involves applying different paving materials for various purposes, has two important tasks: to slow down motorized traffic and to create a more pleasant sidewalk. Rough paving stones are used to reduce the speed of the motorists. The sidewalk is paved with a similar but finer texture to the road and leveled with the road rather than being raised, so it appears there is only slight difference between the road and the sidewalk. In my opinion, this gesture is a part of the effort of converting the gate area to a square-like place that is more pedestrian friendly.

However, some minor details have to come to my attention. The area is also paved with crisscrossing lines which have no meaning when viewed from the street level. We can only see and understand how those lines are interconnected with one another when we view them from above.

Those lines are set in a highly complex and illogical pattern, and consequently it is obvious that some of the construction workers are still struggling to finish laying it out.

I wish that the pattern was not excessively decorative and that it did not discard its functional values. The pattern could have been used to define pathways for pedestrians and motorists.

In most cities in Japan, pedestrian markings with extruded surface textures are used to increase accessibility by creating paths for the blind. At Rasuna Epicentrum, if a blind person tried to follow the interweaving path, he or she would bump into a light pole or end up in the middle of the street.

I must commend Rasuna Epicentrum's efforts in their approach for improving pedestrian environment in the area. I have been enjoying that short stretch of the road, and hopefully the effort will continue into the whole new complex and become a prototype for similar development in other areas. The entrance gate also represents how improving public amenities can be accomplished through collaboration with the private sector.

Zenin Adrian can be reached at zenin.adrian@zadl.net

S. Jakarta 'hot spot' for developers

Agnes Winarti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Property developers still regard South Jakarta as the "hot spot" for developing mixed-use superblocks despite water shortages and pollution in the area, a property analyst says.

"Most developers eye South Jakarta for mixed-use development because large plots of land are still available there," Coldwell Banker Commercial Indonesia's research and analyst manager, Dwi Novita Yeni, told reporters Tuesday on the sidelines of a third-quarter report seminar on the Greater Jakarta property market.

Mixed-use development refers to the multipurpose use of a building or set of buildings as residential, commercial, industrial, office and institutional premises.

Dwi said mixed-use apartment complexes needed to be built on at least a five-hectare plot of land, which South Jakarta still had plenty of.

Gandaria City, Kemang Village and Nifarro in Jl. Kalibata, are examples of the latest mixed-use developments in South Jakarta.

Dwi said apartments and office buildings were still the largest contributors to the property businesses in Greater Jakarta.

Besides land availability, South Jakarta also offers cheaper land prices than that in the central business district.

In April, land prices along Sudirman and in Kuningan had reportedly reached between Rp 12 million to Rp 20 million per square meter, while those in areas like TB Simatupang, in South Jakarta, sold for a mere Rp 3 million.

Meanwhile, head of the environmental damage control unit at the Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD), Daniel Abas, told The Jakarta Post the environmental condition of South Jakarta is currently at "a very concerning level".

More than 80 percent of the groundwater and surface water in South Jakarta is polluted, 40 percent of which is highly contaminated, he said.

According to BPLHD, during the dry season residents in South Jakarta need to dig deeper wells, some as deep as 16 meters, just to find groundwater, while in the wet season they need to dig about 8 meters.

"The normal depth of a well is between 8 and 10 meters," Daniel said.

He also commented on the overwhelming traffic conditions in South Jakarta. "Almost every street in South Jakarta suffers traffic congestion."

These factors, he said, are indicators that South Jakarta's environment is at an alarming state.

"Property development is only good if it does not harm the environment."

Dwi said developers should have a good understanding of the city's spatial planning regulations, which stipulate that 40 percent of a municipality's area should be designated as water absorption areas, while the remaining 60 percent can be developed.

South Jakarta's 145.73-square-kilometer area includes three districts designated for water conservation; parts of Cilandak, Pasar Minggu and Jagakarsa.

Eight other districts, which include parts of Kebayoran Baru, Pancoran, Mampang Prapatan, Kebayoran Lama and Pesanggrahan, function as "backup" areas for the main conservation areas.