Comprehensive Land Use Plan of the City of San Fernando, Pampanga 2012-2021
Chapter 3
LAND USE RELATED ISSUES AND CONSTRAINTS, AND
OBJECTIVES
Knowing and understanding what one can and should not do or avoid is the
springboard to unleashing ones potential. To actually do so and pole vault to
being what one can be requires acting on said opportunities and limitations. Such
is true for man and for communities.
Corollary, local development entails harnessing of local resources and
dealing with the challenges and constraints facing local communities. Depending
on how appropriately and sufficiently such are pursued would tell how fast or
how slow would these redound to development. Understanding and appreciation,
therefore, of the local area’s assets and limitations is vital and critical to the
design of strategies for achieving desired growth and development.
The following are the Strengths and Opportunities, Weaknesses and Threats
facing the City of San Fernando as its stakeholders have identified:
A. Strengths
Strengths are factors within the control of the local government unit with
potential of driving the local area’s growth and development.
1. Business-friendly Investment Approval Process
What used to be days to take has been effectively reduced to just a
few minutes. Thus, the City’s streamlined business permit and licensing
process has been encouraging business interest on the City and promoting
investment here. This has as well earned for the City numerous citations for
being the most business-friendly and most competitive among local
government units from both local and international organizations.
Consequently, all these have catapulted the City to a new plane of doing
business that is not only efficient but also facilitative of business.
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2. Good Governance
No growth is possible with poor or bad administration and
management of local government affairs and programs. Fortunately for the
City, it came under the helm of a leader with a vision and mission for
excellence, who abides in the principles of transparency and accountability,
and who believes that development must be pursued with stakeholders
sharing responsibility. Such qualities has led to transformation in local
government administration by building in the process professionalism
among local government employees and efficiency in government systems,
as it has also encouraged participation and cooperation from all sectors in
development processes. These are hallmarks vital to building confidence
and trust on the local government institution and in attracting investments
that are the drivers of economic growth and development. Sustaining these
qualities in the local government is therefore imperative for the City to
continue benefiting from good governance.
3. Availability of Financial and Physical Support Services and
Infrastructure
As regional hub, financial institutions, both government and private,
abound in the City providing for the financial resources necessary for
financing investments. Transport links and services are sufficient allowing
for mobility and ease of access to, from and within the City, while
telecommunication services complement transportation to make doing
business in the City less cumbersome and more efficient. Efforts at
improving these support services and infrastructure continue to give boost
to economic activities and further ease operations and the flow of people,
goods and services.
4. Pool of Skilled and Trainable Labor Force.
Behind the growth of the City are its people who are known for their
skills and craftsmanship. Fernandinos are particularly known for their
culinary skills and aptitude in lantern and furniture making, skills which are
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being wisely tapped to start enterprises that provide local employment and
income to local residents. Preserving and harnessing such skills in addition
to enhancing the literacy and proficiency of the City’s labor force are tools
to increasing the City’s productive capacity and promoting investment here.
5. Culture-based Tourism Attraction.
Although the City is bereft of natural attractions that are magnets to
tourists, the City of San Fernando’s rich cultural and historical milieu
provides a strong potential for tourism. The City gets its share of food-
trippers trooping for a taste of Kapampangan cuisine and delicacies, while
seasonal attractions are the City’s lantern festival and Lenten rite. San
Fernando’s historical significance also adds allure to the place, which the
City is trying its best to revive and develop by restoring and rehabilitating
old edifices or structures for a mix of the old and the modern as the City’s
environment setting. The City’s refurbishing of its look is expected to draw
more attention to the place and subsequently foot and vehicular traffic.
B. Weaknesses
These are factors within the control of the local government unit that it
should eliminate, avoid or improve otherwise such factors would constrain
pursuit of local development.
1. Flooding
Low-lying areas of the City are perennially subjected to flooding during
periods of heavy rain. As the areas affected are largely the City’s
commercial districts, attention then must be given to eliminating this
problem, to minimize disruptions on business operations and flooding’s ill
effects on human activities, productivity and property. This is crucial for the
City to sustain and enhance its competitiveness and to continue to attract
businesses that would help the city pursue its development goals.
Contributing to the flood problem and therefore must be addressed is the
lack of an integrated drainage system.
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2. Land Use Conflict and Unregulated Land Conversion
With urbanization and industrial crawl, the City of San Fernando’s large
tract of agricultural land which formerly used to be the base of the City’s
economy has shrunk to just about a third of the City’s land area because of
conversion. While conversion per se is not entirely bad if done rationally, its
haphazard application in previous years has led to the mix of land uses that
now threaten the sustainability and productivity of agricultural land, and to
the emergence of environmental issues brought about by settlements
encroaching into livestock and poultry farm areas or industrial plants in
residential areas. These problems are expected to intensify if proper land
allocation and land use management are not accorded proper attention and
implemented.
3. Environmental Degradation
While the City’s urban growth has led in the upwelling of businesses
that are driving the City’s economic growth, these though have not come
without adverse effects on the environment. Concerns include
contamination of the groundwater from fecal coliform and high level of
manganese; air pollution from smoke emissions of increasing volume of
vehicles running the it’s thoroughfares; and waste management. Although
the City has made progress in managing its solid wastes, more remains to
be desired especially in instilling discipline among the City’s populace in the
proper disposal of wastes. Another concern that must be attended to is the
City’s lack of an adequate and integrated sewerage system. Non-treatment
or management of effluent discharges and sewage cause pollution of the
waterways and add to groundwater contamination. Failure to address these
concerns would diminish what economic advancements the City would
attain in the long-run, with these depriving the City’s people and economy
of sustainable quality and quantity of environment and resource.
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4. Traffic Congestion and Limited Road Network
Population and commercial growth, while driving the economic
progress of the City, are also causing traffic congestion. Such is now
ordinary in the City’s central business district and major thoroughfare.
Compounding the problem is the lack of alternate routes to the City’s main
streets, providing little or no choice hence for traffic to converge here. The
effect apparently is longer commuting time and delays, and higher transport
and operating cost for businesses and residents. For a City aiming to
provide comfort to its residents and a haven for business, addressing the
problem of traffic is a matter of need that should therefore be given priority
attention.
5. Lack of Open or Green Spaces
Open spaces include parks, greenways or community gardens.
Sustainable development entails providing or maintaining these in the local
area, with these helping to enhance the local area’s environment and
subsequently quality of life. Such are attributes essential to enhancing the
attractiveness of the local area as investment location and as a place to live.
As the City of San Fernando is currently wanting in open or green spaces, it
would need to look into providing for these if the City aims to be a prime
place for business and living,
6. Housing Problems
Not unlike most if not all cities in the country with fast population
growth, the City of San Fernando faces the challenge of ensuring that all
families own decent, safe and affordable housing units. Based on the 2007
CPH, the city’s household to occupied housing unit ratio stood at 1:1.01873
indicating doubled-up household and shortage of housing units. However,
the census also revealed the existence of 4,500 vacant housing units
indicating doubled-up housing is due more to the inability of households to
afford available housing units rather than the lack of housing units.
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C. Opportunities
Opportunities refer to external conditions or factors surrounding the local
area which could bring or stimulate growth here when acted upon by the local
government.
1. Strategic Location: Proximity to Clark and Metro Manila
The City of San Fernando is endowed with the advantage of a strategic
location that is at the heart of Central Luzon. The City serves as the
gateway to all directions in the region, while lying proximate to the region’s
economic zones and Metro Manila, the center of the country’s economic
activities. These give the City the propitious position of a hub and transit
point for travel in the region, at the same time a market advantage for its
proximity to centers of demand for economic goods and services.
2. Regional Administrative Center
Being the regional capital the City of San Fernando has the distinct
advantage of a quick access to government services, with most if not all of
government offices located here. Collaboration and coordination for social
and economic programs between the local government and the regional line
agencies is made much easy with the presence of the government
institutions. The City readily provides a venue for development initiatives or
interventions, while an opportunity for other sectors here to provide the
goods and services that the government and the people and entities it
transact with require.
3. Increasing Visitor Arrival
The world’s tourists are growing in number with the Philippines getting
more from the international market each year. The trend in the region is
also positive with, however, more domestic tourists visiting the region. Bulk
of the tourists go to and stay in the provinces of Zambales and Pampanga.
For areas within the influence of the two provinces, this means
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opportunities to provide for the goods, services and attractions that are
required by and that appeal to tourists. The City of San Fernando should, in
taking advantage of this opportunity, determine its niche and build on its
capacity to provide an attractive offer to tourists.
4. Development of DMIA, SCTEX, Clark
The infrastructure development in the region and developments in the
special economic zones, particularly Clark, presents opportunities for
growth. Improvements in infrastructure such as road networks (e.g.,
SCTEX, NLEX, and Manila North Road) stimulate business growth as these
allow for faster mobility and leads to efficiency of operation. As the regional
capital and located within reach of such developments, the City of San
Fernando thus stands to benefit by these developments’ impact or
influence.
5. Flood Control Project: PHUMP3
The project aims to eliminate or minimize flooding in the Pampanga
Delta. The City of San Fernando, being flood-prone, stands to gain from the
project as this will help ease the flooding problem here. This will give the
City the opportunity to develop areas that are difficult to touch or do
improvements or that limit expansion of activities because of flood. The
profound implication of completing PHUMP 3 shall be felt in the perennially
flooded areas in the southeastern portion of the City. However, this future
positive implication can be further facilitated through the opening up of a
service road along NLEx.
6. ICT Industry Growth
Not only is the Philippines now the call center capital of the world, but
overall the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry is growing. This is
boon for the country needing to provide employment to its ballooning labor
force. And as the City of San Fernando is positioning itself or aiming to be
an investment location for ICT, the growth of the industry should be a
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motivation to prepare its human resources, facilities and infrastructure, and
to provide the space where investments can locate.
D. Threats
Threats are factors outside the control of the local government, which could
inhibit or stymie local growth and development.
1. Global Recession
The current economic slowdown in many parts of the world, especially
in the developed economies, is not expected to take a reversal anytime
soon, but will continue to drag for years more. With these economies as
markets for Philippine products and services as well as source of
development assistance, the local economy is thus bound to be affected by
the snags the country’s development partners and markets are suffering
from. Whether at the national or local level, thought then should be given
out to devising strategies that would minimize the impacts of the external
turmoil on the local economy.
2. Urban Migration
The result of development in urban areas, such as the City of San
Fernando, urban migration has the potential of also derailing local
development. Migration as it increases the population of an area which may
be good for business because this means more people demanding for goods
and services tends to affect local resources by causing an increase in the
need or demand for these, resources that the local government would need
to respond to the demand for more of its services. Hence, urban migration
may be a bane if it will lead to problems of limited resources and to other
social maladies that the local government would be hard put to address.
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3. Climate Change
The study conducted by the Manila Observatory and commissioned by
the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in 2007 although
done on a national level, provides a view of the changing climatic conditions
in the country across regions and provinces. The results of the study
indicate: (1) surface temperature increases that are consistent with the
global and national trends; (2) local variations in rainfall distribution; (3)
acceleration of sea level rise; and (4) typhoon occurrences.
The increases in
regional land and sea surface
temperatures in the past 40
years observed by Manton,
et.al. (2001) led the Manila
Observatory (2007) to predict
more hot days and warm
nights with fewer cold days
and nights in the coming
years. Central Luzon is
predicted to have low risk in
terms of projected
temperature increases except
for the province of Pampanga
which has medium risk.
Predictions of local
variations in rainfall over the
country has been limited by
research and technical
capabilities and utilizes
extrapolation of past rainfall Figure 32 Risk to Projected Rainfall
trends into the future although global Change
models predict increases in rainfall amount over this part of subtropical
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Asia. Using the Manton, et.al. (2001) study, the Manila Observatory
predicts that Central Luzon’s provinces shall be subjected to high and very
high risks to projected rainfall changes (Figure 32).
Villarin, et.al (2008)
advance that accelerated sea
level rise resulting from
expansion of oceans due to
warming and the melting of
mountain glaciers and polar
ice is a phenomenon that shall
affect and threaten the
Philippine archipelago. In the
same report, the authors cite
evidence provided in the
results of a study conducted
by the UK Climate Research
Unit in Manila and Legaspi
that show an increase in sea
level rise that started in the
1970s. Rodolfo and Siringan
(2006) in Villarin, et.al. (2008)
advance that ground
subsidence due to over-
extraction of groundwater
Figure 33 Risk to Typhoons
compound the impacts of sea
level rise in urban centers. It may be worth noting that settlements in the
Philippines started to develop along coasts and river deltas. This
phenomenon did not spare Central Luzon as its southern coastline abuts
Manila Bay, considered a threatened sea body. It was estimated in another
study that a seven meter sea level rise shall submerge the southern
portions of the City of San Fernando although the likelihood of such
occurrence is remote.
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There is no definitive statement on the perceived increase in intensity
of typhoons that occurred over the Philippines. However, the observed
shifts in climate patterns lead to projections of frequency and geographical
occurrences in the country. The Manila Observatory (2007) projects fewer
typhoons in January to March but will increase in July to November. The
increase in frequency is most pronounced over the Visayas area and these
trends will continue throughout the present century. Central Luzon is
predicted to be subjected to high risks to typhoons (Figure 33).
Table 9 CLUP Objectives
Long Term Goal Land Use Related Issue(s) Land Use Objective
(1) Habitat for High in-migration Provision of adequate land
Human Excellence for residential development
and Center of Young population but high
Central Luzon literacy
(Healthy and
Livable Urban Strong and Large Middle Class
Environment)
Accessible and adequate Ensure short travel times
health care facilities and basic between residential areas
and higher education services and social service centers,
and facilities commercial centers,
employment centers, or
Regional Administrative
emergency responders
Center
Long response time for fire
and emergency incidents
Deteriorating ground water Improve the quality of
quality resulting from sewerage and septage
increased coliform and other before releasing to the
microorganisms ground
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Unavailability of air quality Increase carbon fixing
information capacity of the city’s land
resources
Absence of solid waste final Identification of site of
disposal site sanitary land fill
Crowded public cemetery Redevelopment of the
public cemetery
Low opportunities for Provide for green areas or
communing with the lanes
environment especially in
built-up areas
Incompatible land uses, e.g. Discourage expansion of
agri-industries operating agri-industries adjacent to
adjacent to residential areas residential areas;
Encourage clustered agri-
industrial development
Flash-flood prone areas in the Minimize or Discourage
southern part residential development in
the southern part of the
city;
Improve surface run-off
and water flows in natural
drainage ways.
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(2) Gateway to Inadequate alternative routes Improve the level of service
North Philippines (east-west and north-south) of key east-west and north-
and Global Low level of service (LOS) of south routes; Complete an
Gateway (Relevant feeder and access roads eastern north-south and a
Transport System) western north-south
alternative routes
Long travel time during rush Increase access between
hours between the city and any point in the city and the
Clark, SCTEx FVR Megadike for light
vehicles;
Complete a north-south
road parallel to the East
(3) Global Demand-driven Megadike
Provision of land for higher
Gateway #2 reclassification of agricultural value adding economic
(Diverse, lands to other uses and land activities especially in the
Sustainable and conversion secondary and tertiary
Vibrant Economy) sectors
Extensive residential area Encourage higher value
development economic activities;
Provision of adequate land
for commercial uses
Low occupancy rates of Increase residential
developed subdivisions building construction in
existing planned unit
development areas
Limited access between Shorten travel time
existing industrial zones and between high value adding
the NLEx, SCTEx or Clark economic activities and the
Special Economic and NLEx, SCTEx or CSEFZ
Freeport Zone (CSEFZ)
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Extensive swampy lands Encourage the
development of more
productive activities on
existing swampy lands such
as tourism or primary
agricultural production
(4) Champion of Mismatch between the Improve the capability of
Good Governance capability of the Office of the the Deputized Zoning
(Relevant Deputized Zoning Officer to monitor and
Government Administrator and the enforce compliance to the
Structure) demand for zoning clearances zoning ordinance
Poor coordination of land Organize, activate and
management efforts among capacitate a land
key city government management cluster under
departments or offices the Office of the City Mayor
(The Environment Code
provides the organization
of the City Land use
Committee)
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