About eight areas in Cagayan de Oro City were identified as open for development to both private and public stakeholders in the seven volume proposed Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) of the city.

 

Acting City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) department manager Chedilyn Aissa Dulguime said during Tuesday afternoon’s dialogue with property developers, investors and business owners on the CLUP that the plan is ‘derived from the (cumulative analysis) of current trends and intentional plotting of future developments’ in the city.

 

From uptown and downtown, the proposed updated CLUP classified six other areas as open for development in Cagayan de Oro City, Dulguime said.

 

CLUP activity manager Vanessa Talosig said the CLUP is anchored on four policy areas/concerns. These are national integrated protected area system (NIPAS), settlement areas, production areas and infrastructure areas.

These policy areas are used as basis for identifying and classifying the city’s proposed eight development areas, Talosig said.

 

Aside from the uptown and downtown areas, the city also has its midtown, highland, central ridge, CDO East, Port Town, and Coastal Strip areas.

 

Decongesting the city’s downtown area entails developing the midtown area, Dulguime said. ‘We really want to see a transport oriented development in the midtown area particularly in Barangays Canitoan, Lumbia and Balubal so that people won’t have to go downtown and aggravate the daily traffic congestion…(this would also mean having) public markets and commercial stores in (midtown),’ she said.

 

During the presentation, CPDO-Geographical Information Systems (GIS) division chief Simeon Licayan said decongesting the downtown commercial area would require establishing potential growth centers in the city’s highland and eastern areas.

 

‘In Barangay Besigan, there’s a proposal to build a town center there,’ Licayan said. He said the town center in Barangay Besigan would draw visitors and buyers from nearby Bukidnon and Lanao del Norte provinces similar to the Northern Luzon Expressway (NLEX).

 

Following Tuesday’s dialogue, Dulguime said the CPDO is now on ‘the homestretch’ of finalizing the CLUP which they hope to complete by June this year. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)