The parallel studies—a drainage master plan and a traffic management master plan—are intended to provide long-term, data-driven solutions for the city’s newest and fastest-growing business area.
SRP’s expanding footprint and growing concentration of major locators now demand upgraded infrastructure and more coordinated urban planning.
Planning work begins
The Drainage Master Plan will be undertaken by MGR Consultancy and Allied Services Inc., while TY Lin International has been tapped to prepare the Traffic Management Master Plan for the mixed-use development.
Dr. Belmore Mejares of MGR Consultancy, through the Cebu City Public Information Office, said their team began work on Dec. 3 and aims to finish the master plan within three months.
He requested that the city provide personnel to accompany their team to ensure the study proceeds without interruption.
The consultancy fee would be shouldered by the active locators.
Plans finally moving
The drainage master plan study started following a coordination meeting on Dec. 2 between Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival, active locators at the SRP and the South Road Properties Management Office (SRPMO).
During the meeting, it was agreed that there would be a memorandum of agreement (MOA) among the active locators, MGR Consultancy and Allied Services Inc., Cebu City Government and the SRP Governing Board.
SRPMO Officer-in-Charge Charisse Bayno Penida said the Cebu City Council already approved the tripartite agreement last week, which officially authorizes the start of the survey.
Among those who attended the meeting were representatives from NUSTAR Resort, SM and Ayala.
The drainage planning was originally proposed in 2019 but did not push through under past administrations.
Also taken up during the meeting was the traffic master plan for SRP which had already started, according to lawyer Kent Francesco Jungoy, assistant head of the Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO).
The two-year study cost about P5.7 million and would be funded by the locators.
“Based on their timeline, they will submit a technical memorandum in eight weeks. By the fourth month, they will produce the draft report, and toward the end of the same month, the final report will be completed,” said Jungoy.
“They will also provide us with a two-year updated report.”
Cebu’s new growth zone
The 300-hectare reclaimed property owned by the city government connects Cebu City to the south through Cebu South Coastal Road and Mactan Island through the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX).
Among its big locators a reNUSTAR Resort, Cebu’s premier five-star integrated resort; SM Seaside, the biggest mall in the Visayas and Mindanao; and Cebu Ocean Park.
Soon to rise at the SRP is South Coast City, a 26-hectare waterside development being undertaken through a partnership between two of the country’s biggest property developers—Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) and SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPHI).
Inside the South Coast City will be a commercial center, known as District Square, which will be ALI’S third business district in Cebu City after Cebu Business Park and Cebu I.T. Park.
The SMPHI is also constructing a complex composed of a 16,000-seater arena and a convention center in the South Coast City.
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